Cottage Food Laws

As a beekeeper, you know that honey is the only food that never goes bad. However, there are still laws that require people to package and process their honey so that it is safe for consumption.

If you live in the U.S., there is a way that you can legally sell your honey without needing a certified kitchen that is with the cottage food laws. Most states have cottage food laws. Cottage food laws allow a person to legally bake and/or prepare certain low risk foods in their home kitchen and sell them on a small scale. 

Not all states have cottage food laws. The specifics of the cottage food laws vary state to state.

Not all countries have cottage food laws.

Any food, meat excluding, that does not require time and temperature control, can potentially fall under the cottage food laws.

Most cottage food laws include honey but they may or may not include confections and/or infusions made with your honey.

When processing and bottling your honey under the cottage food laws, a person from the department of heath does not need to visit your home kitchen.

Cottage food laws do not include:

• Selling wholesale
• Products that require time and / or temperature control
• Meat products
• Online sales

You cannot sell your honey to a store for them to sell to the customer, which is called selling wholesale. You also cannot sell your honey online and ship to the customer.

Cottage food laws are for sale of food products direct to the customer and for the customer to pick it up from you.

Since cottage food laws vary state by state, make sure you look up the cottage food laws for your state from a state website. Do not get cottage food information for your state on someone’s blog or other non state-approved website.

Although you might be able to sell your honey without the need of a certified kitchen, you may still need to take a food safety class offered by your state or county. When I was first looking into selling my honey, I had to take a food safety certification class at the local county office. It was free but I did have to wait a few months until they held another one near me because they were only held a few times a year.

Some additional things to consider when starting your honey business, if you are giving someone honey or any product from your beehive and they are giving you money in exchange, you are a business. It doesn’t matter if you incorporated or have a business bank account. The IRS considers you a business and you should be paying taxes on your income.

Before selling your honey, you should first talk to an accountant about the steps you need to take in order to become a business and the taxes you should be paying as well as charging your customers so you are not surprised in April when you owe the government a lot of money.

You should also talk to a lawyer and find an insurance company to provide you with liability insurance.

Starting a business from scratch can be a scary experience. All the steps you need to take may seem overwhelming. So take your time, talk to professionals to understand the proper steps you need to take, and take it one step at a time.