NJ Home Bakers Get Sweet Relief In Long-Sought Health Dept. Rule

NEW JERSEY — Home-baked cookies and pies and other mouthwatering confections have been a standard part of your average PTA bake sale.

They were made in someone's kitchen, and little thought was given to the idea that somehow, those items were unsafe for human consumption, especially as people wandered around an event, munching on chocolate chip cookies or elegantly decorated sugar cookies.

"In most counties in New Jersey it's legal to do it for fundraising," said Martha Rabello, a Fanwood resident and member of the New Jersey Home Bakers Association, a group of 500 people who have been fighting for the right for bakers t0 make money from their confectionary talents. "But once you did it for profit, it wasn't legal."

That has changed, however; as of Oct. 4, New Jersey residents can apply for a Cottage Food Operator permit through the New Jersey Department of Health. The permit allows residents to bake and sell their items to customers, right from their homes, with a maximum income of $50,000 per year.

It's a change in the health department's regulations that the New Jersey Home Bakers Association have been seeking for more than a decade, Rabello said.

New Jersey was the only state in the United States that banned the sale of food items from home kitchens. In other states, the so-called cottage food laws have been in existence for several years. In New York, the sales were approved in 2012, and in Delaware, the rules that applied to farmers were expanded to include home bakers in September 2016, according to Forrager.com, an organization that supports cottage food producers nationally. In Pennsylvania, home bakers fall under the governance of the Department of Agriculture and have been permitted for years.

Connecticut, which approved rules in 2018, and Wisconsin, which exempted home bakers from licensing following a court order in 2018, had been the longest holdouts with the exception of New Jersey.

Ironically, New Jersey was among the first states to propose a cottage food law, in 2009, but it bounced around the state legislature and was blocked in the state Senate, Forrager.com reported.

Rabello said the change in the rules, which were moved through by the health department because of the blockade in the legislature, open all kinds of opportunities for people to supplement their income or support their families.

"The Department has been working on this issue for some time and carefully balanced allowing home bakers to operate small businesses while instituting appropriate safeguards," the state health department's webpage on the cottage food permit says. "While developing these new regulations, the Department received input from many stakeholders, including local health departments, home bakers, the retail food industry, and others."

The rules limit the food sales to foods that do not require refrigeration or being kept hot, so cookies and fruit pies and cakes are permitted but custard pies, cheesecakes and similar items are not.

The health department rule formally took effect Oct. 4, and the application for the permit was posted to the department's website the week of Oct. 21. Applicants have to pay a $100 permit fee, submit a copy of their water bill showing they have city water, or, if they have private well water, a water test showing a microbiological (total coliform) analysis. They also have to take an approved food safety certification course from one of several organizations certified by the state health department.

Rabello said estimates she heard were that the application process would take about 5 weeks.

She anticipates the wait will be worth it.

"I used to have a cookie business," Rabello said. She rented time in a commercial kitchen to make her cookies, which brought in a little extra income. When her second child was born, she shut down her business because the cost of child care, on top of the kitchen rental, was a losing proposition financially.

With a rental kitchen, "you have to commit to a certain number of hours or certain times. It doesn't work for everyone," she said.

Begin able to work from home gives home bakers flexibility to work around issues that arise when you're juggling family needs and a small business, she said.

It also provides opportunities for people with disabilities who cannot work in a commercial kitchen setting, Rabello said.

"We talked to hundreds of people" over the six years she has been involved with the lobbying efforts. Some were people looking for a little extra income for fun items. Others were looking to cover things like prescription costs or other budget stressors.

"This extra income stream gives people a little bit more economic freedom," Rabello said, especially important for those who found themselves without income during the pandemic.

It also resolves the issue of people who ran afoul of the law in the past.

"A lot of people weren't even aware that (selling home-baked goods) wasn't legal," she said. "We know people who were threatened with bench warrants, and some received cease-and-desist orders."

"Now I have the opportunity to reopen my business," said Rabello, who has three children, ages 8, 5 and 2. And so do others.

"If you always wanted to start a business, now’s the time," she said.

More information on the regulations and the Cottage Food Operator permit application are available on the Department of Health website.

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