Committee hears cottage-food exemption and an emergency rule after filing oversight; resale question to be answered

The committee heard details of Act 42, which creates a cottage-food category for home or auxiliary kitchens producing items that do not require refrigeration or time/temperature controls for safety. Bradley Shillman explained that cottage food products are defined to exclude items needing temperature control (for example, quiches or cream-filled pastries) and that operations with gross annual receipts of $30,000 or less are exempt from licensing but must submit a licensing-exemption notification and attest to Department of Health training.

Shillman said a standard rule implementing these definitions passed in early December but was not properly filed afterward, which required an emergency rule so there would be no lapse in standards; that emergency rule was on Elkhart’s agenda the following day. An unidentified committee member asked a practical question about secondary sales: whether a cottage-food operator could sell cookies produced at home to a local coffee shop for resale. Shillman said he was not familiar with the inner workings of such retail arrangements and committed to finding the answer and reporting back to the committee.

The committee emphasized typical safety exclusions (foods requiring time/temperature control) and asked counsel to provide specific guidance to staff and to affected small businesses about allowable retail pathways.