The short version: To start a cottage food business in New York, you pick products from the state's approved shelf-stable list, send the one-page Home Processor Registration Request to the Department of Agriculture and Markets, label every package, and sell anywhere inside New York, retail or wholesale, in person or online. The department's page currently lists no registration fee and no expiration date, and names no sales cap. The slow part is the wait: the department's notice says a review can take as long as 16 weeks, so send your form about four months before your first market. Most of your start-up money goes to packaging, labels, ingredients and an ordering setup, plus a county business certificate if you use a trade name.
Checked on the state agriculture department's Home Processing page, October 7, 2026: the 16-week review notice, the no-fee and no-expiration terms, and the approved and banned food lists, with supply, county and platform prices checked on their own pages the same day. On Homegrown, customers create an account to place their first order, and there is no drops feature.
Once your Home Processor registration comes through, you can set up a Homegrown storefront so customers can order ahead, and try it free for 7 days.
To start a cottage food business in New York, you register for the state's Home Processor exemption, confirm your product is on the allowed shelf-stable list, label it correctly, and start selling. The department's page lists no registration fee and no sales cap, and you can sell both retail and wholesale anywhere in New York. The one step that takes real time is the review, which the department says can run 16 weeks. This is the step-by-step business playbook; for the full legal detail, see our New York cottage food law guide.
You start a New York cottage food business in seven steps, and the one that takes longest is waiting on your registration. The order matters: send the form first, then use the wait to build everything else.
If you only remember one thing from this list, make it step three. Everything else fits inside the wait. The registration review cannot be rushed, and selling before you are registered means selling without the exemption.
Plan on about four months from the day you send your form to your first legal sale. The department's notice to applicants says it is "currently experiencing a high volume of exemption requests" and asks you to "allow up to 16 weeks to review the request," processed in the order received.
Here is a realistic timeline if you send your form on October 7, 2026:
Swipe to see the whole timeline.
| When | What you do | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 (Oct 7, 2026) | Confirm products, pick your trade name if you will use one so it goes on the form, check zoning, send form FSI-898c (and a well water test if you need one) | The department processes requests in the order they are received, so an early form gets an early place in line |
| Weeks 2 to 6 | Test recipes, weigh or count finished packages for the net quantity, design labels, price your products | You need final recipes to write ingredient lists in order of weight |
| Weeks 6 to 12 | Order packaging and labels, file a business certificate if you use a trade name, apply to markets | So your packaging, paperwork and market spots are ready the week approval arrives |
| At least 20 days before your first sale | Register for sales tax if you will sell taxable candy such as fudge | The Tax Department says to register at least 20 days before you begin business |
| Week 16 (by about Jan 27, 2027) | The latest date the department's notice tells you to plan for; turn on your storefront and announce your launch once approval arrives | 16 weeks from October 7, 2026 is January 27, 2027 |
The 16-week figure is the department's own notice on its Home Processing page, checked October 7, 2026. Some requests may finish sooner; plan for the full 16 weeks. The 20-day sales tax lead time comes from the Tax Department's bulletin on how to register for sales tax (TB-ST-360), checked the same day.
The review time is the fact most likely to change. The notice says the 16 weeks is due to a current high volume of requests, so the wait can change. Check the notice at the top of the department's Home Processing page the week you apply.
Because registration currently has no fee and no expiration date, it is a one-time wait. You only start the clock again if you move, since the registration is tied to your address, or if you add new products or change your trade name, which takes a supplemental request.
Work backward from the date you want to sell. A farmers market that opens Saturday, May 1, 2027 means your form should be in the department's hands by January 9, 2027, which is 16 weeks earlier. Put every product you might sell in the first year on the form's 10 lines, so a new product in June does not start a second wait.
New York is cheap to start because the state charges nothing to register. Your real costs are packaging, labels, ingredients and online ordering, plus a county filing if you use a business name. Here is what each piece cost when we checked on October 7, 2026:
Scroll sideways to see each cost and its source.
| Cost | Price we found | Required? | Source, checked Oct 7, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Processor registration | $0, no expiration | Yes | Department of Agriculture and Markets, Home Processing page |
| Private well water test | Set by the certified lab you use | Only if you are on a private well | Department page and form FSI-898c |
| 100 clear 4" x 6" cookie bags | $2.89 for 100, before shipping | You need some package | WebstaurantStore, LK Packaging P12F0406 |
| 120 printable 2" round labels | $14.49, plus $5.95 flat-rate shipping on orders under $75 | Every package needs a label; a 2-inch circle suits a short ingredient list, so size up if yours runs long with sub-ingredients | Avery 22807 product page |
| Business certificate (trade name) | $100 to $120 in New York City; $25 plus $10 for two certified copies in Rockland County | Only if you sell under a name other than your own | NYC311; Rockland County Clerk |
| Single-member LLC | $200 to file, a $50 Certificate of Publication, and newspaper publication fees | No | NY Department of State |
| Online storefront | Homegrown $10/month billed annually or $12.50 month to month, plus 2.9% + $0.30 per order | No | Homegrown signup page |
| Ingredients | Depends on your recipe and batch size | Yes | Price your own recipe (see the pricing section) |
Bag and label prices were loaded on the retailers' own product pages on October 7, 2026 and will move. The 4" x 6" bag holds one large cookie or a short stack of smaller ones; a dozen needs a bigger bag or a box.
For a cookie vendor selling under their own name, on public water, the required cash outlay before ingredients is about $23.33 plus shipping on the bags: $2.89 for 100 bags before shipping, plus $20.44 for 120 labels with shipping. That works out to roughly 20 cents of packaging per bag. Add your ingredients and, if you want online orders, $10 a month for a Homegrown storefront billed annually. A trade name in Brooklyn adds $120 at the county clerk; the same filing in Rockland County is $35, two certified copies included.
The department's page does not list a food safety course as a requirement for home processors. A course is still good practice, especially for allergen handling, but it is optional under this exemption.
You do not need a license to start a New York cottage food business; you need a registration. People search for a "cottage license" or a "home bakery license," but what New York gives you is an approved Home Processor registration, which takes the place of the Article 20-C food processing license a commercial bakery needs. The regulation behind it, 1 NYCRR 276.4, says processors of home-processed foods "shall be exempt from the licensing requirements of article 20-C" as long as their containers are clean and labeled, the food is not adulterated or misbranded, and jams, jellies, marmalades and similar products in glass jars have "suitable rigid metal covers."
The department's qualification flow chart (revised July 2026) sorts a few common cases before you ever fill out the form:
Once you make food outside the exemption, such as a product on the banned list, food made with commercial equipment, or food from a rented commercial kitchen, you need a license or permit for that kitchen, and for most processed foods that is the Article 20-C food processing license. The department's qualification flow chart (revised July 2026) sends meats, sandwiches and other entrées to "Food Business Licensing or DOH Regulations & Permits," so restaurant-style food may need a Department of Health permit instead; check with the department before you apply. Section 251-z-3 of the Agriculture and Markets Law sets that license on a two-year cycle at $400, or $175 for a "small-scale processor" with no more than ten full-time employees that is not a chain store (or $900 for an operation the commissioner decides needs more intensive oversight). A first-time applicant working out of a shared kitchen incubator gets the fee waived for two years. The switch is all or nothing: the department says your home registration becomes "Null & Void" once you open a food business licensed by Agriculture and Markets or permitted by the Department of Health, and from then on all your food must be made in the commercial facility.
The Home Processor Registration Request is a single page, form FSI-898c, and you send it by email to agr.sm.HPRegistrations@agriculture.ny.gov or by mail to the Division of Food Safety and Inspection, 10B Airline Drive, Albany, New York 12235. There is no fee. Here is what the form asks for, line by line:
The form itself is linked from the department's Home Processing page, under "Register as a Home Processor," as a downloadable PDF. The department lists that same email address for its Home Processor Registration team, so if you have heard nothing after 16 weeks, write to agr.sm.HPRegistrations@agriculture.ny.gov with your name and the date you sent your request.
Write your product lines broadly but honestly. "Cookies" covers chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. "Fudge" covers your flavors of fudge. A product that is not on the department's approved list will not be approved just because it is on your form, and the department's FAQ says your website and social media may not advertise foods the exemption does not allow.
New York's exemption covers only the foods on the department's approved list, and every one has to be shelf-stable. Checked October 7, 2026, the list includes breads, rolls and cinnamon rolls, biscuits, bagels, muffins, scones, cookies, brownies, cakes and cupcakes without homemade buttercream or cream cheese frosting, doughnuts with no cream filling, double-crust fruit pies, high-acid fruit jams, jellies and marmalades, fudge, sugar confections such as toffees, caramels and hard candies, peanut brittle, popcorn and caramel corn, Rice Krispies treats, granola, granola bars and trail mix made with commercially roasted nuts, crackers, pretzels, vegetable chips, waffle cones and pizzelle, and repacked or blended commercially dried spices, herbs, fruit and soup mixes.
One line on the department's page pulls the other way: its banned list includes "no-bake" products, "all products must be baked to ensure product stability," while Rice Krispies treats and fudge sit on the approved list. Ask the registration team before you put any other no-bake treat on your form.
The products people most often get wrong are on the banned side:
The full allowed and prohibited lists, with the department's reasons, are in our New York cottage food law guide. For label layout, see our cottage food labeling guide and the big 9 allergens on a cottage food label.
The department's Home Processing page, checked October 7, 2026, says: "Any finished food product that requires refrigeration is prohibited from being produced as a Home Processor." If your product has to live in the fridge, it is outside the exemption, whatever it is called.
Cookies, which are named on 16,820 of the 21,674 registrations on the state's list. We downloaded the department's list of registered home processors on October 7, 2026 (the file says it is current as of September 24, 2026) and read the products column for every registration: 16,820 out of 21,674 works out to 77.6%. Granola shows up on 2,622, about 12%. That gap is useful when you are deciding what to make first.
Eleven common foods named by registered New York home processors
Source: NYS Agriculture and Markets, Registered Home Processors list dated September 24, 2026, downloaded October 7, 2026. 21,674 registrations. A registration counts once for a food when its products column names that food as a whole word, singular or plural; trade names are not counted. The chart shows a selection of common foods, not a full ranking.
Read this as a map of competition, not a ban on cookies. In Suffolk County, the county with the most registrations, 1,409 of its 1,813 home processors name cookies and 204 name granola. A new cookie vendor there is one of many, so the label, the flavor and the ordering experience have to carry more weight. A vendor whose registration names granola or jam starts in a smaller field. 1,356 registrations, about 6%, list cookies and nothing else (counting "Cookies", "Cookie" and "cookies", with or without a trailing comma or period). Most vendors register several products, which is one more reason to fill all 10 lines on your form.
In a pull of the Homegrown catalog on October 7, 2026, 1,476 of the 2,907 products listed by 310 vendors (51%) were in the Bakery category. The pull does not show where those vendors sell, but the pattern matches New York's registered list: baked goods are where most home food businesses start, so plan on standing out by flavor, packaging and how easy you are to order from.
You can sell under your own legal name with no filing at all. If you want a trade name, meaning any business name that is not your own legal name, New York's General Business Law section 130 has you file a business certificate, also called a Certificate of Assumed Name, with the county clerk in each county where you do business. In New York City, NYC311's business registration page lists the fees by borough, checked October 7, 2026:
Outside the city, each county sets its own fee. The Rockland County Clerk, for example, charges $25 to file plus $10 for two certified copies, $35 in total. Search the name before you file it, at the county clerk and on the state's business entity database, and check that no other food business is already using it. Our guide to trademarking a food business name covers when a federal trademark is worth it.
Put the same trade name on your FSI-898c form, your labels and your storefront, so the name a customer sees matches the one the department and the county have on file.
New York is unusually flexible: the department's page allows both retail and wholesale, at agricultural venues, by home delivery and over the internet, as long as every sale stays inside the state. Your options:
Two rules shape how you run a market table. Everything must be packaged and labeled at home, because the department says "packaging of food items at an agricultural event" is not permitted. And the in-state rule covers online orders too, so a customer in New Jersey or Connecticut cannot have your cookies shipped to them. If you plan to sell at a market, our New York farmers market vendor permit guide covers what else you need on market day, and can you ship cottage food explains how shipping rules differ by state.
Wholesale is easy to overlook. The department's FAQ says you may sell "wholesale to local facilities (restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, etc.)" in New York, as long as you make, package and label the products yourself. A coffee shop that buys 3 dozen cookies a week is 156 dozen a year you do not have to sell one bag at a time. Its overview words wholesale as sales "at agricultural farm venues," so if a store account is central to your plan, email the registration team and keep their answer.
Once you are registered, the hard part stops being the law and starts being the orders. New York allows online sales and home delivery with no cap, so a vendor who takes pre-orders through Instagram messages, Venmo requests and a notes app hits a wall fast. Here is what the common ordering options cost on a $20 order of cookies, which New York does not tax:
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Option | Monthly plan | Trial | Platform fee | Card processing | Customer pays on a $20 order | Vendor pays on a $20 order | Vendor pays in a month of 50 orders at $20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homegrown, billed annually | $10 | 7 days, no charge until day 8 | None (0% commission) | 2.9% + $0.30, paid by the vendor | $20.00 | $0.88 plus the plan | $54.00 |
| Homegrown, billed monthly | $12.50 | 7 days, no charge until day 8 | None (0% commission) | 2.9% + $0.30 (vendor pays) | $20.00 | $0.88 plus the plan | $56.50 |
| Hotplate, default (customer pays the fee) | $0 | None listed (no plan to try) | 5% + $0.55, charged to the customer | 2.9% + $0.30, vendor-paid | $21.55 | $0.92 | $46.25 (your customers pay $77.50 more) |
| Hotplate, vendor covers the fee | $0 | None listed (no plan to try) | 5% + $0.55, paid by the vendor | 2.9% + $0.30, paid by you | $20.00 | $2.43 | $121.50 |
| Etsy | $0 (a one-time set-up fee may apply) | None listed | $0.20 listing fee plus 6.5% transaction fee | 3% + $0.25 on the gross order, including shipping and tax | $20.00 plus shipping | $2.35 | $117.50 |
Checked October 7, 2026 on Homegrown's signup page, Hotplate's pricing page and its post "What Hotplate does," which says "we charge a fee to your customer" by default and that 80% of its chefs keep that default, and Etsy's Fees and Payments Policy (updated October 5, 2026) and Etsy Payments Policy. Processing is figured on the $20 food price with no tip, tax or shipping; on Hotplate's default, it is figured on the $21.55 the card is charged. Etsy's Offsite Ads fee of 15%, or 12% once a shop passes $10,000 in yearly sales, is left out because it applies only to orders those ads bring in.
Homegrown fits a New York home processor who wants every order in one place without a cut of each sale. It is $10 per month billed annually ($12.50 month to month) with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing, so a vendor doing 50 orders a month or 200 pays the same plan and only card processing changes. You get a storefront with built-in payments, pickup scheduling and local delivery within a radius you choose, which suits New York's in-state rule better than a nationwide marketplace that shows your cookies to buyers in Ohio you cannot legally serve. Etsy adds a listing fee and a 6.5% transaction fee on top of processing, and Hotplate adds a 5% + $0.55 fee that your customers pay by default. The honest limits: customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order, there is no drops or countdown release feature, and while your storefront is listed on Homegrown's marketplace, you should plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link.
While you wait out the 16-week review, you can build your listings, write descriptions and photograph products, then switch on ordering the day your approval arrives. Start your Homegrown storefront with a 7-day trial (no charge until day 8) and have it ready before your registration comes back.
Price each product from its real cost, then add a margin you would be happy with at 50 orders a month. Start with four numbers per product:
Here is a worked example with made-up ingredient numbers so you can see the math. Say a bag of 3 cookies costs you $1.00 in ingredients and $0.20 for the bag and label, and you sell it for $6 as its own order. Card processing is $0.47, so you keep $4.33 per bag before your time and your storefront plan. At 120 bags a month that is $519.60, or $509.60 after a $10 Homegrown plan. Swap in your own ingredient cost; butter and chocolate prices move, and so will your margin.
Our guide to pricing baked goods walks through ingredient costing in detail, and pricing food for farmers markets, wholesale and online shows how to set a lower wholesale price that still pays you.
There's no cap in the department's page or in the regulation, 1 NYCRR 276.4, so you can earn as much as you can bake, package and sell inside New York. With no ceiling on sales, New York leaves more room to grow a home food business than a state with an annual cap. To get the most out of it:
The ceiling you will actually hit is the kitchen. The exemption only covers "ordinary kitchen facilities," so the day you need a deck oven or a 60-quart mixer is the day you are looking at a 20-C license and a commercial kitchen, not a bigger home setup.
You can start a cottage food business in New York City under the same Home Processor exemption, because it is statewide and the department's page does not carve out the city. On the department's September 24, 2026 list, 4,103 of the 21,674 registrations are in the five city counties: 1,462 in Kings (Brooklyn), 1,051 in New York (Manhattan), 951 in Queens, 376 in the Bronx and 263 in Richmond (Staten Island).
City vendors follow the same rules as everyone else, with three local details:
Selling food from a cart or table on a city sidewalk is a different question that the Home Processor registration does not answer. Ask NYC311 or the city health department before you set up on the street.
You don't need an LLC to register as a home processor; the registration form asks for an owner name, and you can register and sell as a sole proprietor. If you do form one, New York's Department of State charges $200 to file the Articles of Organization. Then New York adds a publication step: within 120 days you must publish a notice in two newspapers chosen by your county clerk for six consecutive weeks, and file a Certificate of Publication with a $50 fee, or the LLC's authority to do business is suspended, per the Department of State. See whether you need an LLC to sell food from home for the liability side.
Taxes have two parts:
The department does not require liability insurance; its FAQ says to consult an attorney or an insurance professional about your product liability risks. A market or a store you sell to may still ask for a certificate of insurance, so read product liability insurance for cottage food before you sign a wholesale deal.
These eight mistakes can cost a new New York vendor time or money, and most of them happen before the first sale:
Your website and social media count. The department's FAQ says they "may not advertise the sale of foods otherwise prohibited under the home processor license exemption." So do not post or offer prohibited foods, such as chocolate-dipped strawberries, on your Instagram or website as something you sell.
No license, but you must register for the Home Processor exemption with the Department of Agriculture and Markets before you sell. Registration has no fee and, per the department's page checked October 7, 2026, no expiration date, and registered home processors are exempt from Article 20-C licensing. If you make foods outside the exemption or move into a commercial kitchen, you need a license or permit for that kitchen: usually an Article 20-C license, or a Department of Health permit for restaurant-style food.
The state charges $0 to register, so a cookie vendor can start with about $23.33 in bags and labels, plus ingredients and shipping on the bags. A trade name adds a county business certificate ($100 to $120 in New York City, $35 in Rockland County, which includes two certified copies), and an online storefront adds $10 a month billed annually on Homegrown. An LLC is optional and costs $200 to file plus publication.
There's no annual sales cap under the Home Processor exemption, in the department's page or the regulation, 1 NYCRR 276.4. What you make depends on your prices, your margins and how many packages your home kitchen can turn out. Wholesale accounts with local cafes and grocery stores are one way to raise volume without adding market days.
Only shelf-stable foods on the department's approved list: breads, cookies, cakes and cupcakes with shelf-stable frosting, double-crust fruit pies, high-acid jams and jellies, fudge and other sugar confections, granola and trail mix with commercially roasted nuts, crackers, pretzels and repacked dried spices, among others. Perishable foods, homemade buttercream, cheesecake and tempered-chocolate dipping are prohibited.
Yes. New York allows online sales, home delivery and wholesale, with delivery or shipping anywhere within New York. Out-of-state sales are not covered, and the department says your website may not advertise foods the exemption does not allow.
Plan on about four months. The department's notice, checked October 7, 2026, tells applicants a Home Processor review can take up to 16 weeks, handled in the order received. Registration has no expiration date for now, per the department's page checked October 7, 2026. You file a new request if you move or add products, and the registration becomes void if you make or sell foods outside the exemption or open a licensed or permitted food business.
No. You can register and sell as a sole proprietor, under your own name or a filed trade name. An LLC is optional, costs $200 to file with the Department of State, and requires newspaper publication and a $50 Certificate of Publication within 120 days.
New York keeps the start simple: no fee to register, no sales cap, and both retail and wholesale allowed. The catch is time, so send your Home Processor Registration Request first, list every product you might sell, and spend the 16-week review building labels, prices and your storefront. Set up a Homegrown storefront to take New York cottage food orders online for $10 a month billed annually, see the best platform to sell food from home, read the full New York cottage food law, and compare other states on our cottage food laws by state hub.
*This guide is general information, not legal advice. Cottage food rules change, so verify your state's current rules with the NY Department of Agriculture and Markets before you start selling. Last verified: October 7, 2026.*
Selling at farmers markets? Our guide to the permits New York markets ask for covers market day.
