Alaska Homemade Food: No Sales Cap, No Permit, Meat Allowed

The exemption is written as a shield rather than a licence. AS 17.20.332(a) provides that except as otherwise provided in AS 17.20.332 through AS 17.20.338, a homemade food produced, sold and consumed in compliance with the section is exempt from state labeling, licensing, packaging, permitting and inspection requirements. There is no application, no fee and no cap. Read AS 17.20.338, the definitions section, before assuming a limit lives there: it defines agricultural fair, commercial food establishment, game meat, homemade food, meat, molluscan shellfish, personal consumption, potentially hazardous homemade food, producer and seafood, and it contains no dollar figure at all. "Homemade food" reaches food or drink prepared or processed in a producer's private home kitchen or in a private or commercial kitchen leased to a producer, so a rented commercial kitchen still counts.

The real constraints are on channel and content. Under AS 17.20.332(b) a sale is only for personal consumption, which AS 17.20.338(9) defines as use or ingestion by the buyer, an employee of the buyer, or a nonpaying guest of the buyer. The sale must occur in the state at a farmers' market, an agricultural fair, a farm, a ranch, the producer's home or office, the retail location of a third-party seller, or a location agreed on between the producer and the buyer. It may not involve interstate commerce, and it may not involve seafood, a controlled substance, oil rendered from animal fat, or game meat, which AS 17.20.338(5) defines as flesh and organs of animals not classified as meat in 9 C.F.R. 301.2 or poultry in 9 C.F.R. 381.1(b). Meat is the exception rather than a prohibition: AS 17.20.332(h) allows a person to prepare and sell meat, meat products and homemade food containing meat, subject to federal law.

Disclosure carries the load that inspection normally would. AS 17.20.332(e) requires a packaged item to be clearly and prominently labelled with the producer's name, current address, telephone number and business licence number if applicable, plus a fixed statement: "This food was made in a home kitchen, is not regulated or inspected, except for meat and meat products, and may contain allergens." For unpackaged food, AS 17.20.332(g) requires the producer or third-party seller, before the sale, to tell the buyer the food was prepared under AS 17.20.332 through AS 17.20.338 and is not subject to certain state certification, labelling, licensing, packaging, regulation or inspection requirements, and to give the buyer the same contact details. A retail space selling homemade food must prominently display a sign saying the food was made in a home kitchen, may contain allergens and is not regulated or inspected, and homemade food may not sit on the same shelf or display as inspected food.

Who may do the selling depends on the risk of the food. AS 17.20.332(f) requires the seller of a potentially hazardous homemade food, except eggs, to also be the producer. Eggs and non-hazardous items may be sold by the producer, an agent of the producer, or a third-party vendor including a retail shop or grocery store. A retail space that sells potentially hazardous homemade food and is in any way associated with a commercial food establishment or offers inspected food must keep physical separation with a separate door and separate cash register or point of sale, post signs marking which spaces hold inspected and uninspected food, and maintain separate coolers, freezers, warehouses or other storage. Except for raw, unprocessed fruits and vegetables, AS 17.20.332(c) bars homemade food from being sold or used in a commercial food establishment at all.

Alaska also runs a separate animal share route at AS 17.20.334, letting a person acquire meat through an ownership interest in the animal or herd established before slaughter and documented in a written contract containing a bill of sale, a boarding provision and an entitlement to a share of the meat. Meat received that way may not be sold, donated or commercially redistributed.

336 spells out what the Department of Environmental Conservation keeps. The department may still inspect to investigate reports of foodborne illness, food-caused injury or death, unsafe sanitary practices, or misbranded or adulterated food; condemn and order the destruction of misbranded or adulterated food; and order a producer to stop a practice or procedure that is unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise a risk to public health. 040, so a borough or city ordinance can still reach the operation. 315 lets the department impose a civil fine of up to $1,000 per violation for a serious or repeat violation.

334(e) separately forbids a person from publishing a statement implying that the Department of Environmental Conservation approves or endorses an animal or herd share program or the acquisition of meat under that section.