Does your bake sale look like this? It should. Illinois law mandates closed packaging and careful labeling.  Photo by simplysouthernbaking.com

In January of 2012 the Illinois Cottage Food Operations Act of 2011 went into effect. As laws go, it isn’t too hard to read and understand. Its purpose is to set standards for home-prepared foods that are sold at farmers’ markets in the State of Illinois. Fortunately it doesn’t require us common folk to establish a commercial kitchen, or plunk down big money to be in business. The rules are fairly simple and simply fair.

The items that can be sold are those with a high-enough acid content that they aren’t likely to harbor pathogens (bad germs). There are three categories: Jams, Jellies and Preserves; Fruit Butters, and Baked Goods.

The high acid fruit jams, etc. that are permitted are apple apricot, grape, peach, plum, quince, orange, nectarine, tangerine, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, boysenberry, cherry, cranberry, strawberry, and red currants. What is NOT permitted is jams etc. made from rhubarb, tomato, and peppers.

The high acid fruit butters that are permitted are apple, apricot, grape, peach, plum, quince and prune. Not permitted is pumpkin, banana, and pear.

Baked goods such as breads, cookies, cakes, pies and pastries are permitted. Pies that are NOT permitted are pumpkin, sweet potato, cheese cake, custard pies, and creme pies.

Each booth must have a placard that says “This product was produced in a home kitchen not subject to public health inspection that may also process common food allergens.”

No matter what you make, you must follow the labeling guidelines. The labels must include:

The name and address of the cottage food operation,

The common or usual name of the food product,

All ingredients of the food product, including any colors, artificial flavors, and preservatives listed in descending order by predominance of weight shown with common or usual names,

The following sentence: “This product was produced in a home kitchen not subject to public health inspection that may also process common food allergens.”

The date the product was processed, and

Allergen labeling as specified in federal labeling requirements.

Allergen labeling requires that at the end of your list of ingredients, you say “Contains: ___” where you list common allergens such as milk, whole wheat flour, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, fish, crustaceans and tree nuts.

If you serve samples, they must be presented as individual ‘bites’ that can be picked up by the customer without touching any of the others. The major part of the dish must be kept covered. Think: “How does Walmart serve their samples?”

Correct way to offer free food samples.  Photo by doublehockeysticks.com

Dried foods like dried herbs, herb blends and dry tea blends can be sold as well, but they must be pre-packaged or displayed in a way that keeps people from touching them.

If this seems like a lot of paperwork for selling chocolate chip cookies, you need to know that complying with regulations is much simpler under this act than it was in previous years.

Before you heat up the oven and start baking, you need to contact the local Health Department. You will need to be registered with them and they may want to inspect the place where the food will be prepared. There may be a fee for the registration.

Also, and more importantly, the operator will need to complete an Illinois Food Service Sanitation Manager Certification. You can see where the 15-hour classes are held by going to dph.illinois.gov/fssmccourses.

For a good introduction to the subject of Farmers Market food sale safety, go to

http://ipha.com/Documents/EventAttachments/10092013120117-Farmers%20Market%20Madness.pdf