Expert: Carol Schlitt - 12/18/2006

Question
I am starting a business, making cookie dough and selling/distributing it.  How would I be able to do this out of my home?

Answer
Hi Carolyn,

Congratulations on wanting to start a home-based business.

Before you begin manufacturing your product you need to make sure that you can legally set-up a food business in your home.  I'd start with your local health department as they are the agency that would inspect your facility.  In Illinois you would  have to have a separate kitchen from your family kitchen, a 3-compartment sink and a back-flow device on your water supply to prevent raw sewage from coming into your kitchen. You could set this kitchen up in your basement or could rent an inspected kitchen.

You might want to consider renting kitchen space from a community kitchen or incubator kitchen.  Many larger cities have such facilities for small food entrepreneurs that are needing special large-scale equipment but don't have the capital for investing at the beginning of their business. I toured one such facility in Denver this fall and found several small food entrepreneurs using the space at the same time (one making cookies, another burritos.)

A great book on starting your own food business is "From Kitchen to Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty" by Stephen Hall. Also, you might want to check out your state university to see if they have a food entrepreneurial program. One that I've toured and am familiar with is the University of Nebraska Food Entrepreneurial Center http://fpc.unl.edu/Entrepreneur/recipe.shtml  This Center is designed to help small food businesses get off the ground by providing technical assistance in product development and manufacturing.  

Good luck Carolyn. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Happy Holidays.

Carol