Hi all. I am in NJ and have the opportunity to bake from a commercial kitchen in PA. I am right on the border so it's about a 15 minute drive. Does anyone know-if I bake in the commercial kitchen, prepare my icing there as well and fillings, can I decorate at home and sell? I may be able to do it all from the comm. kitchen, but it would be easier to do the decorating at home and as I understand it, the baking part is what makes it illegal.

Also, if I just plain set up in PA (bake, decorate & therefor sell) do I need to do any licensing for myself? I don't plan on making more than maybe $1000 a year if I'm lucky at this point.

Any advice is appreciated. Just trying to do it right. Thanks!!
Andrea

I don't know NJ laws but I assume if you are baking in a PA location you would have to be licensed as a PA baker and also file taxes in PA...

PA licensing isn't hard (I'm licensed from home) but if selling baked goods from home is illegal in Jersey then you'd have to do your entire setup in PA, including licensing. It would be like living in Jersey and working in PA as far as legalities and taxes.

Good luck!

Thanks. That's what I thought. I checked into baking from my sister's home (with her filing with me) and in her town it's a no go. Boo hoo! So, then I found a commercial kitchen willing to let me bake from there. In order to do that though I would have to get them to do another inspection of the kitchen, which is no big deal really. But, the dept of ag also said they would have to list on the license a dual occupancy-meaning that the owners and me are occupants. I don't think they'll go for that. It's not right that I should really have to be on anything of theirs-they own it, I'm just using it. But, rules are rules and even though they suck, I still have to follow them I guess. I need to move to somewhere I can do cake!

You wouldn't be able to take it home with you and decorate either. Everything would have to be done at the commercial kitchen. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even be able to take home finished work. Maybe if it were all boxed up tight, but as far as I know you'd have to do it all from start to finish in the commercial space. If residential baking isn't allowed in your town, that goes for all aspects of food preparation.

As long as we're on the subject, does anyone know what the legalities and regs are for New York? I have done some research but it is overwhelming, at least to me, and I just want to know if I can bake from a home kitchen, and what is required for that to be okay? Do I have to have a separate kitchen or is baking in my own kitchen okay? OR, if I do have a separate kitchen, is this considered a commercial kitchen and would have different requirements????? I am so confused about all this.

It is so confusing! lol Why do they make cake so hard!

Anyway, in NY I believe it is ruled by the district you are in. I believe if you're in NYC you can do it out of your kitchen, but I'm not sure what you have to do to make it legal. I would contact your county/town clerk and ask them who to call. Or, if you have a local dept of health try that. There is a list at the beginning of this forum with some info on each state-it's revised on I think page 3.

Not every state will require that your separate kitchen be a full commercial space. Most will be okay so long as it is just separate from your home kitchen and has its own entrance. If you are required to have a commecial space the regs are different... 3 bay sink, handwashing sink, mop sink, only commercial refrigerators and freezer are allowed...

It gets mind boggling that's for sure and the only way to know for certain is to call your local health office.

I know there is a rule for PA bakers that any cake being sold to someone in another state needs to be fully labeled with an ingredient list and so on when in state it does not. I asked the inspector about this and was told that there are no cake inspectors sitting on the Walt Whitman bridge waiting for my cake to pass, so don't worry about it. I thought it was funny, but it really doesn't answer your question. I don't have an answer for you, but would guess like others said, that you would have to do everything in PA including live.