ODA New Cottage Rules

Jun 24th, 2009 | By Mayda | Category: Farmer's Markets, Local Food Processing, Policy and Regulation

It’s official. The new Ohio Dept. of Ag Cottage food rules were released. The rules now allows for a variety of new foods to be home produced, without the need for an inspected commerical kitchen.  This opens up opportunities for small food producers to expand into new areas with little overhead cost.  It also expands new products available to consumers at farmers’ markets and similar venues.

The new rules are available in (pdf document) at the ODA web site: New Cottage Food Rules.

The current food saftey rules ORC 3715 can be found here.

2 comments
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  1. Gail Stevens Shourds August 2nd, 2009 7:30 am

    Is there any place where descriptions or examples of some of these new categories are presented? For instance, what constitutes a dry tea blend? Is that actual tea leaves or does it include instant tea mix? What is or isn’t included in dry seasoning blends or baking mixes? As an example, could I make and sell my own instant beverage mixes such as instant cappuchino or instant mocha?

  2. Mayda August 3rd, 2009 2:49 pm

    Gail,
    Thank you for the excellent questions on the tea and beverage blends. I don’t know of any examples, yet. I would give a call to the ODA Food Safety division below and ask specifically about what you want to do. I imagine much would depend on the source of your various ingredients and the process of how you make your blends.
    Please let me know what you find out. I am curious if such blends are included.

    Ohio Department of Agriculture
    Food Safety Division
    8995 East Main Street
    Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-3399
    Phone: (614) 728-6250
    Email: foodsafety@agri.ohio.gov

    Mayda
    localfoodcolumbus.org

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