Two bills, one to enact a “Food Freedom” statute and the other to continue only pasteurized milk sales, followed a similar course during the recently completed session of the North Dakota Legislature in Bismarck. Both bills were signed into law.
One was not exactly the price of passing the other, but the sponsor of the…
Three bills introduced into the Illinois General Assembly loosen up cottage food sales and promote farmers markets, but apparently are not intended to alter the state’s new raw milk law.
Illinois in 2016 aligned itself with the surrounding states of Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin by prohibiting any retail sales of milk without pasteurization. On-farm sales…
The bill to make the direct sale of raw milk legal in Montana is part of a package to boost farm and ranch incomes in the Big Sky State.
The package includes cottage food legislation along with an agri-tourism section in addition to allowing milk to be sold without the benefit of pasteurization. All three…
Statewide standards for cottage food producers could be dead in Idaho for this year since that state’s legislature is headed for an early April adjournment. Opposition from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare may have derailed House Bill 187, which had won a “do pass” recommendation from the House Health and Welfare Committee.…
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a first-term Democrat in a tough re-election campaign against Republican businessman Bruce Rauner, traveled to the town of Troy, IL, near St. Louis on Tuesday to sign the so-called “cupcake bill” in the kitchen of 12-year-old baker Chloe Stirling. His signature made Stirling’s home baking business legal once again. It had…
Wyoming State Rep. Sue Wallis (R-Recluse) was found dead early Tuesday at a Gillette hotel. She was 56. An autopsy is planned, according to Campbell County Coroner Tom Eekhoff. Governor Matt Mead ordered state flags at the Wyoming Capitol Building in Cheyenne and in Campbell County lowered to half-staff from now until sunset of the…
Last week on Food Safety News, Dan Flynn wrote an article discussing Virginia’s plans to loosen its cottage food laws. Cottage food laws are basically laws that allow small-time producers to use appliances in their homes to bake, cook, can, pickle, dry or candy certain low-risk foods for sale. By contrast, state laws require…
In 2014, we’ll hear precious little about food safety from the federal government that will truly be new. For sure the White House has decisions to make on everything from poultry inspections to whom to nominate as the next Under Secretary for Food Safety. Congress, paid to make decisions it rarely seems to get around…
Sandy Boyce and her husband have been making homemade sauerkraut for years by fermenting cabbage purchased from local farmers near their home in Sedona, Arizona. Having long received praise from family and friends for her recipe, Boyce, the director of the nonprofit Verde Valley Community Supported Agriculture, finally decided in 2009 to start selling her…
With so many state lawmakers willing to throw out the rulebook when it comes to cottage foods, the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) has decided it’s time to draw the line.
The 116-year-old AFDO has published a 20-page “guidance document” with “consensus opinion of best practices and limitations on this somewhat controversial matter.”…
