SPRINGFIELD - If the full Senate approves a committee-passed reform, young baking entrepeneurs like 11-year-old “Cupcake Girl” Chloe Stirling could be back in business.
When the Madison County Health Department shut down Chloe's home baking business in February, it made national headlines and the New York producers of the Rachael Ray talk show offered the family commercial grade kitchen appliances to meet the county's health code. An O'Fallon plumbing, heating and cooling business where her dad works - Spengler Co - said they would provide the materials and labor for the project. Chloe's family expects her to be back in business by the beginning of the summer break.
But what about creative entrepeneurs that want to start up, but whose home kitchens are not in compliance with the state's sanitation code or regulations for cottage-food operations?
House Bill 5354 is an attempt to loosen the regulatory burden on small, home-based food-preparation operations by permitting home-kitchen operations to sell food if they meet certain requirements, including limiting sales to no more than $1,000 a month and notifying the buyer that the food was produced in a home kitchen.
HB 5354 passed the Illinois House unanimously, and an amended version is to be heard in the Senate Public Health committee Tuesday morning. The current Senate co-sponsors are Sen. Donne E. Trotter - Kyle McCarter, James F. Clayborne, Jr. and William R. Haine.
H/T State Senator Mike Connelly's weekly newsletter
