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Changes Made to Ohio's Cottage Food Regulations

By:Peggy Kirk Hall, Attorney and Director, Agricultural & Resource Law Program Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) has revised regulations that implement Ohio’s Cottage Food Law, which addresses the production and sale of certain “non-potentially hazardous” foods. An operation producing a “cottage food” may do so without licensing and inspection by ODA, but must follow labeling requirements and is subject to potential food sampling by ODA.

Changes to Ohio’s cottage food regulations include the following:

New cottage food products

Several new food items have joined the list of cottage food products that an operator may produce without licensing or inspection by ODA:

  1. Flavored honey produced by a beekeeper, if a minimum of 75% of the honey is from the beekeeper’s own hives;
  2. Fruit chutneys;
  3. Maple sugar produced by a maple syrup processor, if at least 75% of the sap used to make the maple syrup is collected directly from trees by the processor;
  4. Waffle cones dipped in candy;
  5. Dry soup mixes containing commercially dried vegetables, beans, grains, and seasonings.

Foods that are not cottage food products

Two revisions clarify foods that do not fall under the cottage food law:

  1. Fresh fruit that is dipped, covered, or otherwise incorporated with candy;
  2. Popping corn.

Fruit in granola products

If adding fruit to granola, granola bars, or granola bars dipped in candy, which are all cottage food products, the fruit must be commercially dried.

The new regulations became effective January 22, 2016. View the cottage food regulations at http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/901%3A3-20.  Read our other posts on Ohio’s Cottage Food Law at https://farmoffice.osu.edu/blog-categories/food.

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