Cottage Food Q& A

A: No. Use of eggs, whether pasteurized or not must be in a cooked product to be allowed as a cottage food product. According to the USDA, there is still food safety risks with uncooked pasteurized eggs products especially if served to high-risk persons - infants and young children, pregnant women and their unborn babies, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems (such as those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and transplant patients). Raw flour is another ingredient that is a food safe risk and often used as an ingredient in raw cookie dough. Use commercial heat-treated or treated flour for cottage food products that will be eaten without a cook step. See previous  post . You could also substitute oatmeal or oat flour which is a good replacement for flour and not dangerous to eat raw. 

A: Olives and cheese vary in acidity and water activity levels. Adding green or black olives or cheese to a yeast or quick bread may change the product from a nonpotentially hazardous food to a potentially hazardous food requiring refrigeration for food safety. Test these products for both water activity and pH to verify non-potentially hazardous status by a commercial lab. If the test results have a pH ≤ 4.6 or water activity ≤0 .85 then it is legal cottage food product. As a reminder, these ingredients must be added before baking and cannot be added as a topping after baking.