Cottage Food Laws by State: What You Can Sell From Home

Cottage food laws let you sell certain homemade foods without a commercial kitchen, but not every food qualifies, and the rules change at the state line. What you can sell, how much you can earn, whether you need a permit and whether you can take orders online all depend on where you live.

This guide puts all 50 states in one table, then explains which foods are typically allowed, which are almost always excluded, and why the line is drawn where it is. For the full start-to-finish walkthrough, see our complete guide to starting a cottage food business. If you are wondering whether your recipe qualifies, start here.

Cottage Food Laws by State: Find Your State

Find your state in the table below for its yearly sales cap, whether you need a license or registration, and what it says about online orders and shipping. Each state name links to our full guide for that state, with the allowed food list, the required label statement and how to get started.

Scroll sideways to see every column.

We checked every row on September 30, 2026 against the state's own agency page, its statute, or its land-grant university extension guide. Where a state page does not mention a cap, the row says "Not listed" rather than guessing. "No cap" means the state's source says there is none or sets no limit. Online rules describe the basic cottage food path; several states offer a separate license that allows more.

What Is a Cottage Food Law, and Which States Have One?

A cottage food law is a state rule that lets you make certain low-risk foods in your home kitchen and sell them without a commercial kitchen, a food establishment license or, in many states, any inspection at all. "Cottage food" means the food itself: shelf-stable things like bread, cookies, jam, candy, granola and dried herbs that are safe at room temperature.

Every state now lets home cooks sell some homemade food, and each row in the table above comes from that state's own rule. The National Agricultural Law Center keeps a state-by-state compilation of cottage food statutes if you want to read the legal text itself; it was last updated in April 2025, so check recent changes against your state's agency page.

The laws go by different names, which is why searches for them can be confusing:

• Cottage food law or cottage food operation: the most common name, used in states like California, Florida and Texas
• Home processor or home-based processor: New York, North Carolina and Kentucky
• Food freedom or local food acts: Wyoming and Tennessee (Food Freedom Act), Oklahoma (Homemade Food Freedom Act) and Montana (Local Food Choice Act)
• Residential kitchen or homestead food: Massachusetts and New Hampshire
• Limited food establishment: Pennsylvania, which registers home kitchens for $35

The name matters less than three facts about your state's version: what foods it allows, how much you can sell, and how you are allowed to get the food to the customer. Those three are the columns in the table.

How Much Can You Sell Under Your State's Cottage Food Law?

19 states cap yearly cottage food sales, and the caps run from $30,000 in Vermont to $250,000 in Florida and Wyoming. 22 states put no overall limit on baked goods, though Virginia caps pickles and acidified vegetables at $9,000 and Wisconsin caps home-canned foods at $5,000. The last 9 (Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah) do not mention a cap on the state's own page, which usually means there is none, but ask the agency before you count on it.

A few caps need a closer read:

• California has two classes. Class A, which sells only directly to customers, is capped at $88,878 in 2026, and Class B, which can also sell through stores and restaurants, at $177,756. The state adjusts both every January 1.
• Texas raised its cap to $150,000 under Senate Bill 541, effective September 1, 2025, and the state adjusts it for inflation every year.
• Mississippi caps sales at $35,000 a year and does not allow online sales; you sell directly to customers in Mississippi.
• Michigan allows $50,000, or $75,000 if your products sell for $250 or more each.
• Colorado caps each product at $10,000 a year until January 1, 2027, when a $150,000 total cap takes over, adjusted for inflation each year.
• Louisiana raised its cap from $30,000 to $100,000 on August 1, 2026, and the cap covers breads, cakes, cookies and pies too.

Caps usually count gross sales, the money customers pay you before costs, not profit. Colorado is the exception for now: its $10,000 limit counts net revenue for each type of product until its $150,000 gross cap starts on January 1, 2027. If you sell $40,000 of cookies and spend $15,000 on ingredients, you have used $40,000 of a $50,000 cap. Our cottage food revenue cap guide covers what to do when you get close.

Do You Need a License or Permit to Sell Cottage Food?

In 18 states you need a license, permit, registration or inspection, from the state or from your county or town, before your first sale; in the other 32 you can start selling the standard shelf-stable foods without one. The 32 still often ask for a lighter step, one that issues you no permit and sends no inspector to your kitchen: a food safety course in Georgia and Colorado, a food handler card in Indiana and New Mexico, a county review of your food safety certificate and labels in Alabama (no kitchen inspection, and the fee varies by county), a yearly exemption form in Vermont, or a parish sales tax certificate in Louisiana.

These are the 18 states that require a license, permit, registration or inspection before you sell, with the fee where the state publishes one:

Scroll sideways to see every column.

Fees from each state's agency page or statute, checked September 30, 2026. Local business licenses, food handler cards and sales tax registration can apply on top of these in any state.

Of the fees a state sets itself, Washington's is the highest at $355, which covers two years. California leaves the fee to each county and renews its permits every year, so a California seller can pay more over two years: Los Angeles County's 2026-27 fee schedule lists $292 for a Class B permit. New Hampshire is a special case: you need nothing to sell from home, a farm stand, a farmers market or a retail store, but online and mail order sales need its $150 Homestead license. Our guide to cottage food license costs breaks down the full startup bill, and our guide to whether you need a business license to sell food from home covers the local side.

Where Can You Sell Cottage Food, and Can You Sell It Online?

You can sell cottage food directly to customers in every state, from your home, at farmers markets and at events, and 33 states allow online ordering in some form. Online sales are banned for ordinary cottage food vendors in 5 states, need an extra $150 license in New Hampshire, and are not confirmed on the state's own page in 12 more.

Here is how the online rules split, from the table above:

• Online orders and payment allowed (32 states): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia
• Allowed with a separate license (1 state): New Hampshire, with the $150 Homestead license
• Not allowed without a different license (5 states): Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada until July 1, 2027, South Dakota and Washington, where a website can show your products but each sale is completed in person. Nevada's statute is the strict source here; the Southern Nevada Health District, which covers Las Vegas, says a customer can order by phone or online as long as you hand the food over yourself.
• Not confirmed on the state's page (12 states): Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming do not address online sales on the page we read, and Maryland's guidelines and law name personal delivery and mail delivery but not online orders. Ask your state agency before you take online payment.

Online ordering is not the same as shipping. Many states that allow online orders still want the food handed over in person. Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Texas all allow online orders but require in-person delivery inside the state, and Minnesota does the same until August 1, 2027. Only a handful of states, like Arkansas and North Dakota, allow sales into other states at all, and even there the buyer's state law and federal law still apply. Our guide on whether you can ship cottage food goes deeper on shipping.

Once Your State Says Yes, How Do You Take Orders Without the Back-and-Forth?

Once you know your foods qualify and where you are allowed to sell, the next job is taking orders in a way that fits your state's rules. Only a handful of the 50 states allow cottage food sales into other states, and many want you to hand the food to the customer yourself. That makes a local pickup or local delivery setup the natural fit, and it is exactly what Homegrown is built around.

A Homegrown storefront costs $10 per month billed annually ($12.50 billed month to month), plus 2.9% + $0.30 card processing on each order, with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing. Customers order and pay from one link and choose a pickup time from the schedule you set, or local delivery inside the radius you choose, and every order lands in one dashboard before your baking day.

Compare that with the two setups most new cottage food vendors try first:

• Instagram or Facebook messages. Free to start, but every order is a separate conversation, payment happens somewhere else, and the order count for your baking day lives in your head.
• Etsy. Built for shipping to buyers anywhere in the country. Only a handful of states allow cottage food to cross state lines, and many do not allow shipping at all, so a nationwide marketplace works against you.

Homegrown does not make a sale legal or decide whether your food qualifies. That part is your state's law, and your label, your recipes and your sales cap are still yours to manage. Customers also create a Homegrown account to place their first order, and there is no limited-release "drops" feature. Your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link.

Why Do Only Certain Foods Qualify?

Only certain foods qualify because cottage food laws are built for foods that stay safe at room temperature. The core idea is the same in every state: let people sell from a home kitchen when the food carries the lowest food safety risk.

Non-potentially hazardous foods are the foundation. These are foods that do not support fast bacterial growth because of two natural properties: how acidic they are (their pH) and how much free water they hold (their water activity).

• pH measures acidity. Foods with a pH of 4.6 or below are acidic enough that most harmful bacteria cannot grow. That is why jams, properly made pickles and fruit preserves often qualify.
• Water activity measures how much moisture in a food is free for bacteria to use. Foods at 0.85 or below do not have enough of it for most bacteria. That is why dried goods, candies and most baked goods qualify.

A food with a low pH, a low water activity, or both can sit on a shelf without becoming unsafe. That is the basic test cottage food laws use to decide what belongs on the cottage food list. Food safety people call the risky group "TCS foods", short for foods that need time and temperature control for safety.

Why this matters for you: with the 4.6 pH and 0.85 water activity lines in mind, you can judge a recipe even when your state's list does not name it. If your product needs a refrigerator to stay safe, it is almost certainly not a cottage food under a traditional law. At least 8 states (Alaska, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia) have opened some refrigerated foods to home cooks, and we cover those further down.

What Foods Are Typically Allowed Under Cottage Food Laws?

Shelf-stable baked goods are allowed in all 50 states we checked, and jams, candy, dry mixes and similar foods are on the list in many of them, though not all. Rhode Island's law limits cottage food to baked goods that do not need refrigeration. Individual states add their own limits, so treat the lists below as the common ground, then read your state's guide for the exact list.

Baked Goods

Baked goods are the largest and most widely approved cottage food category; every one of our 50 state guides lists them as allowed, and in Rhode Island they are the only cottage food.

Commonly allowed:

• Bread and rolls (including sourdough)
• Cookies, brownies and bars
• Cakes and cupcakes (without cream, custard or cream cheese frosting, in a state with a shelf-stable-only list)
• Muffins, scones and quick breads
• Pies and tarts with fruit fillings, not cream fillings
• Biscotti, shortbread and other dry baked goods
• Tortillas and flatbreads

The key restriction: baked goods with fillings or frostings that need refrigeration, like cream cheese frosting, custard, whipped cream or meringue, are usually excluded. Buttercream made with butter, powdered sugar and flavoring is allowed in many states because it is shelf-stable, but not all of them. New York's home processor rules ban homemade buttercream that contains dairy or eggs, and Colorado's health department does not allow buttercream made with butter (it allows buttercream made with ghee or vegetable oil). Our cinnamon roll rules check covers both rules.

If baked goods are your plan, the how to sell baked goods guide covers pricing and packaging.

Jams, Jellies, and Fruit Preserves

Jams and preserves are one of the most popular cottage food products, and fruit jams made with high-acid fruit are on the allowed list even in strict states like New York.

Commonly allowed:

• Fruit jams and jellies
• Marmalades
• Fruit butters, like apple butter and pear butter
• Fruit preserves and conserves
• Fruit syrups

Why they qualify: high sugar, high acidity (a low pH) and water bath canning together make these products safe at room temperature.

What to watch for: some states require tested recipes from a source like the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and pepper jellies and vegetable jellies are treated more strictly. New York's home processor list bans pepper jellies, wine jellies and vegetable jellies outright, and New Hampshire requires a process review for jams and jellies that do not follow the center's standardized recipes.

Honey and Bee Products

Honey is naturally shelf-stable and is one of the easiest foods to sell from home, either under the cottage food law or under a separate honey rule.

Commonly allowed:

• Raw honey
• Filtered honey
• Infused honey with herbs, spices or dried fruit
• Honeycomb
• Beeswax products like candles and lip balm (these are not food, so food rules do not cover them at all)

Note: some states handle honey under their own beekeeping or honey rules rather than the cottage food law, so the label and the sales rules can differ from your baked goods. Check how your state classifies it before you print labels.

Candies and Confections

Shelf-stable candies like caramels, toffee, brittle and hard candy are allowed under cottage food laws, and New York's strict list still includes fudge, toffees, caramels and hard candies.

Commonly allowed:

• Hard candies and lollipops
• Caramels and toffee
• Fudge, when it is a cooked, shelf-stable recipe
• Brittles and pralines
• Chocolate-covered nuts, pretzels and dried fruit (with limits in some states)
• Marshmallows
• Cotton candy

What to watch for: candies made with fresh cream or a high share of dairy can fall into a gray area in some states. Chocolate dipping and coating is usually fine when the thing being dipped is shelf-stable.

Dried Foods and Mixes

Dried goods have very low water activity, which makes them naturally shelf-stable.

Commonly allowed:

• Granola and trail mixes
• Dried herbs and spice blends
• Dried fruits
• Dried pasta (some states exclude pasta made with eggs)
• Soup mixes and dry seasoning blends
• Tea blends, including herbal tea
• Popcorn and seasoned popcorn
• Roasted coffee beans
• Roasted nuts and nut mixes

Pickled and Acidified Foods

Pickled products are allowed in many states, but this is the category where states differ the most.

Commonly allowed where acidified foods are permitted:

• Pickled cucumbers
• Pickled vegetables like peppers, green beans and beets
• Relishes and chutneys
• Salsa that is shelf-stable and properly acidified
• Hot sauce and pepper sauces

Important: the pH of an acidified product must be 4.6 or below. Some states require a pH test, a tested recipe, or both, and some do not allow acidified foods at all. Massachusetts prohibits acidification in a home kitchen and names pickled products, relishes and salad dressings as foods a home kitchen may not make. Alabama allows pickles and salsa once a pH check confirms they are acidic enough. Virginia caps pickles and acidified vegetables at $9,000 a year. Wisconsin allows home-canned pickles and salsas only under a separate exemption capped at $5,000 a year, sold at farmers markets and community events, with no internet sales. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi are treated differently from vinegar pickles in some states.

Other Commonly Allowed Foods

• Nut butters: peanut butter, almond butter and similar spreads are allowed in many but not all states
• Fruit pies: with fruit fillings only, no cream or custard
• Dry baking mixes: pancake mix, cookie mix, cake mix
• Vinegars: flavored and infused vinegars
• Coated or dipped fresh fruit: chocolate-covered strawberries need refrigeration, so traditional cottage food laws exclude them. Our guide to selling chocolate-covered strawberries covers the states and licenses where they can work.

What Foods Are NOT Allowed Under Cottage Food Laws?

Meat, seafood, dairy, foods that need refrigeration, low-acid canned foods and alcohol are the six groups traditional cottage food laws leave out. They need refrigeration, carry a higher safety risk, or fall under separate federal rules.

Meat and Poultry

Meat is excluded from cottage food laws almost everywhere, because federal law requires inspection for meat that is sold. Texas, which now allows almost any food, still bans meat and poultry. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service runs that inspection, and our guide on whether you can sell homemade beef jerky walks through the inspected paths.

Not allowed under cottage food:

• Jerky (beef, turkey or other meat jerky)
• Sausages
• Smoked meats
• Meat pies or meat-filled pastries
• Pet treats made with meat (pet food is regulated separately from human food)

The exception: a few food freedom states allow small amounts of home-raised poultry. Wyoming and North Dakota both allow a producer who slaughters no more than 1,000 of their own birds a year to sell the poultry, and Wyoming also allows domestic rabbit meat, according to each state's statute. Tennessee's Food Freedom Act, Montana's Local Food Choice Act and Idaho's 2026 law allow poultry under the same federal 1,000-bird exemption. Beef and pork still need an inspected plant.

If you want to sell meat: you will work with a USDA-inspected facility, a state-inspected plant, or a licensed retail store. That is separate from cottage food entirely.

Eggs are a different case. Many states let small flocks sell eggs under their own egg rules rather than the cottage food law; our guide on how to sell eggs from your backyard flock covers them.

Dairy Products

Dairy products are excluded under traditional cottage food laws because they support bacterial growth at room temperature. New York, for example, bans cheese, yogurt, fluid dairy and butters from home processing. Butter shows how far apart the states are: Maryland names it on its not-allowed list, while Texas left it off its list of excluded cottage foods in 2025 but its dairy rules still require a permit to make it. Our nine-state breakdown of whether you can sell homemade butter shows where each rule lands.

Usually not allowed under cottage food:

• Cheese
• Yogurt
• Butter
• Ice cream and frozen desserts
• Cream-based sauces or fillings
• Milk, raw or pasteurized

What this means for baked goods: you can use butter, milk and eggs as ingredients in baked goods, because baking makes the finished product shelf-stable. You just cannot sell the dairy products themselves.

Seafood

Fish and shellfish are excluded from cottage food laws and fall under separate federal and state seafood rules. Texas, which now allows almost everything, still lists seafood on its short banned list, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Foods Requiring Refrigeration

Any food that needs to stay cold to be safe is excluded under a traditional cottage food law:

• Cream cheese frosting or fillings
• Custards and puddings
• Cheesecake
• Fresh pasta with egg
• Hummus and bean dips
• Fresh salsa that is not acidified
• Cut fruit
• Anything with mayonnaise-based fillings

A few states now carve out some of these. Texas allows refrigerated foods like cream pies, cheesecakes and fresh salsa once you register with the state, and Colorado will allow one type of refrigerated food, like tamales, from January 1, 2027. Maryland is a useful contrast: its health department's guidelines, last updated in November 2025, list cheesecakes, cream and custard pies, and cakes with cream cheese or buttercream fillings among the foods that cannot be cottage foods.

Canned Low-Acid Foods

Low-acid canned foods like green beans, corn, soups and stocks are excluded under cottage food laws, and Texas lists "low-acid canned goods" on its short banned list even after its 2025 expansion. They need pressure canning, and a mistake can cause botulism. High-acid foods processed in a water bath canner, like jams and pickles, are a different category and are generally fine.

Alcohol

Alcoholic drinks like wine, beer and spirits are regulated separately and are not covered by cottage food laws. Some states also exclude foods that contain alcohol as an ingredient; New York's home processor rules, for example, ban products containing alcohol, so check before you sell rum cake or bourbon caramels.

What Does a Cottage Food Label Need?

A cottage food label needs the product name, your name and address (or a state ID number in some states), the ingredients with allergens, and a statement that the food was made in a home kitchen that is not inspected. The exact statement is set word for word by each state, so copy it from your state's guide rather than writing your own.

Here are 3 states' exact statements, each copied from the state's own law or agency page on September 30, 2026, to show how different the wording is:

• Texas: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION."
• Florida: "Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations." in at least 10-point type
• Georgia (HB 398): "This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state inspection. This product may contain allergens." in at least 10-point type

Which states review your label before you sell? In Alabama, the county health department reviews your food safety certificate and your product labels; it does not inspect your kitchen. Registration states often ask for label samples too, so have a printed label ready when you apply. Kansas goes the other way: a Kansas State University extension guide says Kansas products do not need a "homemade" statement at all, though you can add one.

Our cottage food labeling requirements guide has templates and the allergen rules.

Which States Are Expanding What You Can Sell?

At least 14 states changed their cottage food rules, or scheduled a change, between July 2025 and August 2027, and most of those changes made selling easier. Higher caps, fewer permits, refrigerated foods and online sales are the four directions they moved in.

• Texas (September 1, 2025): cap raised to $150,000; any food allowed except a short banned list; refrigerated (TCS) foods allowed after registering with the state
• Georgia (July 1, 2025): state license removed under HB 398
• Hawaii (August 24, 2025): online, mail and shipping allowed under amended state rules
• Vermont (2025, forms due January 15, 2026): Act 42 set a $30,000 licensing exemption for cottage food operators, with yearly online training and a yearly exemption form
• Idaho (March 20, 2026): a new law with no license, no cap and a broad food list that includes refrigerated foods, for sales inside Idaho
• West Virginia (June 12, 2026): a new permit for perishable cottage foods
• Virginia (2026): online and phone sales, with mail and delivery inside Virginia
• Michigan (2026): cap raised to $50,000 ($75,000 for products priced $250 or more); internet, mail order and third-party delivery allowed if the buyer can talk to you before buying
• Louisiana (August 1, 2026): the cap went from $30,000 to $100,000
• Maryland (October 1, 2026): the cap doubles from $50,000 to $100,000
• Oklahoma (November 1, 2026): cap raised from $75,000 to $250,000
• Colorado (January 1, 2027): a $150,000 total cap, adjusted for inflation each year, replaces the per-product cap, and one type of refrigerated food, like tamales, is allowed
• Nevada (July 1, 2027): phone and online sales, with mail or delivery fulfillment
• Minnesota (August 1, 2027): in-state shipping and one $30 yearly registration fee for everyone, so sellers under $7,665, who pay nothing today, will pay $30, and every registrant will need advanced training

Food freedom states go furthest. Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Idaho (since 2026) and Alaska (since 2024) let you sell a much wider range of foods directly to an informed customer with no license, and Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, Tennessee and Idaho allow some home-raised poultry under the federal 1,000-bird exemption. Our food freedom states list compares them.

States that allow some refrigerated (TCS) foods are growing too. Texas allows them after you register, Alaska allows them with no license when the cook sells them directly, Arizona allows dairy and meat products if you deliver them in person, Idaho allows them sold directly inside Idaho with no license, Nebraska allows them hand-delivered, Oklahoma allows them sold directly and delivered by you after food safety training, Tennessee allows them sold in person, and West Virginia added a permit for them in 2026. These paths come with extra steps like training, registration or in-person delivery, so read your state's guide before you add cheesecake to your menu.

How Do You Check What Your State Allows?

You check your state's rules in 4 steps, and the whole thing takes about an hour. The allowed list varies by state and changes often, so do it before your first sale and again every January.

• Step 1: Find your state's cottage food law. Start with your state's row in the table of all 50 states at the top of this page, then open the linked state guide. Each guide names the agency that runs the program and links to its page.
• Step 2: Read the approved food list. A state uses either a named list of allowed foods or a general definition, like "non-potentially hazardous foods", that decides what qualifies. Texas flipped this in 2025 and now lists only what is banned.
• Step 3: Check for recent updates. Your state's department of agriculture or department of health page has the current version. Look for a bill number and an effective date on the page; a rule that changed this year is often missing from older summaries.
• Step 4: When in doubt, ask. If your product falls into a gray area, email the agency and keep the reply. It is better to ask before you start selling than to find out later that your product does not qualify, and a written answer is useful if a market manager asks.

If you are ready to start, our guide on how to start a cottage food business walks through the full process, including licensing requirements and labeling rules.

How Do You Stay Within the Rules?

You stay within the rules by sticking to tested recipes, labeling every package, keeping simple records and tracking your sales against your state's cap. None of it takes long once it is a habit.

• Stick to tested recipes. For jams, pickles and anything canned, use tested recipes from the National Center for Home Food Preservation or your state's extension service. A small change can shift the pH or water activity enough to move your product out of the safe zone.
• Do not assume your product qualifies. A food that seems shelf-stable may not meet your state's definition. A cake with cream cheese frosting looks fine on a counter, but the frosting makes it a TCS food that a shelf-stable-only law leaves out.
• Label everything correctly. A label is required under almost every cottage food path. Montana's Local Food Choice Act is one exception: its statute says no labeling may be required, though a label still helps your customers.
• Keep records. Track recipes, batch dates, sales and any food safety certificates your state requires. Idaho's 2026 law, for example, asks producers to keep records for at least 2 years.
• Know your revenue cap, if your state has one. Look up your state's number in the table at the top of this page and divide it by 12 to get a monthly pace. If you are in a capped state and getting close, the revenue cap guide covers your options, including moving up to a licensed food business.

What Do You Do If Your Food Is Not on the Approved List?

If your food is not allowed under your state's cottage food law, you still have 5 legal routes, and the cheapest one, changing the recipe, often costs nothing. People searching for how to "get around" cottage food laws usually need one of these, not a loophole.

• Modify your recipe. A small change, like switching cream cheese frosting for buttercream or a cream filling for a fruit filling, can move a product into the approved category.
• Apply for a different license. Some states offer a middle tier between cottage food and a full commercial license. Ohio's Home Bakery license, Iowa's Home Food Processing Establishment license and New Hampshire's $150 Homestead license are three examples.
• Use a commercial kitchen. Renting time in a shared commercial kitchen lets you make foods a home kitchen cannot. Many rent by the hour, which is far cheaper than building your own.
• Sell at venues with their own permits. Some states have separate permits for selling food at events or farmers markets that cover a wider range of foods.
• Wait for your state to update its law. Cottage food laws keep expanding. A food that is not allowed today may be added in the next legislative session, the way Texas added cream pies in 2025.

Once you have confirmed your products qualify, the next step is getting them in front of buyers in a way your state allows. A Homegrown storefront lets you list your approved products, take orders and collect payment for local pickup or local delivery, which fits the in-person handoff that states like Texas, Connecticut and New Jersey require.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell baked goods with cream cheese frosting under cottage food laws?

Under a traditional cottage food law, no. Cream cheese frosting needs refrigeration, which makes it a TCS food that traditional cottage food laws exclude. Texas allows it once you register with the state and add a safe-handling statement, while Maryland's health department guidelines list cream cheese icings and fillings among the foods that cannot be cottage foods. Buttercream made with butter and powdered sugar is the usual swap, but check your state's list, because Colorado does not allow buttercream made with butter.

Can I sell jerky under cottage food laws?

No. Beef and pork jerky made at home cannot be sold under a cottage food law, because federal meat inspection law covers beef and pork in every state. A few food freedom states, like Wyoming and North Dakota, allow small amounts of home-raised poultry, but that is not beef jerky. To sell jerky you need a USDA-inspected plant, a state-inspected plant, or a licensed retail store working under the federal retail exemption.

Can I sell dog treats under cottage food laws?

No, not under the cottage food law itself, because cottage food laws cover food for people. Dog treats are pet food, and states handle them through the department of agriculture's pet food or feed program, often with a registration fee for each product. New York's home processor page, for example, says pet foods and treats can be made at home but need a separate registration. Our dog treat guide found that three flavors cost $150 to register in Colorado and $300 in New York in September 2026, and that California does not allow dog treats from a home kitchen at all. Our guide on how to sell dog treats from home covers the steps.

Can I sell canned vegetables under cottage food laws?

Not low-acid canned vegetables like plain green beans, corn or plain tomato sauce. They need pressure canning, and a processing mistake can cause botulism, so Texas bans them even under its broad 2025 law. High-acid foods processed in a water bath canner, like jams, fruit preserves and properly acidified pickles, are a different category, though some states, like Massachusetts, bar pickled products from home kitchens too.

Are there limits on how much I can sell?

It depends on your state: 19 states cap yearly cottage food sales, 22 have no overall limit for baked goods, and 9 do not list a cap on the state's page. Vermont's $30,000 exemption is the lowest overall cap and Florida and Wyoming share the highest at $250,000, with Texas at $150,000 and California's Class A at $88,878 for 2026. Caps usually count gross sales, not profit; Colorado's $10,000-per-product limit counts net revenue until its $150,000 gross cap starts January 1, 2027. Once you pass your state's cap, you usually need a commercial kitchen and a food manufacturing license to keep selling that year, though a California Class A operator can move up to Class B and keep working from home.

Can I sell my cottage food products online?

In 33 states, yes, in some form: 32 allow online orders for ordinary cottage food vendors and New Hampshire allows them with a $150 Homestead license. Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada (until July 1, 2027), South Dakota and Washington do not allow online sales under the basic path, though the health district for the Las Vegas area accepts phone and web ordering when the cook makes the delivery personally. Many states that allow online orders still require you to hand the food over in person, so check the delivery rule as well as the ordering rule. Our guide on cottage food shipping rules covers the differences.

Is buttercream allowed under cottage food laws?

Yes, in many states, because buttercream made with butter, powdered sugar and flavoring is shelf-stable. It is not universal. New York bans homemade buttercream that contains dairy or eggs, Colorado does not allow buttercream made with butter, and Michigan allows homemade buttercream only from two lab-tested recipes, according to New York's agency page, Colorado's health department and Michigan's agriculture department. Our cinnamon roll rules check covers all three. Buttercream that uses cream cheese, whipped cream or fresh cream is treated like a refrigerated frosting.

Related Reading: Cottage Food Guides

Once you know your state's rules, these guides cover the parts that apply almost everywhere:

• Do you need an LLC to sell food from home?: when a sole proprietorship is enough and when an LLC is worth the fee
• Cottage food taxes: how to file Schedule C: how home food income gets reported
• Cottage food labeling requirements: label templates and the allergen rules
• Cottage food license cost: the full startup bill, state by state
• The best platform to sell food from home: ordering tools compared on fees
• Can you ship cottage food across state lines?: the shipping rules in detail

Your state's rules decide what you can make and how it reaches the customer; the ordering setup is the part you choose. If your state allows online orders with pickup or local delivery, you can set up a Homegrown storefront in about 15 minutes for $10 per month billed annually, plus 2.9% + $0.30 card processing per order.

Selling at a market? These laws cover home-kitchen production. For the permits you need on market day, see our farmers market vendor permits by state guide.

*This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Cottage food laws vary by state and change frequently, so verify your state's current rules on its agency page before you sell.*