How we verify state rules
Cottage Food Path publishes a state or product conclusion only when the reviewed official material supports that exact combination. The goal is not a nationwide answer key. The goal is a narrow, traceable answer that can be checked and corrected.
1. Start with a specific claim
The review begins with one claim, not a general topic. The claim names the state, the product category, the sales context, and the conditions attached to the rule. “Ohio allows candy” is a different claim from “Ohio allows every candy recipe,” “Ohio allows candy through every sales channel,” or “Ohio allows candy to be shipped out of state.” Each boundary is reviewed separately so a narrow answer is not stretched into a broader one.
2. Collect primary evidence
The evidence set uses primary material: statutes, administrative rules, regulator pages, official product lists, and government-published guidance. A blog, forum post, social video, or search snippet can help find a source, but it is not the basis for a published conclusion. The source record keeps the publisher, title, URL, access date, and the minimum excerpt needed to support the claim.
3. Review the claim against the evidence
The reviewer checks whether the official material actually supports the proposed claim, including the conditions and exclusions. A category name in a list is not enough when the rule also attaches a process, ingredient, packaging, label, or sales-channel condition. If the source is silent, ambiguous, or contradictory, the result is “not verified” rather than an optimistic guess.
Cottage Food Path uses automated checks to compare a proposed claim with the supplied official material and to flag uncertainty. The automation is a routing aid, not an authority. It does not create a legal conclusion, replace the official source, or remove the need for editorial judgment.
4. Human review and publication limits
Claims that are unresolved, contradictory, or dependent on a local jurisdiction go to a human review queue. Label wording, type size, local market rules, and novel recipes are common examples. A page is published only for the reviewed combination. Preview pages remain available for research, but they are marked as previews and do not carry the same publication status.
5. Why coverage is narrow
State food rules are specific and can change. Publishing a national matrix from a handful of summaries would create false confidence and a large correction burden. A narrow release makes the evidence easier to inspect and the limits easier to explain. It also keeps the site from turning a product-category screen into a permit, a recipe approval, or a label certification.
6. Review dates and corrections
Every published page records a review date and a next-review date. A date is a research timestamp, not a promise that the rule will never change. If a source changes or a reader identifies a material error, the affected conclusion is downgraded first, then checked against the current official material, corrected, and re-dated. The public corrections and review log records material changes.
7. What this site does not do
- It does not issue permits, licenses, or registrations.
- It does not inspect a kitchen, recipe, process, or label.
- It does not provide legal, tax, insurance, or food-safety advice.
- It does not guarantee that a product may be sold.
- It does not replace the current regulator page or local requirements.
8. How to use the site responsibly
Use the published guide to identify the right questions, then open the linked official source and confirm the answer for your exact recipe, process, label, and sales channel. If the official source conflicts with this site, the official source controls. If you find a conflict, send the page URL, the exact claim, the source, and the access date to hello@cottagefoodpath.com.