Cookie Business Crumbling for Bootleg Bakers

Health investigators are hot on the scent of a growing breed of scofflaws: bootleg cookie makers.

Inspired by the financial success of cookie manufacturers like Mrs. Fields and Famous Amos, increasing numbers of amateur bakers are trying to sell homemade cookies and other food products to local markets, Los Angeles County officials say.

“We’ve had a lot of them lately,” said Bob Snow, the county’s chief sanitarian for the West Los Angeles, Westwood and Santa Monica areas. “It seems to be an increasing problem.”

Outlaw cookies are peddled in all varieties--peanut butter, oatmeal and, of course, chocolate chip, the most popular.

They are usually found in specialty markets that feature lesser-known products, officials say. And the cookies aren’t cheap. They cost as much as $1 each.

“I’ve tasted a couple of them and they weren’t bad. Expensive though,” Snow said.

Forbidden by Law

California health and safety laws on the manufacture and sale of food items prohibit retail sales of foods made in private homes or locations not licensed and properly equipped for such activity.

No illnesses linked to illegally manufactured cookies have been reported, said Bill Ward, director of environmental health services for the county.

Nonetheless, inspectors are wary of the potential for health risk. “The potential for problems is always there,” Ward said. “For all we know, there may be no drains, no refrigerators--any number of things that could harbor bacteria. Since we wouldn’t be able to inspect them, we’d have no way of knowing what was going on.”

Since late March, county health inspectors have discovered at least four brands of cookies that were suspect because they were improperly labeled and appeared to be fresh from someone’s home oven.

Before that, inspectors discovered and subsequently put out of business a woman who was making chocolate chip cookies in her Torrance apartment and selling them to markets in West Los Angeles and Westwood, Snow said.

Numbers Rising

Snow said illegal cookie manufacturers have been a problem for the county Department of Health Services for years. Their numbers are rising now, he said, because of unemployment and the increased popularity of being self-employed.

“A lot of people are out of work and this is one way they can peddle a product,” Snow said. “We’re going to find more and more of this as long as there is unemployment or people who want to open their own business.”

Some home bakers who try to sell their goods do not realize it is illegal. “Some of these people just think, ‘Hey, I can bake cookies. I think I’ll bake some cookies and sell them,’ ” Ward said.

Others are aware of the illegality but unconcerned. Often they give erroneous information on their product labels, an illegal practice that also makes it difficult to track down the manufacturer.

By the time county inspectors do find them, such bootleg manufacturers have usually moved their operations.

Because tracing the manufacturer is nearly impossible, health authorities concentrate on running them out of town by scaring away their clients. Snow noted that a market found selling illegally produced goods can face a fine of up to $1,000.

Snow said the markets in his area that were found to be selling illegal cookies were warned not to do so and they readily complied. “We appeared to have scared them (bootleg bakers) away,” he said. “But they probably just located somewhere else.”