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Arizona Cottage Food Laws and Regulations: Jam And Jelly Requirements

Arizona Cottage Foods: Requirements for Jams and Jellies

Arizona's cottage food laws allow you to make at home, and sell, certain baked goods and jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butter that comply with the the regulation in 21 CFR Part 150 of the Code of Federal Regulations.  Fear not, we will explain all that below!

First, you may want to see this page for the general requirements of Arizona's cottage foods program, before you jump into the specifics for jams and jellies below.

Ingredients

All jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butter made under the Arizona Cottage Food Program must follow the rules set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding:

• Type of fruit allowed
• Amount of sugar used
• Allowable optional ingredients

Here's what that means:

Fruits allowed in each type of product:

You may only use the fruits below in each type of product.

Fruit Butter: Apple, Apricot, Grape, Peach, Pear, Plum, Prune, Quince

Fruit Jelly: Apple, Apricot, Blackberry, Black Raspberry, Boysenberry, Cherry, Crabapple, Cranberry, Currant, Damson, Plum, Dewberry, Fig, Gooseberry, Grape, Grapefruit, Greengage, Greengage Plum, Guava, Loganberry, Orange, Peach, Pineapple, Plum, Pomegranate, Prickly Pear, Quince, Raspberry, Red Raspberry, Red Currant, Strawberry, Youngberry

Fruit Jams & Other Preserves:

Group I: Blackberry (other than dewberry), Black raspberry, Blueberry, Boysenberry, Cherry, Crabapple, Dewberry (other than boysenberry, loganberry, and youngberry) Elderberry, Grape, Grapefruit, Huckleberry, Loganberry, Orange, Pineapple, Raspberry, Red Raspberry, Rhubarb, Strawberry, Tangerine, Tomato, Yellow Tomato, Youngberry
Group II: Apricot, Cranberry, Damson Plum, Fig, Gooseberry, Greengage Plum, Guava, Nectarine, Peach, Pear, Plum (other than Greengage Plum and Damson Plum), Quince, Red Currant, Currant (other than black currant)

Sugar Content

Fruit Butter: ".shall contain not less than 5 parts by weight of the fruit ingredient. to each 2 parts by weight of the (sugar) ingredient."
This roughly equals 0.4 lbs of sugar to 1 lb of fruit.

Fruit Jelly: ".shall contain not less than 45 parts by weight of the fruit juice ingredient. to each 55 parts by weight of the (sugar) ingredient."
This roughly equals 1.2 lbs of sugar to 1 lb of fruit.

Fruit Jams and other Preserves: "Group 1 fruits must have 47 parts by weight of the fruit ingredients to each 55 parts by weight of the (sugar) ingredient; and in all other cases, 45 parts by weight of the fruit ingredients to each 55 parts by weight of the (sugar) ingredient."
This roughly equals to 1.17 lbs of sugar to 1 lb of fruit for Group 1 fruits and 1.2 lbs of sugar to 1 lb of fruit for all other cases.

 Optional Ingredients allowed

Only the following ingredients are allowed. You don't have to add them (they are optional) but you may not add other ingredients.

• Spices Only the dried, ground form of spices are allowed (for example, no fresh sliced peppers, onions, mint, basil, etc.)
• Acidifying Agents: Lemon juice. FYI, bottles lemon juice is considered to be better in canning than fresh squeeze, because the pH is more consistently low.
• Pectin - see this page for many types of pectin that you can use, and the advantages and costs of each
• Buffering Agents - the state allows these; although this is something few home canners would choose to do.
• Preservatives - god knows what "preservatives" you would think of adding to home made jam, and certainly would NOT recommend it, but they allow them. The lemon juice and sugar, combined with the water bath treatment are effective natural preserving.
• Antifoaming Agents - I wouldn't add any; just skim off the foam.
  But, the state allows you to add them, except those derived from animal fats, ie: butter. In other words, you may NOT add butter, lard, etc.

Questions? Contact Information:

Arizona Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Arizona Label requirements and a downloadable label format to customize can be found here.

Office of Environmental Health
150 N. 18th Avenue, Suite 140
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(602) 364-3118
(602) 364-3146 Fax

Email: HomeBakedGoods@azdhs.gov