The Food Safety Authority says rules on food handling that have closed a maker of home jam and pickles in the Far North are outdated.
Health inspectors have told a hospice shop in Kerikeri to take her products off the shelves. Her latest batch is going begging.
Gloria Crawford has been told she can no longer make jams and pickles at home for charity and must have a registered kitchen.
Mrs Crawford, 68, says she can't afford that. Mid-North Hospice says the ruling will cost it $15,000 per year in lost sales.
However, the FSA says Mrs Crawford could make her jam in the hospice kitchen, which is registered.
The agency also says she could bypass the council inspectors, by registering a food control plan with the Food Safety Authority.
That would cost a "couple of hundred dollars" and there would be a small fee once per year for a check by an approved auditor.
Mrs Crawford would thus be exempted from the unwelcome attentions of council inspectors. And her jam could go back on the shelves at the hospice shop.
Mrs Crawford says she will think about it - but it still seems like a lot of red tape to maintain a tradition that generations of women have upheld.
The FSA says the rules applying to home-cooks in Mrs Crawford's situation will be relaxed and simplified, in a forthcoming review of the Food Safety Regulations.
