Cottage Bakers Unite!

Speaking of the way regulations destroy small businesses, a good way to estimate the damage is to repeal a few regulations and see what happens:
Since Texas does not issue permits or licenses for cottage food production operations, the state does not have a precise way to track them. However, anyone who wants to operate a cottage food business is required to become a certified food handler. In Texas, there are at least two organizations that offer courses specifically designed for cottage food: Texas Food Safety Training and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Between the two of them, over 1,400 individuals have purchased and completed courses over the past year. Given that cottage food entrepreneurs can also comply with the state’s regulations by taking a general food handler course, the true number of home baking businesses may be even higher.
This makes a huge amount of sense, as many kinds of foods are very safe and don't require tight regulations to ensure consumer health. Breads may have eggs or milk in them, say, but they're going to be baked at several hundred degrees until they are dry and firm. As long as the ingredients were relatively fresh, there's very little danger. If you use powdered milk and eggs, the danger nearly ceases to exist.

3 comments:

douglas said...

Heh-
"Come and Bake it"
That's cool.
Why should there be a cap of $50,000 income to qualify as 'cottage baker'. Either it's safe or it isn't- eh?

RonF said...

If you use powdered eggs and milk to make your baked goods, the danger of me buying them more than once ceases to exist.

Grim said...

Powdered milk's not so bad! I often use it on camping trips, for baking in Dutch ovens. I've got a tiny little camp Dutch oven that's great for motorcycle camping, or even backpacking if you really want fresh-baked goods on the trail. (Normally when backpacking, it's more efficient to bake the breads before you go.)