I'm not sure where to post this, as I didn't see an appropriate forum, so please move as needed.

Simple question for commercial roasters: What kinds of licensing and requirements have you run into in order to sell your roasted coffee to commercial entities? I'm looking into (and have been for years) roasting to sell, but here in Florida it doesn't seem like I'm able to find anyone in our government who can tell me what my requirements for licensing is--so maybe there aren't stipulations? Doubtful.

So maybe some of your experience can at least show me what I could expect should I be able to find someone knowledgeable in the licensing department in Florida.

Your best bet is to talk to another local Florida roaster who has had to specifically deal with these issues and would be willing to give you the scoop. As long as you're not going to be competing directly against them in a specific market they probably would be willing to share the info.

There will likely be multiple levels of issues to deal with.
- depending on the local you may come under "cottage industry" rules.
- a business license is likely the start of the paperwork.
- next will be the health department. This has the potential of being the most difficult. It could cover location of the food processing, packaging, separate licensing, training requirements for food handling, storage, etc.
- air quality department also could come into play depending on the location and size of the roasting appliance you are using.

Enjoy!

When I lived in Florida (three years ago) the FL Dept. of Agriculture had primary responsibility for coffee roasters. Start there.

Ryan- what part of Florida are you in?

I was checking in to selling beans at Farmers Markets... you can sell under the Cottage Industry laws but you can't give samples of the brewed coffee with out some type of food permit.