To wonder whether it’s legal for children to knock on doors seeking cookies?

[W0tever]

Is it? I’m genuinely unsure.

I know in the US there’s a culture of children running neighborhood lemonade stands from their front gardens plus the well-known scheme where Girl Scouts sell their cookies. Yet in the UK do you not need a licence to sell anything edible and to prove you’ve met certain hygiene standards?

We had a couple of 9-10 year-olds come to the door this evening wanting to sell some cookies they were carrying in a bag for life. I assume homemade although I didn’t actually get a proper look at them. I said honestly that I didn’t have any cash in the house so would have to pass on this occasion. Something made me feel a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing though. I assume their parents are on board. Although perhaps not.

Has anyone else encountered anything like this?

*selling cookies

Sorry, can’t edit title.

I don't environmental health are going bother coming out to close them down for not having a food hygiene certificate. You don't have to buy them or eat them. It's hardly a big deal.

They’re probably just selling them to make cash for a new toy or something. Entrepreneurship and all that.

Please don’t report them to anyone. 😅

Nah, don’t worry, I wasn’t going to do that.

My first thought was, ‘Oh look, it’s kids. We should support them in being so wonderfully entrepreneurial and buy some cookies no matter how overpriced or awful they might be.’

But then I wondered whether it was in fact something to encourage and whether their parents even knew what they were up to.

We have some boys knock to wash our car or do some weeding regularly. Their parents know - it’s fine.

We used to get this. I’d buy some but then throw them in the bin, not knowing how they had been prepared 😅

First reply nails it. Would I buy them? No (I never have cash, so that would be the primary reason). Would I let me kids go from door to door selling? Also no.

But is it legal? 🤣 yes!

Would it be legal for an adult to do that though? I don’t believe it would. I had a client who made her own kefir and wanted to start selling it. Yet there was a complex bureaucratic process she would need to have gone through which she concluded wasn’t worth it. What if it was regularly making people ill? And what if they wanted to take action against her?

The serious answer is that most individuals making food to sell do have to register with the local authority but the LA has a certain amount of discretion and can decide that for very small/infrequent/limited businesses it's not required. As they obviously would in this case. So yes, it is legal.

I’m in Scotland and we used to have it all the time although it was tablet and macaroon bars. Haven’t seen anyone do it in years. Don’t know about legalities though.

It’s good to hear that they do have a human side and are not totally black and white.

I was sure I remembered a case from a few years back where a little girl was fined for starting a lemonade stand in her garden. I just found it and the decision was reversed in the end.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/21/girl-fined-running-homemade-lemonade-stall

I had some kids do that a few months back. I’m annoyed that they haven’t returned yet because I really want some more macaroon and raspberry ruffle bar.

I'm from the US so I have to chime in. It's only been a legal issue here when some bigot ruins it for everyone and calls the cops on little kids of color having some old fashioned fun. You probably saw that one coming! 99.9% of people enjoy & support home businesses of kids and adults. There's different laws in each state for homemade goods, but the rules are basic safety & cleanliness and the rest is just the government making sure they get their every penny. When it's a kid or someone in need, we don't buy the treat because we want the treat, we do it to show our care and support. A LOT of talented immigrants go door to door (usually to offices) or to FB Marketplace selling their culture's delicacies and this is met with enthusiasm and joy because it's always the best food in town. If someone were to report them for any reason outside of actual serious food poisoning, that would be met with outrage. I've honestly never heard of any food poisoning outside of actual restaurants. It sems to be a non-issue. So basically the attitude here is to show support and don't ruin a good thing. If one doesn't like it, don't buy it but certainly don't ruin it for them. Nowadays its a small miracle to see kids outside or actually doing things besides staring at a screen, I think that's the interesting thing here, moreso than the cookie selling! In your situation if I had cash on hand I'd buy the cookies to encourage the children, but I might not eat them 🙃

@wildeflowers. It is interesting isn’t it, when the US has such a reputation as being the land of litigation, that it also has the culture of kids running lemonstands? Yet it’s the UK where technically it’s not allowed. The opposite of what one might expect.

Just for clarification, you are technically required to have a license to sell homemade food here in the US as well. Even children with lemonade stands. It's just that nobody calls the police on them, because what kind of person would do that?

Girl Scout cookies come in a box and are mass produced by commercial bakers. The scouts go door to door with order forms and deliver the orders directly to people who ordered on the form.

@steff13 - agree.

At Hallowe'en, parents routinely toss homemade treats, fruit, and unpackaged nuts their children are given and only permit them to eat commercially produced and fully wrapped items.

Maybe the rep is flawed?

Or maybe people are able to see where litigation is warranted and where it most certainly is not...

In my area they don't really go door to door anymore. The parents will take the order form into work or they're outside Walmart or Kroger or Target selling.

There are people who give out fruit and nuts on Halloween?! Those poor Trick-or-Treaters.

Unpackaged nuts sounds like a law suit waiting to happen.

What law do you think is being broken?
What do you think would happen if you called the police to report children selling biscuits?

I'd have called the national guard.

American Girl Scout cookies aren't home made.

There are quite a number of legal requirements you have to comply with when selling any kind of food or drink (e.g. registering, following food and safety regulations, correctly labelling allergens).

Obviously not things you’d call 999 about though, any more than you would do if you threw up after having a Mr. Whippy.