Trying to get my paperwork together to send to the Dept of Agriculture and was confused about the labeling requirement.  Any licensed inspected VA home bakers out there - do you have to have ingredient labeling on cakes - i.e. wedding cakes, birthday, etc that are going to be typically served at parties or receptions? Any help is GREATLY appreciated as I try to navigate this process.

You'll get different answers from different people on this, but I did a wedding cake for the woman who's in charge of the inspections at the Dept of Agriculture, so I called her and asked. She said that if you have an opportunity to talk to the client and answer any questions about the ingredients in person, then you don't have to write a label. The guy who did my inspection told me that I did have to, but when I told him about my conversation with her he said "okay, that makes sense." Then he suggested that I leave a sheet for the venue when I deliver cakes that lists the common allergens that are included in the cake that I'm delivering, just so they can answer questions for guests if they had them. I take an information sheet with me for each cake and give it to the person at the venue, and it has info about the cake flavors, if they contain nuts, etc. They just want the person who's going to eat the cake to have a chance to know what they're eating.

Thank you for that insight - I had this odd vision of delivering a wedding cake with a label hanging down from one of the tiers - seeing Minnie Pearl in my head (okay, I'm showing my age. . .)