Buying homemade internet food...............................

Hmmm, didn’t realize this was a thing. There is someone in my distant network who bakes on the side, and she specializes in macarons. In particular, she makes really interesting Asian dessert flavored macarons (think black sesame, green tea, etc). I ordered them, after a friend posted how delicious they were. I’d have no problems with ordering again from her again and they were really good.

I don’t think I would buy a meal though. Hard when you can barely make out what the ingredients are in those pictures.

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There is a ton of that stuff on FB. I don’t know how they get by the licensing requirements. In NJ it is absolutely illegal to sell food from an unlicensed kitchen. & only commercial kitchens can be licensed. Apparently FB has no requirement that you give a license # to post an ad like that.

We have a cottage food law here, and it only applies to baked goods and otherwise low-hazard foods. It’s still illegal to make hot entrees for sale out of a home kitchen.
https://agr.wa.gov/foodanimal/cottagefoodoperation/default.aspx

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The bags are very ‘developing nations’. I’ve had snacks and beverages served in plastic bags in SE Asia.

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No for me and off topic but this reminds me of this woman who was asking people to donate breastmilk to her premature baby last year in a local mom group on facebook. I donated because I had some frozen and I knew my milk was safe. But it did stick with me. How did this woman know that I had properly stored the milk or that I am not on any drugs (prescription or not) that could get into the milk? I was even surprised that the hospital didn’t reject it either since the baby was still there while this was all going on. The story ends fine and the baby is healthy but still just made me think…

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My guess was she represented it as her own.

I think donated breast milk is pasteurized though I have no idea how effective that is in terms of removing everything that may harm the baby. Edit: sorry I didn’t see this was a person-to-person donation so this probably isn’t relevant.

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There are milk donation services that do a full screening but this was not through any organization. I believe you are correct about pasteurization if the milk went through a donation bank service. I looked into it briefly last year.

Edit to say I saw your edit! Haha

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That’s very probably illegal

And NO. I would never buy that food.

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I used to buy homemade food from neighbors in previous neighborhoods I lived in, because I knew them and had been inside their kitchens myself. To me this was the same as buying from a church supper where you can see everybody cooking. I would never buy home prepared food over the internet. How do you know the picture bears any relation to what they’re selling, for one thing. I don’t even like ordering restaurant delivery for that matter - the most I’ll do is call in an order to go pick up. I like to see the food beforehand.

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Total aside, but having been in a similar situation, it is possible to flash heat donated milk at home to kill pathogens using WHO protocol. Medication, you have to explictly ask and trust the response you receive. Actually, anyone receiving donor milk should be asking a whole set of explicit questions…

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Hell no.

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