Home cooking: NJ law would allow bakers to sell homemade goods

SOMERVILLE – State Sen. Kip Bateman, R-16th District, wants home bakers to make a lot of dough, both literally and figuratively.

Bateman is pushing legislation that would remove New Jersey's status as the only state in the union that doesn't allow the sale of cookies, cakes and pastries made by home bakers.

Forty-nine other states allow the sale of goods made by home bakers. Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Bateman lifting the ban here has passed the Assembly several times but remains stalled in the state Senate.

“This continued prohibition of the sale of home baked goods is another example of Trenton using its muscle to control people’s lives,” Bateman said in a statement. “Every other state recognizes that folks aren’t going to keel over dead from cupcakes prepared in a home kitchen. New Jersey should stop being a roadblock that prevents home bakers from using their talents to supplement their family income.”

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While other states have loosened laws to allow home bakers to sell their creations, New Jersey has yet to follow suit. The law does exempt baked goods that are not "potentially hazardous" and are either served or sold at a function such as religious or charitable organization's bake sale. That exemption comes with the condition that consumers are "informed by a clearly visible placard that the food is prepared in a kitchen that is not subject to regulation and inspection by the health authority."

That prompted the New Jersey Home Bakers Association and three home bakers to file suit against the state Department of Health, calling the ban "arbitrary, irrational, unreasonable and oppressive."

The suit argues that the ban "serves no public health or safety objective."

The suit also contends "there is no substantial distinction between those who wish to sell not-potentially hazardous homemade foods, including baked goods, for profit more harshly than those selling the same exact foods for a church, charity or other nonprofit."

In fact, the suit argues, the home-baked goods "are just as safe, if not safer" than those made in commercial kitchens.

The suit, which was filed in December 2017, is slowly making its way through the court system and is still in the discovery phase before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd.

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One of the home bakers who filed the suit is Fanwood resident Martha Rabello, who creates Brazilian-inspired cookies. Before moving to New Jersey, she worked at a bakery in Brooklyn and after moving to New Jersey, she rented a commercial-grade kitchen, at $35 an hour, to bake the cookies, which she sold wholesale to other bakeries.

But renting a kitchen, the lawsuit says, became "difficult, expensive and inconvenient" and when she had two sons. she became a stay-at-home mother.

But she wants to supplement her husband's income with baking at home and estimated she could make $5,000 a year. But while she can bake for her family or a religious or charitable cause, she needs a retail food establishment license or face hefty fines. 

That’s why she helped start the New Jersey Home Bakers Association in 2016 and has vigorously lobbied for the passage of the legislation.

“Home bakers can donate cookies and pies to be sold at fundraisers. There’s no reason to interfere with their right to start a side hustle and earn some extra money,” said Bateman. “It’s the American dream, fresh from the oven.”

The bill has passed the Assembly several times but remains blocked state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-19th District, who has not allowed his committee to vote on the bill.

“I’m just trying to do this the right way,” Vitale previously told the Associated Press. “If these were individuals who are trying to be entrepreneurial, I’m just trying to make sure the public is protected.”

The legislation would approve the sale of fresh baked goods from private kitchens at farm stands, farmers’ markets, fairs, festivals and events.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com