{"id":179,"date":"2024-10-10T11:42:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T15:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/foodsafety-draft\/?page_id=179"},"modified":"2025-01-22T10:06:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T15:06:49","slug":"selling","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/foodsafety\/farming\/selling\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selling or Donating Commercially Grown Produce in Rhode Island<\/h1>

Licensure, Permits, Certifications, and More<\/p><\/div><\/div>

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Apply site-wide<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n

Compliance with Local and Federal Requirements for Commercial Farms<\/strong>
Use the information below to identify specific compliance needs for your farm. Requirements vary by state; if you’re expanding across state lines, check with each relevant state for market access regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Counts as \u201cProcessing\u201d vs. Farming Activities?<\/strong>
Many farm activities, like growing, harvesting, packing, and holding produce, don\u2019t typically require additional licensing. However, once produce is changed from its raw agricultural state, compliance with additional state and federal regulations as a food processor<\/em> may be required. The RI Department of Health has issued new guidance (July 2022) titled Food Processing: Guidance for RI State and Federal Regulatory Requirements<\/a><\/em>. This document details processing activities that require proper licensing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activities Considered Processing Include<\/strong>;
Juicing, freezing (including whole produce), drying that creates a distinct commodity (drying herbs or producing raisins is considered a “farm” activity, not a process), cutting (e.g., chopping lettuce heads into a salad mix), coring (with the exception of removing the cord from lettuce in the field), grinding\/milling, cooking, irradiation, canning, fermentation, coating (beyond wax, oil or resin), artificial ripening, pasteurizing\/homogenizing, infusing, distilling, removing kernels (e.g., popcorn), salting, seeding for a food produce (e.g. roasted pumpkin seeds) and smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvesting vs. Processing<\/strong>
Standard harvesting activities like washing, cooling, ambient drying, curing, and removing stems, husks, or roots are not<\/em> considered processing. These can be performed on the farm without additional licensing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is needed to sell whole, uncut produce?<\/strong>
All farms that grow, harvest, pack or hold produce must <\/strong>register their farm with RIDEM<\/a>. In addition, you may need a 3rd party audit such as RIGAP certification or compliance with the FSMA Produce Safety Rule, depending on your buyer. Additional requirements may be needed so sell whole, uncut produce such as;<\/p>\n\n\n\n