It depends on what you make and where you sell it. Nearly every state has a cottage food law that lets you make certain low-risk, shelf-stable foods, such as cookies, breads, jams, granola and candy, in your home kitchen and sell them, often directly to customers, with limits. Foods that need refrigeration to stay safe, foods with meat, and canned low-acid foods generally need a licensed commercial kitchen, and so does selling beyond what your state's cottage law allows, such as to stores in some states or across state lines. Below is what cottage food covers, what needs a licensed kitchen, how where you sell changes it, examples, and what to do next.
The short version
- Cottage food laws let you sell some shelf-stable foods made at home; the list and limits vary by state.
- Foods that need refrigeration, meat and poultry, and low-acid canned foods need a licensed kitchen.
- Some states let cottage foods go to stores; others allow only direct sales.
- Cottage foods commonly stay within your state.
- A licensed kitchen can be your own, a shared or commissary kitchen, or a co-packer's.
- Read your own state's cottage food rules and call the agency that runs them before you start.
- TaroStack keeps the records either kind of kitchen needs: batches, lots, labels. More below.
What cottage food covers
Utah's law, as one example, defines a cottage food operation as a person producing nonpotentially hazardous baked goods, jams, jellies or other such foods in a home kitchen, registered with the state, holding a food handler's permit, and labeling each product as the state's rules say (Utah Code 4-5-501). Its list of permitted foods runs from shelf-stable baked goods to granola, candies, jams, honey, roasted coffee and popcorn, and it excludes refrigerated or frozen foods, foods with meat or poultry, and cheesecakes and custards (UDAF). Other states draw the lines differently: some cap yearly sales, some allow online sales or shipping within the state, some require a home inspection, and a few allow more. How a cottage food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business, and one state's law in detail in Hawaii cottage food law.
What needs a licensed kitchen
| Product | Home kitchen under cottage food? | Licensed kitchen? |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies, breads, granola, candy | Commonly allowed | Needed to go beyond cottage limits |
| Jams and jellies | Commonly allowed, some with limits | Needed for low-sugar spreads in some states |
| Cheesecake, custard pies, cream fillings | Not allowed | Yes |
| Tamales, burritos, anything with meat | Not allowed | Yes, and USDA inspection for meat sold wholesale |
| Salsa, pickles, hot sauce | Often not allowed, or only with a tested recipe | Commonly, under acidified food rules |
| Refrigerated or frozen foods | Not allowed | Yes |
| Canned vegetables, soups, low-acid foods | Not allowed | Yes, in a plant set up for low-acid canning |
Where you sell changes it
Selling directly to customers at a market or from home is what cottage food laws are built for. Selling to stores and cafés is allowed in some states and not others. Selling across state lines takes most products out of cottage food altogether and into licensed kitchens and federal rules; a facility that makes food for the wider market registers with FDA, while retail food establishments and restaurants are among the operations that don't (21 CFR 1.226). This is general information, not legal advice.
Two examples
Granite Peak Cookie Co., a made-up cookie maker in Utah, bakes chocolate chip cookies at home under Utah's cottage food registration, sells them at markets and, as Utah allows, to cafés within the state. When a grocery chain in Idaho asks, that order needs a licensed kitchen. Rocktown Tamales, a made-up tamale maker in Virginia, makes pork tamales, which need refrigeration and contain meat, so it never had a home option: it started in a shared kitchen. What shared kitchen time costs is in commissary kitchen cost, and when a co-packer makes more sense in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.
What to do next
Find your state's cottage food rules, often run by the department of agriculture or health, and read the list of allowed foods and the sales limits. If your product is on it and you're selling directly, start at home with registration and labels. If it isn't, or you want stores across state lines, look at a shared kitchen first; it's cheaper than building your own.
Where this stops working
Whichever kitchen you start in, the records follow: what went into each batch, the label on each package, which customers got which batch. A cottage operation's notebook works until the first store order or the first question about an allergen.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the records either kind of kitchen needs: batches, lots, labels.
Batches and lots. Each batch takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots it used and gets a lot of its own, so the date and batch on a label lead back to the flour and butter in it. Texas, for one, asks cottage food labels to carry a batch number; how that works is in cottage food record keeping.
Labels with lots. Lot labels print with the lot code and dates, and with a GS1-128 barcode when the item has a GTIN.
Who got what. The lots each customer got are recorded as they ship, so a recall report shows who to call.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What went into Saturday's batch | Memory | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The batch number on a label | Written by hand | The batch's lot, printed |
| Which cafés got that batch | Search the receipts | One recall report |
| Moving to a licensed kitchen | A new notebook | The same records come with you |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls 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.