A smoothie is a drink made from fruit, yogurt and juice, and it needs to stay cold, two things cottage food laws are wary of. Michigan excludes beverages and food that needs temperature control; Minnesota excludes potentially hazardous food; California's approved list has no drinks beyond roasted coffee and dried tea. North Dakota allows food that needs refrigeration if it's labeled and kept frozen, which fits frozen smoothie packs, fruit and greens bagged to blend at home. Blended smoothies poured for customers are a food service business, with a permit. In the example below, a North Dakota maker sells frozen packs to gym members.
The short version
- Smoothies are drinks that need refrigeration: most cottage food laws exclude them.
- Michigan excludes beverages; Minnesota and California don't include them.
- North Dakota: frozen, labeled smoothie packs, direct to the customer.
- Smoothies blended to order are food service: a permit and a licensed setup.
- Yogurt and milk bring dairy rules.
- Bottled smoothies sold to shops bring FDA's juice rules.
- TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot. More below.
Smoothies, state by state
| Product | Michigan | Minnesota | North Dakota | California |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blended smoothie, poured to order | No: beverages are excluded | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
| Frozen smoothie pack, fruit and greens | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
| Bottled yogurt smoothie | No: milk products are excluded | No: potentially hazardous | Dairy has its own rules | No: not on the list |
A smoothie cart's year is in smoothie business plan, and why bottles sold to shops bring the juice rule in how to package smoothies for sale.
The rules
| State | Rule |
|---|---|
| Michigan | Food that isn't time/temperature control for safety, including jams, candy, dried fruit, granola, dry mixes, vinegar, dried herbs and baked goods; not meat or poultry, milk products, beverages, salsa, or canned foods other than standardized jams (MCL 289.1105(k)); prepackaged, labeled with the home kitchen statement, sold straight to the consumer (MCL 289.4102) |
| Minnesota | Food that isn't potentially hazardous, and home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruits at pH 4.6 or lower or water activity 0.85 or less; registration every year and approved food safety training (Minn. Stat. 28A.152) |
| North Dakota | No state license for cottage food sold directly to an informed end consumer; foods that need refrigeration labeled with safe handling instructions and as transported and maintained frozen; no uninspected meat, poultry only from the seller's own birds (N.D.C.C. 23-09.5-02) |
| California | Cottage foods are nonpotentially hazardous foods on the approved list, among them baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, candy, chocolate-covered nonperishables, dried fruit, dried pasta, granola, herb blends, honey, standardized jams, nut butters, popcorn, vinegar and mustard, roasted coffee and dried tea (HSC 114365.5); Class A sells directly, Class B also through shops and restaurants (HSC 113758) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: frozen packs for a gym
Missouri Slope Blends, a made-up home smoothie maker in Mandan, North Dakota, sells frozen smoothie packs, mango and spinach, berry and banana, to members of a gym who order online and pick up from the owner. The packs are bagged, frozen, labeled as kept frozen with safe handling instructions, and handed over frozen. The gym asked to sell the packs from its own freezer; North Dakota's cottage food sales go straight to the customer, so the owner keeps the pickups. Blended smoothies at a market would take a permit and a licensed setup, in temporary food permit.
Get the checker
Download the home smoothie checker. Two sheets: your products, whether each needs refrigeration, is meat or poultry, a milk product, a canned food other than jam, or a drink, and whether it's on California's list; how Michigan's, Minnesota's, North Dakota's and California's cottage food laws treat it fill in; and each state's rules as read for this article. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The rules decide what can be sold. Weekly orders, four flavors frozen on different days, and a freezer that's full by Thursday are where the oldest packs get missed.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot, and what each pack costs.
Orders. Each customer's order goes in for its pickup or market day, with a picking list.
Each batch a lot. A batch of packs is a batch from its recipe, with its date and lot, and the lot goes on each order it fills.
True cost. Each pack is costed from its recipe and the batch, at what the ingredients actually cost.
| The job | Paper | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets what on market day | Order sheets | Orders by day |
| Which batch went to which customer | Not recorded | Lots on each order |
| What a pack costs | A guess | True cost from the recipe and batch |
Orders, recipes and batches are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.