Ask Me: Episode 2 of Season 2

In this "Ask Me" episode, agricultural attorney Amanda Carl answers questions submitted by listeners. This episode includes great content regarding Florida's Cottage Food laws and regulations, so make sure you check it out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Legal Field Podcast, where we discuss legal and regulatory topics that are of critical importance to the agriculture industry. My name is Amanda Perry Carl, and I am an agricultural lawyer whose family has been farming in Florida since 1823, before Florida even became a state. I have spent almost 20 years as an attorney in the agricultural industry, and have made it my mission to ensure that everyone in our incredible industry understands the legal and regulatory issues that we face so that we can keep feeding Florida, America, and the world. So if you're a farmer, rancher, or grower, you are involved in raising cattle, sheep, poultry, goats, hogs, horses, or other livestock, if you grow fruits, vegetables, or sod, if you are involved with the aquaculture, turf grass, or horticulture industries, if you are fighting the good fight to help our citrus industry survive, or if you just like to eat and you appreciate our ag producers, this podcast is for you. If you are interested in protecting and preserving our agricultural heritage, lands, and way of life, then come join us in the legal field and see what's growing on. Welcome to our March Ask Me episode of the Legal Field Podcast. These Ask Me episodes air once a month, and on these episodes, I try my best to answer all of your questions. If you have any questions that you would like for me to answer during an Ask Me segment, please email them to me at Amanda at FloridaAglaw.com. That's Amanda at F L O R I D A A G L A W dot com. Now before we get started with this ask me episode, I have to provide some legal disclaimers. The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is not intended to create any relationship, it does not constitute an attorney-client relationship, and you should not act upon any information provided without seeking professional legal counsel tailored to your specific situation. We recommend consulting with a qualified attorney for advice in any particular legal matter. So now that that stuff is out of the way, some of our listeners have submitted some really great questions, and I'm going to take some time to answer one of those questions here today. I've received quite a few questions recently about the cottage food laws and regulations here in Florida, so I want to focus on that topic here today. In Florida, cottage food operators are not required to obtain a license or permit, and these operations are not inspected by any state government entity. This truly provides opportunities for folks to get a cottage food business off the ground without as many regulatory hurdles. On July 1st, 2021, there was a Senate bill known as the Home Sweet Home Act that took effect and it amended previous cottage food requirements in Florida. The cottage food laws in Florida are found in section 500.80 of the Florida statutes. This statute provides that, quote, a cottage food operation must comply with the applicable requirements of this chapter, but is exempt from the permitting requirements of section 500.12 if the cottage food operation complies with this section and has annual gross sales of cottage food products that do not exceed$250,000. End quote. So the cottage food statute exempts cottage foods from the food permit requirement under Florida statutes. Now, if we break down this first part of the statute, it tells us that Florida law allows individuals to use their unlicensed home kitchens to produce certain foods for sale that present a low risk of food board illness. Cottage food operators can produce and sell those products directly to consumers without obtaining a food permit from the Florida Department, Florida Department of Agriculture and consumers, do not exceed$250,000 annually. So this really does get provide an opportunity for a lot of these startup cottage food businesses to really get things going and rolling without having to deal with a lot of these legal and regulatory hurdles. Now for some of these products that are considered cottage food products that have a low risk of foodborne illness that are can considered to be cottage foods under this statute and exempt from the food permit requirements, those foods are as follows. And this is not a completely exhaustive list: loaf breads, rolls and biscuits, cakes, pastries, and cookies, candies and confections, honey, jams, jellies, and preserves, fruit pies and dried fruits, dry herbs, seasonings, and mixtures, homemade pasta, if it's dried, cereals, trail mixes and granola, coated or uncoated nuts, vinegar and flavored vinegars, popcorn and popcorn balls. Again, this is not a completely exhaustive list, and there are some nuances in there, particularly things like honey, what types of honey. So there are some nuances there for particular products in these lists. Many products are not allowed to be manufactured under the cottage food law because they require time or temperature controls for food safety to limit pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation. So, again, as we mentioned before, these are products that we don't have to worry about as many food safety issues just because of the nature of these products. Now, also under this law, cottage food operators may sell their cottage food products on their website by mail order or direct to consumer in person. And this includes selling at your local farmers' markets. I'm sure a lot of you have seen these cottage food vendors at your local farmers' markets and probably have purchased from them. However, these products cannot be sold wholesale. So that means they cannot be sold to grocery stores and convenience stores and the like. Now let's talk labeling, which is a really important component of a lot of laws and regulations that are related to many types of products. Labeling is so important. And one very important component of the cottage food law in Florida is that cottage food operators may only sell allowed products that are prepackaged and labeled for individual sale. And the product label that is affixed to the product is required to include the following things: name and physical address of the cottage food operation, name of the product, an ingredient list for the products, and descending order by weight, net weight or net volume of the product. This one here is really important. Allergen information as required by federal law. So it must identify if any of the following are in the product milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, fish, which include shellfish, lobster, crab, or shrimp, tree nuts, which includes almonds, pecans, walnuts, and every other type of tree nut. Cottage food operation statement that has to be printed in at least 10-point font in a contrasting color to the label background. And that must state, quote, made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations, end quote. And again, these are the allergen information to be included on this label. These are things that are required by federal law. So cottage food operations do still have to comply with those federal requirements, and then all of these other label requirements under the statute as listed here. Now, this is just an overview of the cottage food laws and regulations, and there are many more nuances involved in the statutory and regulatory requirements and components. As I mentioned earlier, that list is not an exhaustive list, and there are some nuances in even in those categories as to whether something is allowed. And again, it's all based on the risk of foodborne illness. So if you have any further questions on these cottage food laws and regulations, please feel free to reach out to us here at Florida Ag Law. Now that's all the time that we have today for our Ask Me episode. But if you have any other questions, whether it's on cottage food laws or other questions or topics that you want me to discuss in the next episode, which will be the second Thursday of April, please feel free to email those to me at Amanda at Floridaaglaw.com. That's Amanda at F L O R I D A A G L A W dot com. Thanks and have a blessed day. Thank you for listening to the Legal Field Podcast. For more content, please visit the Facebook page of Florida Ag Law or go to FloridaAglaw.com and join us next time on the Legal Field Podcast to see what's going on.