Arlington, Va.—Oklahoma’s home food entrepreneurs will see their opportunities expanded under a new law that allows them to increase their annual sales. On May 5, HB 3720, the Local Food Freedom Act, was signed into law by Gov. Stitt. The, Sponsored by Rep. Hall and Sen. Hines, HB 3720 significantly raises the gross annual sales of homemade food threshold from $75,000 to $250,000 and eliminates other regulatory barriers that prevent small-scale food entrepreneurs from starting businesses to sell locally made food.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), a national leader in helping expand entry-level opportunities for entrepreneurship, applauds the signing.
“The Local Food Freedom Act allows people to start small businesses without having to build or rent a state-licensed commercial kitchen, which is often cost-prohibitive for many entrepreneurs who are just starting out,” said Meagan Forbes, Director of Legislation at IJ. “This law expands opportunities for food makers in the state and gives consumers greater choice in the local foods that they eat.”
The bill also allows shelf-stable food sales and direct-to-consumer perishable food sales of up to $250,000 in gross annual sales without a food establishment license, if the food meets certain conditions and is appropriately labeled so consumers know it was made in a facility that is not licensed. The new law does not apply to restaurants.
Across the country, overly restrictive regulations are making it harder for food entrepreneurs to earn a living and serve their communities. Since 2013, IJ has been at the forefront of the fight for the rights of food entrepreneurs and consumers against these needless restrictions. IJ’s National Food Freedom Initiative works to eliminate restrictions preventing people from selling homemade food.
Research conducted by IJ shows that homemade foods are resoundingly safe. IJ contacted the seven states with the broadest homemade food laws (California, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming) to request data on the number of complaints and confirmed cases of foodborne illness that could be traced to a food product sold under states’ homemade food laws. Each of these states’ homemade food laws allow the sale of not just shelf-stable foods (like breads, cakes, and jams), but also perishable foods (like tamales, pizza, chicken sandwiches, and various cultural street foods). The results showed that not a single state has found a foodborne illness to be caused by food sold under its homemade food law. This was true even though some of the states, like Wyoming, have had laws in place for almost a decade.
IJ’s National Food Freedom Initiative is a nationwide campaign that brings a variety of legal challenges and legislative efforts to laws that interfere with the ability of people to buy, sell, grow or advertise different foods. As the nation’s leading experts on home kitchen laws, IJ has helped change the law in more than 20 states.
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To arrange interviews on this subject, journalists may contact Phillip Suderman, IJ’s Communications Project Manager, at [email protected] or (850) 376-4110. More information on the case is available at: https://ij.org/issues/economic-liberty/homemade-food/