When farmers markets begin opening across the state in the coming months, some homemade food items will be able to be sold legally for the first time.
Until now, the state’s Department of Health restricted farmers markets from selling so called value added items, such as baked goods, candy, fruit butter, jams and jellies, to only those foods prepared in a permitted kitchen.
The change comes with the passage of the “cottage food” law, which the governor signed Feb. 18, that exempts those homemade products from Health Department oversight.
Arkansas farmers markets are regulated by the departments of Health and Agriculture. There are about 75 farmers markets operating in the state, according to state agriculture officials.
At today’s annual Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center, state officials will explain the law to attendees.
“Overall, this is the biggest thing to happen in years for our farmers markets,” Jody Hardin, a niche farmer from Grady and president of the Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association, said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “It puts more money in the farmer’s pocket and it gives them the opportunity to do value-added products.”
Jean Jones, the former association president and market manager for the Old Time Farmers Market in Texarkana, said the group has pushed for this exemption since its formation in 2005.
As many as three additional “cottage food” vendors will likely sell those kinds of exempted products when the Old Time Farmers Market opens in April, Jones said. About 26 producers participate in the border city’s market, which can attract upwards of 150 people on a peak day.
The cottage food industry in Arkansas can be defined as someone baking breads, cakes or pies, for example, in his home and then selling those items from his home or farm, said Robert Brech, an attorney with the state Department of Health.
He added that farmers markets, municipalities or counties can have more restrictive cottage-food product laws.
Teresa Bullock, a Health Department official in charge of food protection, said the state did not have an estimated number of cottage food producers that were using licensed commercial kitchens. But, from her field experience in Benton County, Bullock said there were not many.
Some in the farmers market community have grumbled about the current regulation. Difficulties finding available commercial kitchens and the expense to build one, which has been estimated at about $25,000, have been cited as reasons for reducing the restrictions. Bullock said food safety laws are still valid and a potential vendor should request a copy of the state’s retail food-service regulations from his county department of health.
Patrice Gross, market manager at the Eureka Springs farmers market, said because of the many regulations placed on value-added products, farmers markets in America were “one-dimensional.”
“It’s a partial food experience as opposed to being a full-on food experience that you would find in a French or Italian farmers market,” said Gross, a native Frenchman.
Gross said he liked the intent of the law. And he will continue to envision farmers markets as being self-regulating entities that attract value added product vendors to create a European-style market experience centered on the pride of its local producers.
“Food to the French is a sort of like a religion,” he said. “It’s all about where it’s done and who did it.”
Local production remains a concern for some market managers under the new law.
Health Department officials say those concerns will be addressed through the law’s labeling requirement that will help track a producer in the event of a food borne illness.
The Health Department’s Bullock said the kind of food being allowed for sale is not considered to be food that can support bacteria causing food-borne illnesses.
“These are products that will not grow the things that will make you sick, even if it’s made in a nasty kitchen,” she said.
Business, Pages 27 on 02/25/2011