Cookies in Connecticut?

Hi Allie,

I hope you have good luck with that.  CT is notoriously unfriendly to small businesses and very regulation heavy.  Did you check out www.ct.gov/dcp?  I started looking into it but since it looks like the law requires that "edibles" not only be prepared and baked in a commercial kitchen but decorated and packaged there as well it was not even something I could think about.

There is a petition to get a Cottage Law passed in CT, but it is apparently a tough, uphill battle. You can see it here:

https://www.change.org/p/conne...-house-bill-hb-05815

The same was true in the area of Missouri where I had my shop. Check in with the local Department of Health (DOH) to understand all you need to do from that perspective. You might also want to consult some small business associations there for guidance on the non-food-service aspects of licensing with which you'll need to contend. I had to pass a ServSafe sanitation test, have the building inspected by the DOH, get the fire inspector to approve the fire suppression system, hoods, and other ventilation, get building permits, get tax ID and sales #s from state and federal government, etc. It's a very long list of requirements with several entities involved, typically.

I just heard from our state representative who sponsored the current cottage law bill pending in Conn. Today, the bill passed through the House of Representatives! It still has to go through the state senate and then the governor has to sign it...so, there is still more to do. But this is great news so far!

Hurray! Governor Dannel Malloy signed Connecticut's Cottage Food Bill into law today to be effective October 1, 2015! Now, we must wait for our health department to set up regulations and application procedures so we can finally get started in earnest. It has been a long haul...

Good news for you!