Selling at Farmers Markets

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

Does anyone here sell their meat or eggs at a farmer's market? Do you need insurance to sell? How about a license? Do you sell your stuff anywhere else?
Where can I go to find out the answers and does it vary from state to state?

[Up North Louie]

It will vary even within states. If you want to process meat, the USDA will want to have a hand in it. Eggs and poultry, I believe, are within FDA's baliwick.

It's my understanding that you need licenses and insurance, and an inspected place to slaughter.

I believe that if you do CSA, or sell straight to the end user, it's less regulated.

Good luck.

Don

[pickapeppa]

Here it depends on quantity and location. If you're a small producer (less than 60 cases of eggs per year) you don't need a license to sell on your site (farm). If you sell your eggs to a store, restaurant, or direct to customers at a farmers market you need a limited license as a small producer (cheap), or a full license as a large producer. Also, eggs sold outside of your own farm have to be candled, graded, and labeled with the grade and expiration date within 30 days of the original date of candling/packing.

[Jen H]

The answer varies from state to state and county to county. If you check with the Farmer's Market you're interested in selling at, they should be able to answer your questions.

I need a business license to sell veggies and soap at our local Farmer's Market in Whatcom County, WA state. Selling eggs there would require a permit from the County Health Dept. and inspection by the USDA. Again, that's here in Whatcom County, WA State. And yes, there are inspectors that come around and check up on this. It may be different in the area you plan to sell in.

Selling my eggs off the farm requires no permits or inspections. So that's how I sell my eggs.

[Jena]

Start with your state department of ag. If they don't regulate it, check with the state health department. I had to have a meat brokers license from the state, plus a health permit from any county that I sold in. No one requires you to have insurance, but I sure as heck did.

All meat sold must be inspected. If you sell across state lines or to restaurants, you have to have USDA, rather than state, inspection. CSA's have the same rules.

If you sell the live animal to someone, then haul it in for them, you can avoid all that, but they have to pay the processor and pick up the meat themselves.

Jena

[Shagbarkmtcatle]

Originally Posted by Jena

Start with your state department of ag. If they don't regulate it, check with the state health department. I had to have a meat brokers license from the state, plus a health permit from any county that I sold in. No one requires you to have insurance, but I sure as heck did.

All meat sold must be inspected. If you sell across state lines or to restaurants, you have to have USDA, rather than state, inspection. CSA's have the same rules.

If you sell the live animal to someone, then haul it in for them, you can avoid all that, but they have to pay the processor and pick up the meat themselves.

Jena

Jena,
Are you selling cuts of meats or are you selling halves and wholes? What is the strictest inspection? Is there a difference between Federal and USDA? This would be concering meat.
Thanks

[Ernie]

Meat is problematic. The licensing requirements for it in Illinois are odious and so I've avoided it altogether.

One of the problems I've run into with eggs is that the state requires you to have a license, and then each county where you would sell at a farmer's market will also require you to have a county license. Some of these county licenses are in excess of $200 and they don't care one whit about your state license. Then they have all different requirements for the manner in which you must maintain the eggs. Some require a refrigerated truck.

I've found it better to just deal with vegetables and sell live animals to people in the know, and eggs to people who show up at the farm where I don't seem to need any licensing whatsoever.

[Ross]

I sell in Ontario my farm liability insurance covers me, there's no special licenses to sell in Ontario but of course it has to be processed in an inspected plant, selling across the provincial or national borders would requie federal inspection........... who cares Ontario is big enough. I help run the local farmers' market, and there are some bizarre health dept. regs but nothing overly restrictive.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Shagbarkmtcatle

Does anyone here sell their meat or eggs at a farmer's market? Do you need insurance to sell? How about a license? Do you sell your stuff anywhere else?
Where can I go to find out the answers and does it vary from state to state?

I sell eggs and produce at market.

At that market other vendors sell meats.

No insurance.

If you process your own meat you need a meat processing license and you need to be a USDA butcher/inspector, otherwise just pay a butcher to give your meat his stamp.

I have no license.

[Jena]

I sold meat in Illinois and it wasn't very hard at all to do so. It's way easier than people think, really. I sold cuts. Once I started doing that, things really took off for me. I had a great business going, but lost it due to a divorce.

USDA and federal inspection are the same thing. That is the inspection of the actual animal before slaughter and the meat after.

My premises were inspected by the dept of ag for my meat brokers license. They checked my labeling and basically made sure that all the meat was from USDA sources and that I wasn't trying to sneak in something else. I had to have freezers dedicated to sale meat and couldn't mix my own household stuff with it (not a problem for me). I was not allowed to have any kinds of labels and a few other easy rules.

THEN there's your health department inspection. That can vary alot, depending on the county doing the inspecting. They are the ones who inspect your freezers, your labeling, etc etc etc. I had to get a health permit from every county where I sold meat at a market. Big pain for some, not for others, like I said, it just depends.

If your meat is USDA inspected and you do not touch the packaging, you are basically selling pre-packaged food. This makes most of the health stuff way easier than if you were cutting and packaging yourself. Just tell the processor how you want it and sell it that way. If you try to get into your own packaging, you are in for a lot more rules than I can tell you about.

As far as I know, eggs must always be transported under refrigeration and a cooler doesn't count (same for meat). I put a couple freezers into an enclosed trailer and used a generator on the tongue to power it. Worked great and was in compliance.

Being fully inspected, licensed and in compliance was a major selling point for me. People get weird about meat and afraid. They found it reassuring that I had all my ducks in a row. It was worth the minimal costs for that peace of mind on my part too.

Jena

[DebM]

First thing to do is talk to your market manager. Our local health department is much stricter than at markets in surrounding counties, and we're all small, rural markets. The manager can also answer or point you to the correct resource.

There are state and federal rules to follow, but if anybody inspects, it's the local health department in our area.

I have liability insurance which is a cheap rider on our farm policy. I wouldn't risk everything I've worked so hard for because some doo-dah-head claimed something I sold him caused him to hiccup or something. Defending is expensive.

That said, we do not require insurance at our market because we have Old-Order Amish vendors.

[haypoint]

In Michigan, eggs and fruits and vegetables are no problem. Live plants require a nursery license/inspection. Home cooked/baked stuff requires a Health Department license/inspection. Lots more regulations on meat and milk, as it should be.
As stated several times above, different regulations for different states.