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  So thanks again to our live participants as well as those who might be watching this recorded webinar later on.
  This is our third Making Food at Home to Sell virtual Q&A with a focus on where can I sell my home produced food products.
  Quick introductions. Today we have Laura working behind the scenes.
  Laura is our Healthy People Specialist in Extension and Family and Consumer Sciences.
  She helps to make sure that these virtual Q&As run smoothly.
  If you have any questions or requests for the previous webinars, if you haven't received them, feel free to put that in the chat or email her.
  Nicole, I'm an Assistant Professor and Food Safety Field Specialist here at Ohio State, primarily serving consumers and small food producers.
  We also have Katie with us today, and I always like to acknowledge that we're just really grateful to have Katie be a part of this team.
  She is currently at George Washington University, but still resides in Ohio and is very familiar with the food safety guidance here.
  We're lucky to have her because she was a previous inspector and had an inspector role in many different ways as well,
  but can really speak to the Ohio specific regulations and specifically the cottage food and home bakery regulations.
  We also had Emily help us to brainstorm for this virtual Q&A.
  She's not here with us live today, but Emily is still an integral part of creating these.
  She is a faculty member and also a county educator in Coshocton County who has a food science background.
  This is virtual Q&A three of at least five that have been proposed for this year.
  So you can see what the schedule of any of these future ones are of interest to you.
  In October, we'll have conversations about when should I reach out to help?
  And some of that might be when should I reach out to extension?
  When should I reach out directly to the Ohio Department of Ag?
  If you're interested in having a home bakery, when do I reach out to plan an inspection, etc.?
  And then we have a very fun one, not at the end of the month, but in the middle of the month in November.
  So hopefully people have a little bit more time to prepare.
  That's going to focus on holiday food production because we know that that is a popular topic.
  I do want to mention that if you're on this virtual Q&A for the first time or even if you're on here for the second time and did not attend or listen to the recording for the first virtual Q&A,
  that these conversations oftentimes build off of each other.
  It may be difficult to have a conversation about the who and where if you don't know what food products we're talking about first.
  So I very, very much would appreciate folks if you're unfamiliar with cottage food and home bakery items to go back and look at that first webinar.
  And we covered very much in depth what products can and can't be sold under those two umbrellas.
  And again, if you don't have access to those recordings, Laura put her email address in the chat and can get that to you.
  A friendly reminder that the content that we're discussing is specific to the state of Ohio.
  Again, if you're from a different state, you're welcome here, but can't really speak to other states.
  And cottage food rules certainly vary from state to state, even neighboring states.
  And also a plug that we are in the process of eventually creating a cottage food and home bakery course,
  that if you do want to become one of these types of operations, that you have plenty of resources at your fingertips and don't have to dig through it.
  Resources like record keeping, resources like who do I reach out to and having those direct links and some additional information on the
  When we add meat to a food product, when we add this and that to a product, does it change whether it can be a cottage food or home bakery item?
  And this work is a part of a larger grant that is supported by a food safety outreach program grant from USDA NIFA.
  So to the actual meat of our discussion, focusing on this question of where can I sell my home produced food products?
  And if you see this term home produced, just know that we are specifically talking about those approved cottage food and home bakery products.
  We tackled this a little bit in the last virtual Q&A, but wanted to reiterate because there was a lot of discussion and questions surrounding it.
  But my first question, and I'm going to direct these to Katie, who is the expert here, is Katie, can I sell my home based food product across state lines?
  So if you are a registered and you have a license to be a home baker, meaning you have gone through the home bakery inspection, then you can sell your products across state lines outside of Ohio.
  If you have not gone through the home bakery inspection process, you would then have and be producing products through the cottage food regulations.
  You cannot sell across state lines. It has to be sold here in Ohio. Now, if you are in Urbana and you want to sell in Youngstown, that's fine.
  One thing that we will hit on multiple, multiple times because it is incredibly important, you as the producer of this food are responsible for the safety and integrity of the product, regardless of whether you're a home baker or a cottage food producer.
  And on my little photo here, I have a cheesecake. It is not packaged, but it should be being shipped to or just sold in West Virginia.
  And then I have my cottage food item. This is my roasted coffee, also packaged remaining in the state of Ohio.
  So again, to reiterate, cottage foods cannot be sold across state lines. And that's not specific to Ohio. Any state that has cottage food laws, maybe I'm going to, I'm going to
  backtrack here since I just said that we can't speak on behalf of any other state's cottage food rules, but in general, because these are state based rules, you are generally not allowed to sell across state lines. That's a pretty consistent regulation.
  But if you are a home bakery, licensed home bakery, then technically you can sell across state lines. Lots of questions about online sales and potentially shipping food.
  So back to you, Katie, am I able to sell my cottage foods and home bakery products online?
  All right, so circling back to the previous answer, it's going to stack right on top of that answer. Cottage foods can be sold online, but you have to sell them in Ohio only. Home bakeries, yes, you can sell them online. And yes, you can ship them across state lines.
  But again, whenever you're shipping products, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring your product is safe. So as a home bakery, when you're shipping across state lines, if you're here in central Ohio, shipping to West Virginia is more than likely going to go through the mail.
  If you're right on that West Virginia border, you may be able to drive it across state lines, but ultimately you are responsible for that safe product.
  And when you're doing online sales, you want to think about how are you going to control who is able to purchase your products. If you're a cottage food producer, how are you going to manage that only sales occur for those in Ohio?
  And on the flip side, home bakeries, you can, I don't want to say have free reign and let loose, but you need to make sure that whoever is purchasing your products online is able to obtain the products in a safe and secure manner.
  And you want to make sure that when you are producing your products and going to ship them through online sales, that all of your products are in food safe containers, food grade materials.
  Everything is properly labeled in accordance with the food, with the cottage food regulations or home bakery regulations, and then temperature controlled if it's a home baked item or a home bakery item.
  And Katie, I'll add that even obviously need to ensure that products under home bakery that require refrigeration do have temperature control, that we still want to not, we still can't allow temperature abuse for any of the foods, even cottage foods.
  And I'm just thinking about some of the really, really hot days that we've had here in Ohio recently, that it's not just a safety issue, it's a quality issue as well.
  And maybe shipping like chocolate chip cookies during a hot day over, you know, multiple states may potentially not go well. I don't know. It would depend on what the product is and how it's packaged.
  But thinking critically about how am I going to keep products cold, protected. We also don't talk a lot about adulteration, a lot too, but how am I ensuring that no one from the time that it leaves my house can tamper with that food product or that package before it reaches the consumer.
  This is a fun one. We've seen a lot of food sales on all types of online platforms. We just pulled a few. These are not recommended platforms, but pulled a few to talk about and did a little bit of investigative work too as to what requirements they might have.
  But first and foremost, Katie, is this even an option? Am I allowed to sell cottage food and home bakery products on online platforms and marketplaces, Etsy, Amazon, Facebook, et cetera?
  Sure. So I'll touch a little bit on this. The same stipulations apply. Again, cottage foods and home bakeries, just like we had already mentioned, for online sales, since these are all online platforms, they would follow the same policies and procedures as listed before.
  ODA, however, so the Ohio Department of Agriculture sets the guidelines that you have to follow for the regulations. It does not mean that you are automatically cleared to go and sell through Amazon or Etsy or Facebook marketplace.
  Most of those online buying sites will have additional requirements, such as nutritional fact panels, food safety plans. Some may even require a monthly fee. So just do your homework when it comes to how you're going to sell online.
  And just know that just because you are a registered home bakery in the state of Ohio, that does not automatically give you the green flag that you can go and sell your product on Amazon because they will have certain stipulations that you will have to follow as well.
  And I think from a food business standpoint, I mean, thinking about the investment, the money and resources that are going into your food business, thinking about things like it's not just that you need a nutrition facts panel. And I just want to be clear what we mean by that means that you don't just need an ingredient list on the label.
  You have to actually have the nutrition facts. And again, this is just an example of something you may need from the research that we've done looking at some of these platforms. But that costs money, usually. Usually that's not something that a food entrepreneur is going to be able to create on their own unless you have some really creative software program.
  But most of the time you're going to reach out to another entity that's going to produce this nutrition facts panel for you. And that is additional time and that is additional costs as well.
  So just know if you are going to try to go the Etsy, Amazon marketplace route, there's going to be some up front financial obligations that you will have to fulfill. So that will, again, just be one of the pros and cons to what you are doing.
  So just we like everybody to be as educated as possible when they walk away from these meetings and these webinars. And this is one of those situations where you will have to probably do more research on your own to find out what is needed. And it may cost you money before you ever even make a profit.
  And I will say that when Katie and I were kind of poking around at some of these sites and seeing what some of the requirements might be, some of them seem a lot more supportive of food entrepreneurs than others.
  Some of them have web pages specifically designated to folks wanting to sell their food products. And then there are platforms such as Facebook marketplace, which were clearly not intended, was not intended to sell food items.
  Foods are not on their prohibited list of items to sell, but there really isn't a lot of, I would say, marketing and also business and liability support there for food entrepreneurs.
  Just again, we're not trying to advocate for doing this, for not doing this. We're just providing you with some additional information.
  This is a very basic one. Can I sell these products directly out of my home? Can people come pick them up?
  Absolutely. And this is probably the easiest way to reduce any risks that are associated with the sale of your product.
  So you will have and maintain complete control over the product all the way until it reaches that end consumer.
  So when you ship something, you lose that control once it goes into UPS or FedEx or regular mail.
  But by delivering it or having someone come to you, you maintain that control of that product.
  So you know that it maintains temperature the entire time.
  We always suggest that if you feel comfortable having the people come to your house because you know for a home bakery, your refrigerator is maintained at a proper temperature because you have to have a thermometer in there.
  Where if you have to transport it to the consumer, then you will have to maintain that temperature control.
  And again, you will keep that control and you will have a vested interest in making sure that it is safe.
  But having someone come to your house where you can maintain that control is probably the easiest and simplest way to reduce that risk associated with any sale of food products.
  These next couple of slides really speak to where outside of the home folks can sell to or sell from.
  So just a little spiel before we go there.
  Katie came up with this statement and I love it.
  Know before you go.
  We're going to use terms like a licensed facility or registered entity.
  And it's important that you know exactly in your context what these terms mean.
  So this is just a little disclaimer that when you're selling at another entity anywhere outside your home, you are ultimately responsible for educating yourself on knowing what licensing and registration requirements.
  A entity, a business, et cetera, must abide by.
  I know that's kind of like a mouthful of regulatory jargon, but more simplistic terms.
  It means that don't go sell your food product at a sketchy place.
  It makes sure that these entities are also following the requirements that they need to follow.
  Can I sell my food products at farmers markets?
  And I put the definition.
  This is an ODA definition, a pretty simplistic one on this slide because we also talk about farm markets.
  Not the same thing.
  Always very good.
  But a farmer's market is generally a location where there's multiple producers that are congregating together.
  And the answer that the original question.
  Yes, you can.
  As long as the farmers market is registered.
  Typically, the registration will fall under ODA.
  So if you have any questions, you can always reach out to ODA and ask them if you don't know who to get a hold of at the farmers market.
  Typically, if you want booth space at the farmers market, you will have a point of contact or at least an email.
  You can always email them and they should be able to tell you if they are registered or not.
  If they don't know, then by all means, reach out to ODA.
  But again, it will always fall back on you are ultimately responsible for knowing.
  If your product is kept safe and if you're selling within a licensed or registered establishment.
  Similarly, can I sell my home based food products at a farm market?
  And different from a farmer's market in the way that this is probably producer operated.
  So potentially on farm or farm nearby.
  This is not necessarily multiple entities congregating together to sell their products.
  But for this one, again, it must be registered as a farm market.
  And I think Nicole kind of touched on this. This is one of those that you can typically look out when you pull in the driveway of a farm market.
  And you can usually look out and see where the products are produced.
  You can see the field where it's produced. You can see where the corn is grown.
  That's kind of how I always tell everybody how to differentiate between a farm market and a farmer's market.
  Farmer's market is multiple people in one location where the farm market is. You go to that location for that product.
  But regardless, cottage food or home bakery, everything must be a registered farm market.
  Can I sell my home produced foods to a restaurant?
  And I'm asking this sort of twofold, Katie. Maybe I want my products to be sold at a restaurant.
  Or maybe I want my products to be sold to the restaurant to be used as an ingredient or in their own dishes.
  Perfect. And either way, yes, you can sell to a restaurant for distribution at a point of sale as a whole product or to be used as an additional ingredient.
  But a restaurant must be licensed through the local health department. Up until now, you've heard me say it has to be registered.
  Licensed typically means that it's going to be through your local health department.
  That's not always the case. You're going to hear me say this too. It depends situation.
  It depends on the county, the city and the level in which that local health department has accessibility to license that restaurant.
  But long story short, as long as it is a licensed food establishment, meaning that it meets the requirements to keep food safe to the consumer.
  So it's selling safe food to consumers. Then you can sell your product to them.
  This is a really fun one, especially with the holidays coming up. Can I sell my home produced foods at a craft or vendor show?
  All right. So here's where we get back into a home bakery cottage food difference. Cottage foods.
  No, you cannot sell them at a craft or vendor show because typically they are not, again, a registered food establishment.
  But it can be sold at a festival or celebration on the condition that the festival or celebration is organized by a political subdivision of the state.
  And last for a period no longer than seven consecutive days. So, again, a lot of legal jargon.
  And we are interpreting it as a county fair situation. Craft and vendor shows, again, are not usually licensed and registered.
  However, they can obtain temporary licensures or registrations if they want to go that route to sell cottage foods.
  So cottage foods, you are restricted in where you can sell and how you can sell. Home bakeries, yes.
  But you cannot sell refrigerated products because, again, they're not licensed or registered.
  So there's no way of ensuring that your product can be maintained in a safe environment.
  So hopefully that helps clarify all of that mud, just clears it right up.
  I'm going to summarize here, Katie, to make sure we all have this clear as mud.
  Cottage food, you cannot sell at a craft or vendor show, although there are a few caveats to this.
  And one of those caveats is that, yes, you can sell cottage foods at a county fair.
  Again, we're interpreting that political subdivision of the state as making an exception for county fairs.
  And additionally, if a craft or vendor show obtains a temporary license that allows cottage foods to be present, that is also one of the caveats.
  But other than those two situations we described, cottage foods cannot be sold at craft and vendor shows.
  And that's not to hate on cottage foods. That is because craft and vendor shows were not intended for food to be sold.
  It was for crafts. And I asked Katie, I was like, well, you know, could there potentially be crafts at farmers markets?
  And she said, yeah, sure. So it really is about the intention.
  Craft and vendor shows ultimate goal isn't to sell food.
  And then for a home bakery, yes, you can sell these items at a craft or vendor show, but you cannot sell some of those items that need to be refrigerated.
  I know that this is all kind of a lot. It is not a very straightforward response.
  And that's all we have for today.
  We will wrap up here and then open up our Q&A discussion.