WARNING ALL Hobby and small producers read- FDA registration

[buckeye gold]

Back when all this debate over registration started we were told so many different things about FDA registration that it was impossible to decide what to do. Being someone who desires to stay on the legal anad compliant side of things, I registered with the FDA. Then our state Dept.of Agriculture representaive told me to unregister, becasue Hobby and small retailers were exempt. So I did. Two years later (last fall) I get three different phone calls wanting my records and to inspect my opporation. After literally hours of phone conversations I was told I was exempt and procede with season as planned. Today, I get another call and asked for all my sales records and told to re-register. The guy started asking a ton of questions and finally I got pissed and told him to just put me down as "Out Of Business. I told him I would no longer sell syrup and only make for my own personal use and to give away to family. They have officially hassled me into quitting.

PLEASE, if you have never registered and sell less than 50% of your sryup wholesale DO NOT EVER LET THE FDA GET YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION BY REGISTERING. After hanging up with the guy today he calls back later and appologizes, saying he should have never called me that I was indeed exempt. I was already pissed and I told hiim to just leave my satus as "Out of Business". I am serious, after 14 years I am done with the horse **** and I will only make enough for our family this year.

[eagle lake sugar]

People that work in government have to continually find new ways to justify their jobs. Whether it's new regulations, inspections, registrations, etc.

[bmbmkr]

Sorry to hear about what you're goin through. What I learned working for the government in the Air Force for 20 years, was " better to ask forgiveness than permission. I was home on leave when I tapped a few trees just to see if I could make syrup. At the time we already had a pretty successful apiary and were producing honey in NC where i was stationed. I began researching OH laws or Codes as they call em here. At the time I came across the bottling license for anything you made on your farm, from Jelly to honey, maple syrup etc. It was $100 a year license and you had to have refresher training every year, which was another $200, and travel to wherever they had it. After scrolling through hundreds of pages of code, I finally discovered, this was only required if you sold more than $49k of product a year. Obviously you are referencing Federal regulations here, but the bottom line is, there are rules in place because SOMEONE, sometime put time, money or something else in place of health, sanitation, QUALITY, and made someone sick or whatever. I won't go down the rabbit hole of our court & liability systems. Our federal and even local governments are becoming more & more bureaucratic, and they seem to be the ones getting something for nothing while we the people keep getting less and less for all the time, $, and labor we spend making our products.

[Sugar Bear]

Back when all this debate over registration started we were told so many different things about FDA registration that it was impossible to decide what to do. Being someone who desires to stay on the legal anad compliant side of things, I registered with the FDA. Then our state Dept.of Agriculture representaive told me to unregister, becasue Hobby and small retailers were exempt. So I did. Two years later (last fall) I get three different phone calls wanting my records and to inspect my opporation. After literally hours of phone conversations I was told I was exempt and procede with season as planned. Today, I get another call and asked for all my sales records and told to re-register. The guy started asking a ton of questions and finally I got pissed and told him to just put me down as "Out Of Business. I told him I would no longer sell syrup and only make for my own personal use and to give away to family. They have officially hassled me into quitting.

PLEASE, if you have never registered and sell less than 50% of your sryup wholesale DO NOT EVER LET THE FDA GET YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION BY REGISTERING. After hanging up with the guy today he calls back later and appologizes, saying he should have never called me that I was indeed exempt. I was already pissed and I told hiim to just leave my satus as "Out of Business". I am serious, after 14 years I am done with the horse **** and I will only make enough for our family this year.

Two years later when you got the three different phone calls, was that the FDA calling or your state Dept. of Agriculture calling you back with someone other than the original guy from the state Dept. that told you to unregister two years prior.

[buckeye gold]

It was the federal FDA that called both times not state people.

[Sugar Bear]

It was the federal FDA that called both times not state people.

WOWA!

Shouldn't be a surprise, I guess.

We tap trees for fun.

They tap wallets.

Although I would say they are well below the 12" minimum diameter.