Nebraska is doubling down on food freedom with recently passed legislation. This year, the state enacted LB 262, part of which removed the requirement that home bakers in the state register with their local health departments to sell their goods. This bill was a great capstone to an IJ lawsuit which challenged Lincoln, Nebraska’s permitting requirements in 2020.

The fight for food freedom in Nebraska scored its first major victory in 2019, when a major cottage food bill, LB 304, was enacted thanks in part to testimony from Cindy Harper, a home baker in Lincoln. With this law, Nebraska joined the vast majority of states that allow individuals to sell shelf-stable foods (such as cookies, breads, and jams) from home. Specifically, this law exempted those who sell shelf-stable goods from home from having to satisfy the same burdensome permitting and inspection requirements that apply to restaurants. Cindy promptly registered as a home baker under LB 304 with plans to launch her own home-baking business.

But within months, the city of Lincoln went rogue by imposing—at the local level—the same permitting and inspection requirements on home bakers that LB 304 lifted at the state level. Lincoln’s ordinance was a solution in search of a problem: home-baked goods are just as safe in Lincoln as they are in the rest of Nebraska. So in May 2020, Cindy fought back, filing a lawsuit with the Institute for Justice to have Lincoln’s ordinance declared preempted and unconstitutional.

The city initially tried to get Cindy’s case dismissed—but a state trial court rejected that motion, pointing out the obvious “tension” between the ordinance and LB 304. Sensing that the writing was on the wall, the city amended its permitting and inspection requirements to eliminate the conflict with state law. Cindy was free to sell her delicious home-baked goods free from the burdens of Lincoln’s unnecessary regulations.

Now, with the passage of LB 262, no city in Nebraska will be able to impose the type of requirements Lincoln tried to impose on home bakers. Cindy praised the new bill saying, “The expansion of the cottage food law means new opportunity for Nebraska home bakers. And the elimination of the unnecessary registration requirements puts us on an equal footing with home bakers who live outside of the city but sell their products in Lincoln.”

IJ is continuing its work expanding food freedom throughout the nation. IJ is currently challenging a ban on certain homemade food sales in Wisconsin. Nebraska was not alone in enacting legislation to expand food freedom this year. Arizona, Hawaii, and New Hampshire also enacted new bills to allow more cottage food sales.