To give a boost to homestead kitchens, New Hampshire lawmakers eye changes to regulations

Yahoo

17-02-2025

Homestead kitchens can only sell foods that are low risk, meaning they are safe to store at room temperature. (Photo)
Business isn't always a piece of cake for homestead sellers.
These are residents who bake bread, decorate cookies, can jams, and produce other similar foods for sale straight from their own kitchens. Some feel certain state requirements have made running their small-scale operations more difficult, sapping their time with repetitive labeling changes, limiting where in the home they can prepare their goods, and precluding them from offering food service on a weekly basis without a license.
A group of bills backed by bipartisan sponsors would allow for QR code or website ingredient lists in some circumstances, permit once-weekly food service without needing a food service license, open up the opportunity for production spaces outside the home kitchen, and make other tweaks aimed at reducing barriers for home-based food producers.
The House Environment and Agriculture Committee heard these bills Tuesday, and has already voted to recommend several of them for passage by the full Legislature.
Homestead kitchens can only sell foods that are low risk, meaning they are safe to store at room temperature. This includes breads, cookies, candies, jams and jellies, fudge, double-crusted fruit pies, and other goods, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. They cannot sell things like cheesecakes, soups, pumpkin pies, 'low acid foods such as canned gravies or some canned vegetables,' or other potentially hazardous foods.
What makes the difference in whether operators need to be licensed is where they want to sell their goods. You don't need a license if you're selling from your residence, your farmstand, a farmers market, or a retail food store, according to DHHS. But if you want to sell 'to restaurants, other food establishments excluding retail food stores, over the Internet, by mail order or to wholesalers, brokers or other food distributors,' you need a license, the department says.
DHHS currently licenses 140 homestead operations, and does not have an estimate for the total number of operators in the state because of the licensure exemptions, according to Maddie Miller, a public health public information officer for the department. The agency has received an increase in inquiries about homestead food operations in the past several years, she said.
There are also 15 'self-inspecting' towns and cities where the department advises potential sellers to check to see if they are required to have a license to operate. Some farmers markets may require sellers to be licensed even though it's not required by the state, the department noted.
Here are the measures lawmakers are considering to support home-based food production.
Often, home-based food producers change their offerings with the season. Even the weekly variance of what they harvest from their gardens may result in a slight change in recipes, such as swapping out the type of berries they use in their muffins.
But every changed ingredient necessitates a new label, which is required of both licensed and unlicensed homestead operations. These labels, much like food labels you'd find in a grocery store, require a list of ingredients in descending order by weight, as well as a list of major food allergens. They also require information identifying the seller, the name of the product, and whether they are an exempt operation or licensed by DHHS, and other details.
House Bill 304, led by Dover Democratic Rep. Peter Bixby, would make it so that the list of ingredients on the good's packaging can be replaced with a QR code or website where customers can find the list, still organized by weight. It still must include other standard labeling information, including the list of allergens, on the physical packaging of the food.
This option to streamline labeling could only be used by those selling out of their homes or their own farm stands. Those selling goods in other ways – at farmers markets or online, for instance – must still have the ingredients listed out on the physical packaging.
The bill also makes explicit in law that producers may list either a physical or email address on their labeling, which Bixby said was an important safety element. It also cleans up language in the statute that makes reference to the sales cap that was previously on homestead food operations, which lawmakers did away with in recent years.
Addie Leader-Zavos, who runs a small market farm and farm store with her husband in Dunbarton, said the bill would save them time and money. They sell five items, but because they rotate ingredients seasonally, that amounts to 'hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of labels,' Leader-Zavos said.
'I don't know if any of you have ever had a screaming fight with your printer when you are under pressure, but it is not fun, and it is a huge barrier to be able to do business efficiently,' she said.
She said the bill would make a significant difference for producers, while still keeping consumers safe and featuring allergens on the physical packaging of goods.
The committee voted, 13-0, to recommend the bill for passage.
Another measure, House Bill 371, would change the parameters of what qualifies as an 'occasional food service establishment' so that these producers could operate once a week. That definition is important because those that fall under it are not required to obtain a food service license.
'We want our food producers to offer clear messaging about when their product will be available, and this allows for more consistent offering of the product on an occasional basis,' said Rep. Judy Aron, a South Acworth Republican who chairs the committee and is sponsoring the measure.
Under current law, this term is defined as an establishment where food is served on premises no more than four days in a 30-day period. The bill would change that to four days in a 28-day period, which would allow for a once-weekly operation, and alter the language to specify that the food may be consumed off the premises.
Leader-Zavos said changing the wording of the current law to allow for take-away food would help lower barriers for home operators who don't have the furnishings, parking spaces, or physical space to accommodate customers consuming their food on premises.
The committee recommended, 13-0, that the Legislature pass this bill.
One lucrative niche in home-based food production is intricately decorated sugar cookies, said Leader-Zavos. These bakers may wish to use another room in their home to sit down and decorate, but under New Hampshire law, they can produce homestead food only from the home kitchen of their residence.
House Bill 307, also led by Bixby, would change that to also allow food to be produced in 'a food production area in the person's primary residence that meets the water supply and sanitary requirements established in rules adopted under RSA 541-A,' the administrative procedure act.
The bill would help address a simple, human reality for many home-based food producers, a large portion of whom are women with children earning supplemental income for their families, Leader-Zavos said.
'One of the the things that I hear over and over and over and over again from this this type of producer is, 'I can't keep my kids out of the things that I'm making for my customers, and I can't keep my husband out of the things that I'm making for my customers,'' Leader-Zavos said to laughs from lawmakers.
She argued it could improve food safety by allowing home food producers to have a separate space in their home where they can close off their ingredients or production process.
DHHS officials raised some concerns about food safety, since the safety regulations are designed for kitchens.
'We just want to make sure that if we remove 'kitchen' that we're not unintentionally allowing for these spaces to be used without meeting those sanitary requirements,' said Erica Davis, the administrator for the food protection section within DHHS' public health services division.
Leader-Zavos said home food producers are highly incentivized to follow proper food safety procedures.
'New Hampshire is a lot of small towns where people know each other, and they know the practices of what people are doing,' she said. 'And so I think that if there was a question about someone's sanitation or a product being moldy or something like that, I think the word would absolutely get out quickly.'
That kind of bad local publicity 'would kill our business before DHHS found out about it,' said her husband, Michael Williams. He also argued that by making business easier for home-based food producers, the state will attract more operators like them, who have background in professional kitchens and are therefore better informed about proper food safety practices.
The committee did not vote on a recommendation for this bill Tuesday. It also heard, but has not yet voted on, House Bill 150, which would make it explicit in law that home food producers can use commercial kitchen equipment, provided it can be properly cleaned in the processing area. It also unanimously recommended for passage House Bill 279, which would establish a study committee for recipe and process approval for homestead foods.