Bakers: Cottage Food Bill Unfair

When you bake hundreds of laves of bread a day for commercial clients you don't worry much about competition from at-home bakers even .

Competition is a larger concern among smaller boutique bakers in West Ashley, but what has them worried is the health and safety of consumers, and the perceived double standard in the bills that will allow at-home bakers to avoid S.C. DHEC inspections and various other costs and fees associated with running a business.

"Wednesday, we will have been in business for 24 years, and we've always had the proper licenses and paid all our taxes and fees," said Eileen Ferri of . "[At-home bakers] don't have the overhead or the licenses or fees, they don't have to have an approved kitchen; in that respect it's not fair."

With Ashley Bakery's large client base including several wholsale customers, Ferri is not worried about at-home bakers putting her out of business, though she thinks the $15,000 per year cap on income from at-home baking included in the bills is arbitrary.

According to the bills up for consideration, at-home bakers would not be required to have a DHEC certified kitchen, and all of the product they sell must include a sticker noting that. They must also include a sticker with all of the ingredients in the product and the home address of the baker. The legislation caps the gross income from at-home baking at $15,000 per year. Similar legislation has passed first read in both the S.C. House and Senate.

Ferri is not alone in opposing the bills.

"I would never bake in my house, I have three cats, there'd be hair everywhere," said Allison Galentine, a baker at . "I think you should be in a clean, sterile kitchen."

Galentine said allowing at-home bakers to legally sell in the marketplace would probably increase competition for smaller boutique bakeries like The Charleston Bakery, which specializes in small orders, rather than wholesale or commercial orders.

Galentine and Ferri said the lack of overhead at-home bakers have compared to retail bakeries that have employees, business licenses, insurance costs, rent and myriad other expenses, gives at-home bakers a competitive advantage on pricing their final products.

"I definitely think they should have a DHEC certified kitchen," Galentine said. "You never know what people are doing. This goes against the whole purpose of having health regulations."

"If someone is selling a product to the public I think it should be regulated," Ferri added.

Not everyone is as opposed to the proposed law though.

Brenda Throckmorton, owner of said she can see both sides of the issue.

"I did baking out of my home in Ohio for 12 years before buying this business," Throckmorton said. "So I kind of like it, but it is competition."

Throckmorton has owned SweetSmith since June, and has a background as a food scientist. She said she can see the difference between a retail bakery and an at-home baker and isn't very concerned with the lack of requirements for at-home bakers under the bills.

"I can see the need for an inspection requirements, but maybe one that's not as tough as the one for a commercial kitchen," she said.

For it's part the Southern Retail Bakers Association has come out against the bills and sent a letter to Sen. Shane Massey, who introduced the Cottage Food Bill in the S.C. Senate laying out the association's concerns with the bills as written.