Cottage Foods Reform (HB 1322) passed its first hurdle last Wednesday, when House Commerce & Energy Committee gave the bill a 10-0 green light to send it to the House Floor. It’s time to contact your Reps and ask them to VOTE GREEN on Tuesday’s (2/22) House vote!
Many states have updated their cottage food laws in recent years, making South Dakota’s current law on selling homemade foods direct to consumers much more restrictive than that of our neighboring states.
- Allows for a broader range of homemade food products to be sold direct to consumers, including fermented foods, kuchen, pesto, and frozen fruits & vegetables;
- Gives producers the ability to make safe recipe variations based on what is in seasonal supply, rather than being required to certify each alteration through a 3rd Party Processing Authority;
- Provides a convenient online food safety training (renewal every 5 years) that allows for sale of the full range of foods under the law;
- Preserves the ability to sell shelf stable baked goods with no additional licensing requirements; AND
- Removes requirement for 3rd Party Processing Authority certification of canned foods, BUT allows producers to continue selling under that system if they so choose
Dakota Rural Action worked with member-producers and farmers market managers, as well as connecting with organizations working on “food freedom” legislation, in order to draft a bill that will allow food entrepreneurs to sell a broader range of high demand foods direct to consumers, safely.
We’d love to hear from you! We are actively fielding questions about the bill from producers, consumers, legislators, and others. If you have any questions on the bill, please contact Rebecca Terk at (605) 697-5204 x260 or email: rebeccat@dakotarural.org