KINGSTON — Those who make scrumptious cookies and scones in their homes to sell at farmers’ markets are going to have to find a new place to prepare their products after May 2.

That’s when the updated Washington State Department of Health food regulations go into effect and change the face of the local events. Part of the revised code requires that baked goods currently made in a uncertified kitchens and sold for profit will have to be baked in commercial kitchens.

The public kitchens can be a grange, church or restaurant, said Kitsap County’s Food Safety Program manager Bonnie Halvorson.

The only exception to the rule is one-time bake sales for charitable organizations, in which the products can be created in a home kitchen. However, at the point of sale, a sign must be displayed explaining that the food was baked in a kitchen and not inspected by the local health district.

Those who make such goods in their home kitchen and sell products on a consistent basis are working in areas similar to baking facilities and they need to be treated as such, Halvorson said. While bakeries must adhere to many restrictions to have their facility approved to sell baked goods, a farmers’ market vendor creating similar products isn’t much different, she said.

“Their two businesses are really alike,” Halvorson said.

Kingston Farmers’ Market manager Clint Dudley said he warned his vendors last summer about the potential changes in the regulations and encouraged them to look into the rules.

Fresh produce, just picked from the garden and washed off, is still OK to sell as-is, he said, but several of his vendors will be deeply affected by the changes.

Nearly a dozen vendors per week sell homebaked goods at the KFM, including five who strictly sell such items, he said.

“It’s a big part of what the vendors eat in the breakfast in the morning,” Dudley said.

One vendor wakes at 4 a.m. on Saturdays to bake cinnamon rolls for the market and goes through two or three loaf pans each time. Others, such as mothers with young children, supplement their incomes with a baked good business at the market because they can cook at home. If they have to go to commercial kitchens, more of a hardship would be created for the families, Dudley said, noting that an exemption, similar to the one created for charitable organizations, should be allowed for farmers’ markets. When buying food at a farmers’ market, customers are knowingly buying from the farmer themselves, therefore, there is already an “implied disclaimer,” Dudley said.

“I have never heard of anyone getting sick from eating a cookie at a farmers’ market,” he added.

As for using public kitchens, while some are open strictly for that purpose, such as Farm Kitchen on Port Gamble Road, others that have the facilities do not rent out to outside groups. Two examples are the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 3586 in Poulsbo and Kiana Lodge in Suquamish — both have commericial kitchens but they cater to events on the premises only, said Eagles president Leon Jones.