Home Baking in Florida getting closer to be legal
As you know I have been working on getting a Cottage Food Act implemented in Florida so we can have our own Home Baking Business. Well, yesterday I received an email from the Department of Agriculture telling me that they sent me a copy of the recommendations that former Commissioner Charles Bronson sent to the speaker of the house. Unfortunately, this was for the other law Florida Freedom Food Act for the farmers of our state. But, they also said that the Cottage Food Act is a huge topic within the Dept of Agriculture. So I thought there was hope.
When I heard about the Commissioner sending his recommendations to the Speaker of the House, I decided to send Speaker Dean Cannon an email too. He did in fact emailed me back which I posted a copy of that email to all of you. Than I sent everyone that is on his committee an email too. Well, today I received a phone call from Teddy Cramer who is on the committee for the Speaker of the House. Teddy called me because she wanted to verify exactlly what we were wanting. I explained that we wanted to be able to have a small business from our homes selling baked goods to the consumer. If we have to be inspected and licensed than that is what we will do, but, requiring a separate kitchen from our living quarters and a 3 compartment sink was a bit much. Well, she told me that the committee and the speaker are going to submit to the senate that we will be exempt from all requirements. Meaning we can bake from home and won't need to be licensed or inspected. Teddy was so excited that I brought this to Speaker Dean Cannons attention because no one on the committee knew it was illegal to bake from home and sell to the public and that bake sales would be illegal. I told her we have a House Rep working on this for us but, was trying to find another State Rep to sponsor the bill and she said that this wasn't necessary because this is being submitted by the Speaker of the House to the senate. Once the Senate reviews the Speakers recommendations and approves it than it goes to the Govenor to sign into law.
I asked her when will Legislation go back into session and she said in March. She said she will call me with updates and if I don't hear from her in the next couple of weeks to call here anytime.
If I hear anything more I will keep you posted.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Diana Viera on
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Wow ~ I think that's good news. I hope things work out. I live in CT and we cannot bake and sell from our home. Who knows, maybe I will make a move down there.
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Permalink Reply by Sandy Lampe on
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Thanks Barbara for this posting! I will make a copy to read to our SWFL Cake Club at our next meeting. This would be the best thing for Florida and our bakers. I also live in Iowa (6 Mons.) and can bake from my home without licensing or inspections. We are under the Cottage Food Act there. I will look for more postings in the future about this.
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Permalink Reply by Faith Gealey-Brown on
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Wonderful! My husband is American and we're thinking about moving back to the US (back to Florida to be more specific) and I've been trying to look into rental kitchens etc to keep my business going after we move. Both my husband and my mom are Florida voters and I got them both to sign the petition. I'm so glad this is working out!!!! Happy caking!
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Permalink Reply by Ana Arenas on
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thank you for all your work!!! Can I copy and re-post this article on another forum?
Thank you again.
i love the videos, so I have a lot of watching to do!!!
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Permalink Reply by Barbara on
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Sure Ana, you may post the article and thank you for the support.
Thank you to all who have support this quest that I started and a big Thank you to those who sent the letters to the State Representatives and signing the petition. Every email that I sent to the Legislation I included the petition link so they could see all the signatures and comments. Legislation goes back into session in March and I will let everyone know what is decided as soon as I know.
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Permalink Reply by Cristina Cordero-Serpa on
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thank you Barbara for all you hard work!!!
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Does anyone know the laws in Wisconsin?? I would love to run a business from home.
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Hello Michael,
What I can suggest is first contact the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Department of Health. It can be frustrating when you contact these two departments because their answers can vary. But, keep emailing them. That is when your work starts. When I started this mission last summer 2010 I started to email every state representative and the Dept of Agriculture and Health in Florida. I didn' t care if they were in my district or not, because this was STATE wide. I sent letters to every one of them and the deptartments. Than in September I realized it was an election year, and I thought darn some of these reps may not get elected. But, didn't quit, I heard from one of the representatives that the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture was submitting recommendations to the Speaker of the House for FARMERS to be exempt from selling their goods and products to the public. Well, bingo, there was my answer, I sent the Speaker of the House an email telling him about how it was illegal to bake from our own homes and have a business because it was illegal in Florida which also makes Bake Sales illegal. He responded to my email immediately. Long story short the Speaker of the House commitee is submitting recommendations to make a home baking business exempt for the rules and regulations. Our legislations goes into session in March so I had to contact everyone in Tallahassee to make this happen and we have succeeded. I am waiting to hear the outcome, the commitee is submitting this recommendation to the Senate and the Senate to the Govenor. I attached the letters that I sent to the bakers in Florida to send to their state reps. You can use these letters. One is for you to send the second is for your family and friends to send. If yo have any questions feel free to contact me.
Michael Murphy said:Does anyone know the laws in Wisconsin?? I would love to run a business from home. - Attachments:
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COTTAGE FOOD ACT.doc, 35 KB
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Thank you!! If this makes bake sales illegal do you know if this makes it illegal to sell
baked items at the Farmers Market or is this different??
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I would love to help get this going in Illinois! Our state is broke and should welcome the added revenue one would think!
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I contacted our Dept of Agriculture with that exact question and their answer was the people who sell at Farmers Markets have licensed businesses. I haven't been to a Farmers Market to see if any of the people that sell baked goods have a sign for their brick and mortar business. I have also seen baked goods at our Flea Markets.
I had to laugh yesterday while going to work they were talking about our new Dept of Agricultures daughter baked a cake to raise money for their organization I believe it was a 4H Club. Her cake brought in $10,000 so I guess we could auction off our cakes that may be a loop hole.....LOL
Michael Murphy said:Thank you!! If this makes bake sales illegal do you know if this makes it illegal to sell
baked items at the Farmers Market or is this different??
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