Sometimes, in one of three ways, and it depends on your state and city. The simplest is not to convert anything: a cottage food law may let you sell certain foods from the home kitchen you have. Some states also license home-based food processors, with an inspection of the home kitchen, for a wider range of products. And in many places you can build a separate, licensed commercial kitchen on your property, in a garage or outbuilding, if zoning allows it, built to the same rules as any commercial kitchen. What often isn't allowed is licensing the family kitchen, the one where dinner is made, as a full commercial kitchen. Below is each route, the zoning question, what a separate kitchen costs, and what to do next.
The short version
- Route 1: cottage food. Sell allowed low-risk foods from your home kitchen, with limits; no conversion needed.
- Route 2: a home processing license, where your state has one, with an inspection of your home kitchen.
- Route 3: a separate licensed kitchen at home, built to commercial kitchen rules, if zoning allows.
- A family kitchen shared with household cooking is rarely licensed as a full commercial kitchen.
- Zoning, home occupation permits and your homeowners' association can stop a home kitchen before the health department does.
- A separate kitchen costs about what any small commercial kitchen costs.
- TaroStack keeps your recipes, batches and lots the same whichever kitchen you use. More below.
Route 1: cottage food
A cottage food law lets you make certain shelf-stable foods in your own kitchen, often with registration and labeling but without commercial equipment. Utah's law, for example, says its cottage food rules may not require commercial surfaces like stainless steel, commercial-grade sinks, dishwashers or ovens, or a separate kitchen (Utah Code 4-5-501). The trade-off is the list of allowed foods and the sales limits. One state's list and limits are in Hawaii cottage food law, and how to start in how to start a cottage food business.
Route 2: a home processing license
Some states have a license between cottage food and a full commercial kitchen: a home kitchen inspected by the health or agriculture department, allowed to make a wider range of products, sometimes for stores. The requirements commonly include keeping pets out during production, a sink for handwashing, a water test if you're on a well, and records. It's worth asking your state's food safety office whether it offers one.
Route 3: a separate licensed kitchen at home
A garage, basement or outbuilding built out as a separate commercial kitchen, used only for the business, is licensed like any other commercial kitchen, under the state or local rules that grow out of FDA's model Food Code (FDA Food Code). That means a plan review before building, the sinks, a hood if you cook with open flame or fryers, cleanable floors, walls and ceilings, cold holding, and often its own entrance and restroom access. The cost is the cost of a small commercial kitchen: a 600-square-foot build-out with a hood can run around $60,000, and a bakery or packing kitchen without one much less. When a co-packer beats building is in co-packer vs commercial kitchen. This is general information, not legal advice.
Zoning comes first
Before the health department, your city's zoning decides whether a food business can run from your home at all: a home occupation permit, limits on customer visits, delivery trucks, signs and employees, and rules for accessory buildings. A homeowners' association can add its own. Ask zoning before you spend a dollar on drawings.
Which route fits
| If you... | Look at |
|---|---|
| Make shelf-stable baked goods, jams or candy and sell directly | Cottage food |
| Want stores, or products outside the cottage list | A home processing license, if your state has one |
| Need a hood, meat, refrigerated foods, or room to grow | A separate licensed kitchen, or a shared kitchen first |
| Aren't sure the business will last | A shared kitchen, before building anything |
A shared kitchen is the low-risk way to test the business before building; what it costs is in commissary kitchen cost.
Where this stops working
Whichever kitchen you use this year, you may use a different one next year: home, then a shared kitchen, then your own. Records kept in a notebook for one kitchen get rewritten for the next, and the batch history that answers a customer's question is in an old notebook.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps your recipes, batches and lots the same whichever kitchen you use.
Recipes and batches. Each recipe is kept by weight, and each batch takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots it used and gets a lot of its own, wherever it's made.
Kitchens as sites. A shared kitchen's shelves, or your new kitchen, can be a site, with transfers between them; more than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.
Records for the inspector. A batch record form carries your own fields, such as cooling temperatures, with limits and a sign-off, so a licensed kitchen's records are kept from the first batch. How lot tracking works is in what is lot tracking.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Recipes by weight | A binder | Recipes, with versions |
| What went into a batch | Memory | Lots recorded on the batch |
| Stock in two kitchens | Two lists | Two sites, with transfers |
| Records for an inspection | Loose sheets | Fields on every batch |
Recipes, batches, lots and batch records are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard at $99. 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.