It’s Friday and we’re back with another FDA-related question.

This comes from reader Jon:

As a hobbyist cigar roller, am I still allowed to sell my friends and family garage-rolled cigars without FDA approval?

As a general disclaimer, I’m not an attorney and this is not legal advice. Please contact your attorney for any questions regarding legality.

It is however this blogger’s opinion that selling cigars you rolled in your garage would now be subject to FDA authority as part of the deeming regulations.

Rolling and selling cigars—even out of your garage—would almost certainly be considered to be “manufacturing” and as such, you would need to register as a domestic tobacco manufacturer. After doing so, you would be subject to all applicable parts of the deeming regulations. This would include, but is not limited to: registering blends, gaining approval for any product not sold prior to Feb. 15, 2007, ensuring your products met any warning label requirements, etc.

While I don’t know what state Jon is in, I would also recommend contacting an attorney because there are likely state laws that are applicable to the Fabrica de Jon’s Garage.

The good news for Jon is the new FDA regulations do not impact his ability to roll his own cigars for personal use. In fact, the deeming regulations do not apply to raw tobacco materials like raw binder and filler.

For more information on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s regulation of cigars, please visit halfwheel.com/fda.


If you’d like to have your question featured on Ask halfwheel, click here and submit your question.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.