Afterword:
Taking the Next Step – Baking Bread at Home for Profit!

​​OK, so you’ve followed the path I’ve laid out one step at a time, and you’ve managed to make it to the end of the journey with a fine loaf of bread baked in your home kitchen. You try it again and discover that it works, again. You try some variations, with mix-ins, with different flours, with different hydrations. You’re getting the hang of it. The loaves are lookin’ pretty good. They’re sure tasting great! Why…. someone might even want to buy them!!
 
What Next?
 
Well, there are only two states – New Jersey and Hawaii – where selling homemade food is totally prohibited, and there are a few other states where it’s severely restricted. So, in the vast majority of states, thanks to cottage food laws, you can legally sell homemade bread.
 
To do so, you have to have a permit from the local health department and, generally, a business license. While I don’t pretend to know much about how this works in other states, I can tell you that in California the process of obtaining a Cottage Food Operator Permit from your county Department of Public Health under the California Homemade Food Act is fairly straightforward. (Let me interject here that in 2018 California passed a related food law -- The Homemade Food Operations Act – that permits “microenterprise home kitchens” to sell a much wider variety of homemade foods than is permitted under the original California Homemade Food Act. The original Act, because it only applies to not-potentially-hazardous foods, such as bread, has far fewer conditions and restrictions.)
 
Under the California Homemade Food Act, there are two classes of permits. Class A permits cost less and don’t require a kitchen inspection, but they’re more restrictive: the food producer has to sell directly to the consumer, through farmer’s markets or special events, for example. Class B permits are more expensive and require a kitchen inspection, but they enable you to sell either directly or indirectly to consumers, through stores, for example. In either Class, the list of homemade foods you can legally sell is rather short, though bread is at the top of the list.
 
There are a number of other restrictions and considerations. If you live in California or just want to see what Californians have to go through to obtain a CFO Permit, follow this link to the California Department of Public Health page on Cottage Food Operations for more details.
 
I have a Class B permit, which means that my kitchen is inspected annually by the LA County Department of Public Health. Over the years, several different inspectors have had a look around. All have been polite and professional, and I’ve never had an issue with any of them.
 
A few things to bear in mind as you prepare for an inspection. The inspectors are on a tight schedule. They appreciate your having everything ready for their visit, and they normally make an appointment to inspect: they have found that if they show up unannounced, generally no one’s home and it wastes their time. So please be there for your appointment; have your FoodHandlers Basic Food Safety certification handy; and make sure your kitchen is clean, that pets are not apparent, and that you have hot water coming out of the faucet in your kitchen sink. Also make sure that all bread-baking supplies are stored in the kitchen (which is the only room in the house they’re allowed to inspect, so everything related to bread baking must be in the kitchen) or in a kitchen closet.
 
Of course, there’s paperwork to fill out, a fee to pay, and an eFoodHandlers Basic Food Safety Course to pass before your kitchen can be inspected. But it’s really not too much trouble, particularly when it comes time to renew, which you can generally do on line.
 
At the same time, though, remember that this just covers your ability to sell homemade bread. To sell anything, you generally need a business license, which is normally awarded through your local Department of Finance and will cost a percentage of how much money you think you’ll make selling your bread. Again, this is an on-line procedure and it’s a matter of filling out and submitting a form.
 
You should also check with your local zoning department to make sure there are no restrictions on commercial enterprises in your neighborhood. When I checked with my zoning department, the very nice woman there told me that as long as the neighbors didn’t complain about what I was doing, I’d be OK. But your neighborhood could be different….
 
In any case, all this will just make you legal. It won’t make you successful. While any book about making you successful in your home-based bread business would necessarily be much longer than this one, I truly hope that this tome will point you in a direction that, with enough hard work, careful thought, and luck, will bring you even more success than I have enjoyed.