Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

State Laws Regulating Honey Harvesting/Bottling

22K views 45 replies 37 participants last post by  cade10 
#1 ·
Does anybody live in a state that has any type of exemption from regular health dept. regulation for the production of honey? I'm looking for laws that, for example, exempt honey producers from requirements to bottle products in inspected kitchens, particular for hobbiest/sideline beekeepers. It seems like there ought to be exceptions, given that honey itself kills germs.

If I could find an example, I intend to start pestering legislators here in Oklahoma.

Thanks,

Neil
 
#2 ·
mn and wisco have no laws pertaining to honey house.

ask them to show you the dead bodies from honey food poisoning@!

FWIW most states and the FDA have zero to no one looking or enforcing these kinds of ridiculous laws. just bottle it and sell it and play stupid if they ever asked....
 
#3 ·
In Michigan your honey house has to meet kitchen standards. They compare us to cider mills and maple syrup places. We need a 3 bay sink and we're supposed to clean everything everyday. I haven't figured out how to fit a barrel into a sink. I also don't understand why everything has to be stainless steel and then we can put honey in an old barrel.
 
#4 ·
the last time I looked there was an exception to the food packaging laws in texas. this basically comes down to... if you do not process food and you then sell this from the back of your pickup no health certificate is required. if you sell product in a store then a permit is required from the state health department.
 
#5 ·
Ga is similar to TX. For 'casual sales' an inspected honey house isn't needed. Casual sales are sales to friends, family, local farmer's markets and at local festivals. Otherwise a GA Department of Ag approved honey processing house is required.
 
#8 ·
The inspector in this area of GA claims that ANY sales outside of your home requires an inspected honey house including local markets and festivals -- regardless of volume.

I have heard that they will enforce this by attending markets and checking for inspection records. If none exists, you get a warning the 1st time and a fine the 2nd.

It can be a pain to pass an inspection. The normal stuff like washable walls, covered light fixtures, and label inspections weren't difficult. They initially wanted me to have 3 separate sinks -- one for food contact items like utensils, one for mopping, and one for hand washing. They did eventually let me get by with a large 3 compartment restaurant style sink.

I wanted to just let the waste water run through a long pipe downhill into the woods (wash and rinse water only -- no toilets). The inspector reacted like it was nuclear waste. I ended up having to install an under-sink grey water pump ($250) and pump it up to my house to tie it in to my house drain and septic system. What a pain.
 
#7 ·
Magnet-Man hit the nail on the head. And they really do go around and check the Farmers Markets, and the Farmers Markets know they will be checked and they check you out first. Basically, the only way to sell honey here is on a totally informal basis, person-to-person.

That does not preven all the sideliner types from selling out, but it is a pain for beekeepers and it's stupid. I just need some type of statute/regulation to follow as a guide and to talk to my State Rep. I'd like to be able to say "See this is a good idea, and they are already doing it this way in 8 states."
 
#15 ·
I found this somewhere and saved it in a file, couldn't post a link because I don't remember were I found it. (Does everyone around here have a honeyhouse built? If so, do you have any details, could one of those wooden storage buildings be made into a honey house and pass inspection?

March 31, 2006
Dear Beekeepers,
In response to some of the questions I have recently received, I have
written this letter to try and explain our laws and regulations. The state of S.C.
does not allow any food items for public sale to be manufactured in a home
kitchen or other NON-APPROVED facility. Any process where exposed food is
mixed, repacked, packaged and/or cooked is considered food preparation and
falls under SCDA/FDA jurisdiction.
Any product that is manufactured in a non-approved facility (such as a
home kitchen) will be considered adulterated and removed from public sale. Any
product mislabeled will be considered adulterate and removed from public sale.
What is public sale?
If you sell your product at a flea market or farmers market, if you place a sign in
your yard, or if you sell to local stores, this is considered PUBLIC SALE and all
regulations and laws will be applied.
If you sell by word of mouth or to your neighbors, this is NOT public Sale.
In order to manufacture food for public sale, you must follow these
requirements:
1. Use an inspected facility (either SCDHEC approved or SCDA approved).
Review the Processor Guidelines regarding buildings and grounds when
constructing your honey house.
2. An approved label that includes Name of Product (HONEY), Your Business
Name and Address, and Net Weight. Pay close attention to font size and
placement of information especially Net Weight. It is critical that the font size
is at least the minimum size allowed by law. Use the Honey Label Sample as
a guide only. When you have a label ready for review, you may call our office
or drop the label off.
3. Following all Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) which are enforced by
SCDA during routine inspections of your facility. Hair restraints, hand
washing, sanitized jars, clean utensils (knives), and clean equipment
(extractors, tanks, etc.)
We will work with you to bring you into compliance with our Food and Cosmetic
Act and will help if you choose rent or build an approved facility. We try to
ensure that wholesome and approved SC products are available to the public;
your help is greatly appreciated.
Remember to look into Product Liability Insurance. If someone gets sick (or
makes a claim) and sues you, you need to have product liability insurance to
cover your assets.
Thank You,
Derek M. Underwood
Consumer Safety Officer
Hugh Weathers, Commissioner
Carol Fulmer, Director
Consumer Services
SCDA
Consumer Service Division
1101 Williams Street
PO Box 11280
Columbia SC 29211
(803) 737-9690
 
#18 ·
neil v.... here the department that handles food manufacting license is the Texas Department State Health Serices. The Texas Administrative Code 229.181 thru 229.184 is the code that control food manufactures in general.

curios enough when I went to the local health department they gave me some copies of the code that did not include (mentioned in no way) the exemptions. the state government web site did however.
 
#19 ·
"Texas Administrative Code
TITLE 25 HEALTH SERVICES
PART 1 DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
CHAPTER 229 FOOD AND DRUG
SUBCHAPTER N CURRENT GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE AND GOOD WAREHOUSEING PRACTICE IN MANUFACTURING, PACKING OR HOLDING HUMAN FOOD
RULE *229.214 Exclusions

"The following operations are not subject to this section: Establishments engaged solely in the harvesting, storage, or distribution of one or more raw agricultural commodities which are ordinarily cleaned and packed before being market to the consuming public.

"Source Note: The provisions of this *229.214 adopted to be effective August 15, 1999, 24 TexReg 6082; amended to be effective August 31, 2006, 31 TexReg 6746."

The italics are mine.

I read this to mean honey is excluded, so a hobbyist/sideliner selling by word of mouth is okay.

Always better to ask forgiveness :doh: than permission, :s especially when asking bureaucrats, IMHO. One will have a different answer than another, forcing you to enter the Babylon of Bureaucratic Hell :eek: to find The One with the Final Answer, who will wonder why you are bothering him with this unimportant nonsense. :waiting:

Keep a paper of trail of whom/what you consulted, who said what, and when. Then you can at least back up your reasoning.

GL
Summer
 
#22 ·
Tennessee Requirements.



Honey House Requirements in Tennessee
As a resource to beekeepers with questions about state law, link below, for the 2003 "honey house bill." It allows individuals to pack and ship up to 150 gallons of honey per year without being considered a retail food establishment.

http://www.tnbeekeepers.org/honey_house_bill.pdf
 
#28 ·
Tennessee Requirements.



Honey House Requirements in Tennessee
As a resource to beekeepers with questions about state law, link below, for the 2003 "honey house bill." It allows individuals to pack and ship up to 150 gallons of honey per year without being considered a retail food establishment.

http://www.tnbeekeepers.org/honey_house_bill.pdf
The link didn't work for me? Any way you could provide a different link to the honey house bill?
 
#23 ·
IL health dept

You have to have a inspected facility to sell to the public. it has to be seperate from the living area. You can use a commercial kitchen from a church, school, restaruant or coop but it does have to be inspected for public sales.

I do think this is a good thing to some extent. There are honey houses I would not go into because fo the mold growing on the walls is a inch thick next to the extractor and I know people who houses are so clean I would eat the honey off the floor.

There are exceptions to everthing.
 
#43 ·
Essentialy you need to process in a registered and inspected facility. Items checked include water quality, septic, basic sanitation. Honey is exempt from having to have each sized jar sent out for a lab test. I attended a MOFGA workshop on this a few months back and have my application here on my desk somewhere. I'll be attempting to have my home kitchen approved; when we built the kitchen I made sure to have washable walls and things like that. Floor drains too. Now, about proving my septic system can handle honey production...

[but note, cut comb honey is not considered processed]
 
#31 ·
Unfortunately several states have made beekeeping legally unaffordable for hobbyist and sideliners. Florida is one of them. There are approximately 1300 registered beekeepers in Florida, but only about 61 of them have a food license, the associated restaurant kitchen equipment, annual inspections, and annual training. The link below addresses Florida's requirements for bottling honey for retail sales and other info of interest.

http://swfbees.com/FinancialBurden.html

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/pdf/history/HB/HB0486.xml

Florida has made some headway for the syrupmakers. In 2005, Florida exempted Florida's syrupmakers from requiring a food license and inspections to cook and bottle cane and sorghum syrup for retail sales.

Hobbyist and sideliners need affordable means of legally using beekeeping to recoup expenses and to afford growth or just to preserve the agricultural heritage of beekeeping. Hopefully, enough interest will encourage the major beekeeping and honey organizations to lobby for action to make beekeeping legally affordable for hobbyist and sideliners in each state.

The future of beekeeping is in our hobbyist and sideliners. Among them are our future researchers, commercial beekeepers, pollinators, and producers and promoters of pure, raw, local honey. They are our future. They are our replacements. They are our small farmers. They farm the most sought out commodity of beekeeping, pure, raw, local honey. Without them, the beekeeping industry would slowly disappear. Where would the replacements come from? Where would you buy real, pure, raw, local honey?
 
#32 ·
"The following operations are not subject to this section: Establishments engaged solely in the harvesting, storage, or distribution of one or more raw agricultural commodities which are ordinarily cleaned and packed before being market to the consuming public."

"Cleaned" being the operative word there possibly summer. There is no cleaning process with honey.

I think I would be cautious in the interpretation of the statement and make sure that how you interpret it agrees with the people in charge of enforcement.


Not that this is the case rkwool? But often it's large business that lobbies to create such laws to push out their competition.
 
#34 ·
Interpretation

Bizzybee;422684I think I would be cautious in the interpretation of the statement and make sure that how you interpret it agrees with the people in charge of enforcement. [/QUOTE said:
Interpretation is the key word here. Follow the regulations/laws to the letter. If the bureaucrat/inspector says that your impletation does not jive with their interpretation remind them that elected representatives and taxpayers have not hired them to interpret regulations/laws but enforce them as written. Normally that sort of language backs them down right away. They live in a world where they reference regs/laws all the time. They don't want you exposing their man behind the curtain. That said, be prepared to fight if you need to. Your elected officials have people working in their offices who will fight these causes for you. The bureaucrats really do not like elected officials or their underlings looking into their affairs.

Local officials in my neck of the woods think I'm a real jerk and don't really mess with me anymore. I'm fine with that. I don't like them so it's mutual.
 
#35 ·
RKWOOL1,

I couldn't get your second link to work? Is there a way I can check on the progress of this bill in Florida?

From what I have heard Florida hasn't been too concerned about cracking down on small producers but I have heard that if you are at a flea market or other type of booth that there is some danger of being fined.
 
#36 ·
I *interpreted* (the magic word!) "cleaning" -- as it pertains to honey -- to mean "filter out wings and dead bee bodies, etc."

There is a local establishment that really wants to sell my honey. They get requests all the time for local honey, and there isn't any.

But the boss lady already warned me that to have her re-sell, she **must** have a copy of MY health inspection certificate. The inspector that checks out their place is a real picky jerk, and she has already run into other issues with him. (Bags of homemade noodles)

So it goes. I'll start at home with word of mouth, and wing it from there. I might have access to a certfied kitchen, so I'll have to see how it goes.

Summer
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top