“When you get a new regulation put into place and it’s something that your state has never had before, there’s going to be some hiccups. The strong pushback from local municipalities is not something that Finkelstein or Coriston expected when the rules went into effect two years ago. While the cottage food regulations apply to the entire state, each of New Jersey’s 564 municipalities has different hoops that residents need to jump through to get their license, and there is not one blanket solution.įinkelstein claims that his application with Jersey City satisfied all of the requirements needed, such as stating that there will be no evidence of home occupation, he will have no employees, he will not conduct retail sales and there will be minimal-to-no foot traffic. “One of the biggest struggles that we have had is with municipalities and one of the reasons for that is that there was no giant mass announcement that it’s now legal for people to sell the food they make at home,” she said. Mandy Coriston, a board member of the New Jersey Home Baker’s Association that was instrumental in getting the cottage food regulations approved in 2021, told the Jersey City Times that residents across the state face the same frustrations. “It’s so bizarre to me that I gave them the citation to the Department of Health regulations, I gave them a link to the website that explains it all, and it’s like we’re talking past each other.” I don’t know what it is,” Finkelstein continued. “I think what’s going on here is a lack of education or intentional ignorance. Commercial kitchens, on the other hand, do not have to worry about such requirements. Operators have to generate gross annual sales of less than $50,000 per year and cannot sell their food in wholesale or retail food establishments such as restaurants or bakeries, according to the state Department of Health. “That’s explicitly what I said I’m not doing,” he said.Ĭottage food operators can only make and sell foods that cannot go bad quickly and that don’t require refrigeration, such as baked goods, candy or nuts. Zoning officials denied Finkelstein’s application because they said it proposed selling food cooked at a residence “for commercial purposes,” which is not allowed under city code, according to e-mails obtained by the Jersey City Times.
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