Committee hears push to raise cottage-food income cap to $30,000, debates Department of Health’s training and canned-food proposal

Caroline Schremen Gordon, legislative director of Louisville Mont, told the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare that House-passed language to raise cottage-food gross annual sales exemptions would help small farm and home-based food producers diversify income and increase food access.

The bill under review (referred to in committee as 401) would raise current statutory gross-sales thresholds for food manufacturers operating from a home kitchen — currently $10,000 for general cottage manufacturing and about $6,500 for some baked goods, according to testimony — to $30,000. Gordon said the change was a long-standing policy priority for her farmer-led nonprofit and that the House had passed the language unanimously.

Committee counsel and staff reviewed draft 2.1 of the bill, which includes new definitions for “cottage food product” and “cottage food operator,” a requirement that exempt operations submit an annual licensing-exemption filing…