Rules governing the honey business are like any other business. You’ll need to get a permit before you buy a single bee, for example. Check with your local governing bodies to apply for permits to harvest, bottle, and sell honey.
You do need to get your hives registered. Also, some states do not allow the honey to be bottled in the kitchen. With this in mind, before starting your honey business, you must check with all the respective agencies to ensure you get the right licenses and permits.
Some jurisdictions have licensing standards and regular inspections if you want the honey to be collected, bottled, and sold. A few areas under their cottage food laws allow for honey sales. Zoning standards can also apply. Your homeowner’s association may also have laws.
In addition to retail, beekeepers wishing to sell honey from the wholesale or over the Internet must meet the criteria of these entities—food and drug administration, health care agency, if necessary homeowners’ association.
FDA regulations
Regulations of the Food and Drug Administration allow certain honey producers to register their facilities, meet existing good manufacturing practices, and provide nutritional labeling on their products.
Registration as an FDA food facility is only necessary for producers who sell honey wholesale and participate in interstate trade. It is not needed for those who sell honey directly to customers who are not going to reuse the honey for use in any other products.
Registration is not subject to a fee, but filings are mandated by law. The goal is for the FDA to be able to contact companies for food alerts.
Good manufacturing practices (GMPs) include training, audits, documentation, and evaluation but also safety for buildings, equipment, production, and processes.
Food must carry FDA nutrition markings unless it is manufactured by firms with fewer than ten full-time equivalent workers and sold less than 10,000 units of that product in the preceding 12 months.
The voluntary but recommended label warns against feeding honey to children less than one year of age. The widely used statement reads: “Do not feed honey to babies under the age of 1.” The information is given as certain children under the age of 1 after eating honey may contract infant botulism.
Department of Health Services
If exempted as a small honey producer, a business wishing to produce and sell honey must obtain a license to produce food, comply with labeling standards, and observe GMPs.
The food-producing license of a jurisdiction allows producers to sell and distribute honey through retail, wholesale, and internet sites so long as they mark it with the manufacturer’s name.
Local Health Departments and Homeowner Regulations
Beekeepers will also consult with the local health department, which may also grant a license or permit for this kind of operation. This does not apply only to small operations in the processing of honey — only to those seeking a license for a food manufacturer. Besides, some homeowner groups are forbidding the production of food in the neighborhood.
If the transaction is an in-person, face-to-face interaction, you can sell raw honey directly to the end-user without a permit to sell straight to customers. It includes at your home, farmers’ market, or fairs.
You can also sell raw honey without a license at your store if it is the only food commodity you sell. You can only sell exempt products that do not need a license, such as non-potentially dangerous commercially prepackaged foods.
When the product is sold to another company and then sells it to the customer, you will need a wholesale food license. A license to wholesale food is acquired by completing a form of wholesale food inspection and license application with your local health care provider.
Registration Verification Certificate
If you intend to sell your honey to other businesses, such as convenience stores and health food stores, you’ll need to register with the department of agriculture and have your honey house inspected and approved. A home or home kitchen is not an authorized facility. You must apply for a registration verification certificate (RVC), and you can use a Shared Honey House registered with the Department of Agriculture, or your licensed facility.
Common questions about a business license needed to sell honey
How should you label your honey?
Honey sold in containers shall be marked with the product’s name, contact information, and net weight. You should call the product “honey” unless there are added ingredients or flavors. It must be stated in the name of the product when adding flavor.
The name must indicate that the product is a mixture of honey and that sweetener when sugar or other sweetener is added. Unless there is something added to the honey, you’ll have a list of ingredients listing the things from most significant to least. Additional labeling criteria apply if any additives are added to the honey.
If you sell honey directly from your house, does the container need a label?
Whether or not the honey is sold from home, a market, or elsewhere, there must be a label on every food product. Also, if the food is given or traded, it always needs a label.
The address on the label must have the business address where the corporate office does paperwork, which is wherever the bills are received. If the company advertises in a local phone book, it may use the address in the phone book, or a P.O. Box affiliated with the business.
What are the Requirements to Apply for Exemption from Registration?
Beekeepers may apply for exemptions from facility inspections and registrations when they only plan to sell directly to the end consumer. Such buyers include farmers’ markets and flea markets, which produce no more than 400 gallons (4,800 lbs) of honey per year. Honey sold to the public would need to be adequately labeled.
Conclusion
Laws vary from one jurisdiction to the next. Most territories look for bottle labels with a name and contact details such as phone number or location and the quantity. Exemptions include the manner of sale and who is the end consumer as well as the annual quantity of production.