Cottage Food Workshops

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The WSDA Cottage Food Operation Program has been up and running now since 2012 and WSDA's Liz Beckman says there has been great interest in the program, so much so that they are providing workshops where WSDA representatives have one-on-ones with applicants who may need help completing their application.

BECKMAN: We do a quick review of their application - let them know, yes you're on the right track and you can submit, or here are some things you need to work on.

Beckman says many times those few things they need to work on involve labeling revisions.

BECKMAN: For instance not providing sub-ingredients to their ingredients, all of those other things need to be listed on the label. And the allergens - making sure that people are consistent with their ingredients and knowing that, if they're going to use a different brand than what they usually use, they have to put their allergens down. That's probably one of the biggest factors right there, is making sure that the allergen information is listed.

The next workshop is April 2 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Natural Resources Building in Olympia. For more information and to register for the workshop visit WSDA's website.

BECKMAN: If you can't make the workshop and you want a little bit of help just call one of our reviewers and we can set up meetings to either come into the office, meet you at like a regional library; we're all about trying to help the applicants complete their applications without us having to send it back for additional review.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.