Home foods webinar now in Purdue's Education Store

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A webinar that instructs food entrepreneurs on how to follow regulations for home-based vendors is available at Purdue Extension's The Education Store.

The three-part webinar titled "Cooking Up a Food Business in the Home Kitchen" addresses how to comply with a 2009 law allowing home-based vendors to sell nonpotentially hazardous foods to the public at farmers markets and roadside stands. It also explains the science of foods and details sanitation practices. Each part includes a question-and-answer section.

"Because we've seen such an interest in farmers markets, entrepreneurs need to really think about the liability that they are taking on by producing foods in their home" said Katie Clayton, a Purdue Extension outreach specialist in food science.

The webinar is beneficial to people interested in becoming home-based vendors as well as to current vendors who might want to make sure they are complying with state regulations.

"After you watch the webinar, you'll have a greater understanding of how to make foods safely and legally because if you don't prepare food properly, you can have bacterial growth and make people sick," Clayton said. "If someone has a depressed immune system, foodborne illness could lead to death, and if it is a product you made and it is traced back to you, that's a big deal."

The Education Store is a website where Purdue Extension publications are made available to the public. 

A single part of the three-part webinar is $8, and the entire series is available for $20. The webinar can be accessed at any time with no additional fee. A portion of the money from the webinar will support future education programs similar to "Cooking Up a Food Business in the Home Kitchen."

"The beauty of a webinar is that the material is accessible at any point in time," Clayton said. "You just open it up, log in, and sit back and enjoy."

Clayton suggests downloading the documents and PowerPoint presentations from the little screens within the recording, called pods, for taking notes while listening to the webinar.

The webinar is available at https://mdc.itap.purdue.edu/item.asp?itemID=21029#.UZ0z_uBk4Rk

Writer: Hannah Harper, 765-494-8402, harper4@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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