Selling shelf-stable home-cooked food in Essex County requires a Residential Kitchen permit from the town Board of Health. Baked goods, jams, and jellies qualify; the board inspects your kitchen before your first sale and sets the fee and labeling.
Massachusetts runs cottage food through the Retail Residential Kitchen permit under 105 CMR 590, issued by each town's Board of Health — Salem, Peabody, Newburyport, and the rest license their own. Only non-potentially-hazardous, shelf-stable products are allowed: breads, cookies, jams, jellies, candies. The board inspects the home kitchen before permitting and periodically after. Sales run direct to consumer. Anything requiring refrigeration, or wholesale to shops and restaurants, moves to a Wholesale Residential Kitchen permit under 105 CMR 500 with stricter standards.
Selling home-produced food without a Residential Kitchen permit lets the Board of Health halt sales and order the operation closed. Unsafe or mislabeled product brings embargo and further penalties.
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See how Essex County's cottage food operations rules stack up against other locations.
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