By Joanna Voigt

Mmmm. Everyone likes free samples and providing samples of your products can be a low cost, high yield promotional tool for your farm. For purposes of food safety, a series of regulations govern how farmers can use this marketing tool.

In Kansas, anyone who “stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends or otherwise provides food for human consumption” is considered a food establishment, and must comply with Kansas Food Code. However, a temporary food establishment that operates fewer than seven days in a calendar year does not require a license or application, but must comply with the provisions of the Kansas Food Code.

Direct marketing “agripreneurs” may wonder: Why should I offer samples or cooking deonstrations? What are the benefits and challenges? What are possible strategies for success? What regulations apply to these activities where I sell?

For information and resources related to these topics, CLICK HERE to print or download the Kansas Rural Center’s resource document: Sampling and Demonstrations for Direct Marketing in Agriculture.

This resource document  is an excerpt from Finding Your Niche, A Marketing Guide for Kansas Farms, published in January 2013 by the Kansas Rural Center. You may CLICK HERE to view the guide’s full Table of Contents and print or download other resource documents. Finding Your Niche: A Marketing Guide for Kansas Farms offers a great starting point for envisioning the potential your farm has to increase and respond to local demand.

To receive a printed and bound copy of the 200+ page guide, please order here or contact the Kansas Rural Center at 785-873-3431. A limited number of copies are available for a suggested fee of $25 to help cover printing, shipping and handling costs.