Colorado’s Cottage Foods Act received a meaningful update this legislative season!
Members of the Alliance’s Food and Local Agriculture committee attended the signing of the newly nicknamed Tamale Act on June 4 in Denver. This bill, which was sponsored by Representative Ryan Gonzalez, Majority Leader Monica Duran, Senator Robert Rodriguez, and Senator Byron Pelton, and signed into law by Governor Jared Polis, allows for the small-scale production of food items for sale directly to consumers. It builds on a framework designed by rural communities, places where local food is grown and shared, and creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to start a business and support their families as they grow into local industry producers.
Our Alliance has worked hard to support efforts that keep food, industry, and money in our local communities, and we have been involved in the creation of the Cottage Foods Act since the very beginning. In 2012, responding to the needs of our West Slope communities, we drafted the legislation that became the original Colorado Cottage Foods Act. Alliance members built strong relationships with local organizations to make sure the final bill supported our local food industries while also protecting consumers’ health, and traveled to Denver to testify in support of the bill’s passage.
The Cottage Foods Act continued to be a priority for the Alliance, and it received its first expansion in 2015. This amendment allowed for the safe production of pickled vegetables, which many small farmers and food providers rely on to preserve the harvest and make a living during the off-season months. The Alliance heard from many affected people during that time, and helped our rural communities connect to legislators and health agencies, and pass the expansion.
Today, our Alliance continues to advocate for local food production, and through our relationships with our community and local food industry leaders, we supported the passage of the Tamale Act this spring. The new version of the Cottage Foods Act allows small food entrepreneurs to cook and sell homemade meals prepared using safe food handling practices. We are grateful for the input of many industry professionals with a lot of experience with small-scale food production, which helped us encourage edits to the bill that keep consumers safe while allowing our communities to grow a local industry that feeds us all.
Thank you to all of the bill’s sponsors for their hard work, and to our members who made their voices heard, got involved in the process, and helped create change that supports local food.
