HI,
Can anyone tell me what's going on with the cottage law?
TIA

Also this was posted on this FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-State-Cottage-Food/212823708752853?sk=wall

"We had our 2nd stakeholders meeting today (I had to do it via teleconference as I am home sick with a sinus infection) Before I go into details let me say this "the information I discuss on here is perliminary, the stakeholders still have to sign off on the final draft of the Rules which will take place sometime late November/early December"

I am happy to report the following changes:

Farmers Market style events will be allowed to have a helper/employee sell goods as long as the Cottage Food Baker is present...this matter is being worked out with the legal department so that we can incorporate the correct wording.

All items we sell must be packaged, however there is some gray area here...Say for instance I want to sell cupcakes at the Farmers Market. I can package them in a large bakery box in my cottage kitchen/transport to the market/then sell individual to the customer using a bakery paper. We are required to supply the customer with the ingredient lable wether in the form of a card/sticker/brochure that will be up to you.

Now for the news most of you have waited for....there will be NO other foods being added to the list right now. I know for some of you this is hard to understand but please let me try to explain why we all made this decision...The Legislature did not give the WSDA any funding to implement this program, the simpler the rules/definitions are to begin with the quicker we can implement the inspection process. That does not mean this is forever! Our plan is to get the Cottage Food workers up and going for one year, the stakeholders will revisit and discuss the pros/cons of what that year has brought us and at that time we will revisit adding more items to the menu of allowed foods. I had hoped to see more foods added to the list, and in time I am positive this will happen. In order for this program to become sucessful we need it to be simple and clear...as it is the clock is ticking away, the longer it takes us to deliberate on the rules at hand the longer it takes to get us all permitted so we can begin working!

I encourage you to speak up and voice your opinion here, without it you can't make a difference."