Last week the City of Plano Health Department posted the above video on its YouTube page, "informing" citizens about or the "Cottage Food Bill" that went into effect on September 1. Under the bill, Texans can make and sell certain non-potential hazardous baked goods in their home. The bill requires that all packages be labeled with a disclosure that the item was baked in a home kitchen that was not inspected. Sales are not allowed to take place through a store or via the Internet, creating a true face-to-face transaction in which the buyer interacts directly with the seller.
In essence, this bill allows stay-at-home moms and dads to sell cookies or brownies to make a few extra bucks. And with the labeling requirement, it takes on an aspect of "buyer beware."
But the city of Plano doesn't seem convinced.
In the new two-minute public service announcement, Keith Clark with the Plano Health Department explains how it "allows people to prepare food like breads, cookies and baked goods, and they can do this out of their house, but there's a special aspect to it, that is they are not inspected, they are not inspected by the local healthy authority, and in Plano that would be your Plano Health Department."
You know, just in case it wasn't clear when you called the person on the phone and placed your order, then drove to their house and knocked on their door (the door attached to their house), and picked up a cake that had a label on it that read "this was made in a home kitchen that was not inspected by a health department."
In the video itself, a woman with long hair (not tied back) cooks a pumpkin pie (not allowed to sell under the rules of SB 81) in her own kitchen, wearing a large flowing brown sweater. It also shows the alternative: a car drives up to a drive-thru window, where a young lady with her tidy hair pulled back leans out the window and hands a package to a happy driver, all while wearing a white chefs coat.
See how sanitary fast food is!
The message seems to be: National chains kick ass, and Betty baking a pie could be the end of cleanliness as we know it. Interesting use of city resources, Plano.
