Arizona's cottage food law is one of the broadest. A home kitchen can make almost any food, including foods that need refrigeration and dairy, after the preparer takes an accredited food handler course and registers with the Arizona Department of Health Services, renewing every three years. Fish, shellfish, raw milk, alcohol and marijuana are out, and meat and poultry come only from federally allowed sources. Shelf-stable food can be sold through stores and delivery platforms; refrigerated, dairy, meat and poultry foods are delivered in person, cold, to one stop, within two hours. There's no sales limit in the law, sales and delivery stay in Arizona, and every package carries a label with your registration number, ingredients, the date made, and two statements. In the example below, a Verde Valley baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the delivery limits, the label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Take an accredited food handler course, then register with ADHS online; renew every three years.
- Almost any food: not fish, shellfish, raw milk, alcohol or marijuana; meat and poultry only from federally allowed sources.
- Make it in your home kitchen, and store food and equipment only at home.
- Shelf-stable food: sell yourself, through an agent or a store, and deliver yourself, by carrier or a delivery app.
- Refrigerated food and food with dairy, meat or poultry: you sell it, and it's delivered in person, cold, one stop, two hours at most.
- Sales and delivery in Arizona only; no sales limit in the law.
- Label: name, registration number, ingredients, date prepared, the home kitchen statement, the ADHS website line, and a tamper-evident seal.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and preparation date on its labels. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What A.R.S. 36-931 to 36-933 and R9-8-101.02 say |
|---|---|
| Food handler | Whoever prepares or directly supervises completes an accredited food handler course and keeps it current |
| Registration | Apply to ADHS with your home kitchen's address and a list of foods; renew every three years; report changes within 30 days |
| Foods | Shelf-stable or needing temperature control, as ADHS defines them; no alcohol, raw milk, fish or shellfish; meat and poultry only as federal law allows |
| Kitchen | A residential kitchen in your home, of a normal residential type, no larger than 1,000 square feet |
| Storage | Food and equipment only at home; the kitchen can't be a commissary for a food truck |
| Sales | To the maximum extent federal law allows, in Arizona only |
| Through stores | In a separate section or case, with a sign that it's homemade and exempt from state licensing and inspection |
| Not allowed | Selling it to be used as an ingredient at a permitted retail food establishment |
| Certificate | Displayed when selling anywhere but your home |
The law is A.R.S. 36-931 and 36-932, and the department's rule is R9-8-101.02. Registration is online through ADHS's cottage food program; applications take four to six weeks. This is general information, not legal advice.
The delivery limits
| Food | Who sells | How it's delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf-stable, no dairy, meat or poultry | You, your agent, or a store | By you, your agent, the store, a carrier, or a delivery platform |
| Dairy, meat or poultry | You, in person or online, not through a delivery platform | In person |
| Needs refrigeration | You | In person, kept cold, to one destination, no more than two hours in transit |
The two-hour, one-stop limit counts time stuck in traffic. Which foods need refrigeration is in TCS foods list.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Preparer | Your name and registration number |
| Ingredients | All of them |
| Date | The date the food was prepared |
| Statement | "This product was produced in a home kitchen that may come in contact with common food allergens and pet allergens and is not subject to public health inspection." |
| Website | "To obtain additional information about cottage foods or to report a foodborne illness, go to azdhs.gov/Cottagefood" |
| Group home | If made in a facility for individuals with developmental disabilities, say so |
| Seal | Tamper-evident, which can be the label |
Food sold online carries the same information as a prominent notice on the listing. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Verde Valley baker
Verde Valley Bakeshop, a made-up home baker in Cottonwood, Arizona, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market, through a coffee shop, and by order:
| Product | Allowed? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Prickly pear jelly | Yes | Shelf-stable: direct, a delivery app, or a store |
| Tres leches cake | Yes | Dairy, needs refrigeration: delivered in person, cold, within two hours |
| Pork green chile tamales | Ask first | Meat only from an inspected source under the federal rules; in person |
| Fish tacos | No | Fish isn't allowed |
| Cookies in a coffee shop's case | Yes | A separate display and a homemade sign |
| Cookies a café bakes into its dessert | No | Can't be an ingredient at a permitted restaurant |
The tres leches cakes are custom orders, driven to the customer in a cooler, one stop each. Summer heat slows the market, so sales dip from June to August; by September Verde Valley had sold $30,100, and Arizona sets no limit. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Arizona cottage food checklist. Three sheets: the label, each line the law asks for with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and how; and sales by month, with no cap set. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
ADHS can suspend a registration on a verified complaint, and every label carries the date the food was prepared. With refrigerated cakes, shelf-stable jelly in a coffee shop and market sales, which batch went where, and when it was made, is the part a notebook can't answer fast.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and preparation date on its labels.
Each batch dated. Each batch gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with them, so the date the label needs comes from the batch.
The coffee shop as a customer. The shop has its own orders, and each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows where a batch went.
Market sales too. TaroStack connects to Square for market sales, so custom orders, the shop and the market sit together.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| The date prepared | Handwritten | From the batch's lot |
| Which batch went to the shop | Not recorded | Recorded with each order |
| Who got a batch | Guessed | One recall report |
Lots, batches, orders and lot labels are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.