For pet-treat makers
A licensed commercial kitchen in Redlands for pet-treat and pet-food makers — the facility your processor licence needs, the address your label needs, and a plain guide to which agency you're actually dealing with.
The guide, not the rulebook
If you bake, dehydrate or freeze-dry treats to sell, you're a pet food processor — and pet food is not "commercial feed," and it is not restaurant food. That distinction is why the county health department will wave you off, and why your path runs through a different door.
As we understand it, processed treats fall under the California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch — a pet food processor licence tied to the facility you produce in. That facility has to be a licensed one. Confirm with CDPH what your specific product needs.
Raw and frozen products are a different lane — as we understand it, the California Department of Food and Agriculture handles those. If your line is raw, start there and confirm.
The county's retail-food permit is for food people eat. Pet-treat makers are routinely told "we don't license that" — that's correct, and it's the sign you're in the right place here: a licensed commercial facility with a professional address, without the county's retail-food process.
Your own commercial kitchen by the hour — exclusive use, any hour of any day — in a Health Department, USDA and Dairy Board approved facility in Redlands, with a professional address to put on the licence and the label. Ovens, dehydration space, cold and dry storage, and a door code that opens for you and no one else.
Questions makers ask
For baked, dried and freeze-dried treats sold in California, as we understand it, yes — the processor licence is tied to a licensed facility. Confirm with CDPH's Food and Drug Branch for your product; they're the authority, not us.
Usually not — pet food isn't their program, and they'll say so. That isn't a dead end. It's the reason the agencies above exist, and the reason a facility like this one is the practical answer.
$25 an hour. Time, utilities, equipment, cleaning chemicals and dry storage are included. The details are on the Become a Client page.
Yes — dehydrators, freeze-dryers and packaging gear can live in your storage. Tell us what you run and we'll say where it fits.
Then we're not the place — we're not set up for products containing hemp or CBD, and we'd rather tell you now than after a tour.
This is what we understand about products like yours — general information, not legal advice, and never a substitute for the agency's own answer. Your product may have an exception we haven't seen. Confirm with the agency named above; we've written this so you're not starting from zero.
Start the maker fit analysis — 2 min
The maker analysis asks what you make, who requires the licensed facility, and the schedule you'd keep. Two minutes; John reads every one himself.
COOKING BLOCK