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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Farmers' Market Question
  • Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 21:47:14 -0400


On May 20, 2006, at 7:47 PM, Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:

I'm the market manager of our new Farmers' Market. What happens if someone
brings baked goods or other processed foods without the proper
inspections/certifications? Our by-laws say it is the vendor's
responsibility to make sure they are 'legal', but will it become my
problem if the inspector comes by and they aren't legal?


This may to some extent be a state by state and even county by county question. New York State sends incognito inspectors to check. They can shut down a vendor. I haven't heard of them shutting down a whole market, but if there were repeated and/or multiple violations by vendor(s) and the market management had done nothing to stop this, I think it could happen.

At the market I go to there were vendors one year with a variety of products including some baked goods with cheese in them, which they didn't refrigerate. (Not all baked goods need to be refrigerated, it depends on the ingredients.) NYS found out and they had to stop selling those products. They did stop selling them, and there were no further repercussions that I know of; but I believe the manager kept an eye out that they didn't sell those products again.

There was a different vendor one year who took FMNP coupons for cider, which isn't eligible for that program. The vendor and the market both got warning letters. We were told that as long as he didn't do it again, and as long as the market discussed it with him (which we did), there would be no repercussions; but the whole market can lose the right to use the coupons if a vendor persistently violates the regulations and the market doesn't stop that vendor.

Another concern: if somebody gets sick from improperly processed or refrigerated food, they might well sue the whole market, not just the one vendor. You wouldn't be likely to get a warning letter first, just the lawsuit.

Your by-laws should authorize the market manager to require a copy of any inspection certificates, etc., that are legally required, and to refuse to let the vendor sell any products that require inspection/certification but don't have this. The manager needs to have a good general idea of what the regulations are; your state probably has an office that will provide you with a list of likely farmers' market products that do or don't need inspected kitchens, refrigeration, etc; as well as their regulations on scales, measures, information needed on labels and what needs to be labeled, what if anything needs to have sales tax collected, and so on.

If the bylaws just say it's the vendor's responsibility, but don't give the manager any enforcement power, then I don't know what you do. But I don't know whether your state, or your courts, will let the market as an organization be held harmless on the grounds that the bylaws just say it's the vendor's problem. I am definitely not a lawyer, but you might want to consult one if that's the situation.

Some of the regulations make sense (would you really want someone, for instance, selling unrefrigerated meat at a hot weather market? or low acid canned foods if they didn't know what they were doing?) Some of them, in my opinion, make no sense whatsoever. They're also going to vary from state to state: both the regulations and the amount of enforcement. Degree of enforcement can also vary from county to county, in some cases, as some types of things are inspected at the county level.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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