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A food fight is brewing in Arizona.
Sandy Boyce and her husband had long won praise from satisfied customers for their homemade sauerkraut, which they sold at farmers' markets in Sedona, Arizona, where they live. Boyce’s sauerkraut was always a hit with the residents in her area, usually selling out within a week. In 2009, however, Boyce, the director of the nonprofit Verde Valley Community Supported Agriculture, decided to end selling her specialty. The reason? The health department’s regulations.
Specifically, it was required of Boyle to have her product tested, to obtain a food processing license, and to make her product in a certified commercial kitchen, regulations that Boyce found too onerous financially for her to continue having her product available to the public. Boyce estimated that it would cost over $700 in additional costs if she factored in all the requirements.
"When you sell it for $6 a pint, that's a lot of sauerkraut," she told foodsafetynews.com.
Restrictions on “cottage foods,” the official term that includes home-made sauerkrauts, have seriously hamstrung small-time home producers like Boyce in recent years. The disjoint is a sore issue between the state and local governments out to safeguard public health against foodborne pathogens, and those who believe that the government's job precludes dictating what they eat.
For her stance, Boyce belongs solidly to the growing food freedom movement that is decidedly anticorporate in its voice and actions toward the food industry. The disagreement between the two factions has no resolution in sight.
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