There's no separate license for selling food online: the website is a way of taking orders, and the license that matters is the one for where the food is made. If you bake at home under your state's cottage food law, that law decides whether you can take orders online, whether you can ship them or must hand them over in person, and how far: some states allow mail order, some only in-person delivery, and a lot of them keep cottage food inside the state. Ship past those limits, or ship food that needs refrigeration, and the food comes from a licensed kitchen under a state food permit, with a full federal label, packaging that keeps it safe in transit, and sales tax rules that can follow your sales into other states. Florida, the example's state, lets cottage food operations sell online and by mail order and deliver by mail or a commercial carrier, under a $250,000 yearly cap and never wholesale; Utah and Idaho keep homemade food within the state. In the example below, a Pensacola baker gets its first order from Georgia. Below are the layers, how three states differ, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No separate online license: the license is for where the food is made.
- Cottage food laws decide whether you can ship, deliver in person, and how far.
- A lot of states keep cottage food inside the state.
- Shipping further, or shipping food that needs refrigeration, takes a licensed kitchen.
- Every shipped package carries the full label and packaging that keeps it safe.
- Sales tax can follow online sales into other states.
- Florida: cottage food online and by mail, up to $250,000 a year; Utah and Idaho: in-state only.
- TaroStack keeps each order's lots and dates, from whichever kitchen. More below.
The layers
| Layer | Who decides | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Where the food is made | State cottage food law or food permit | Home kitchen or licensed kitchen |
| Online orders | Cottage food law | Whether orders can be taken online |
| Delivery | Cottage food law | In person, by mail, by carrier |
| State lines | Your state, the other state, federal law | Whether home-made food can leave the state |
| Labels | State and FDA, 21 CFR part 101 | The cottage food statement, or the full federal label |
| Sales tax | Each state | Where you owe tax as sales grow |
How to ship perishables is in shipping perishable food small business, and cookies in particular in how to ship cookies. Every state differs; this is general information, not legal advice.
How three states differ
| Florida | Utah | Idaho | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Cottage food, F.S. 500.80 | Cottage food registration, or the Homemade Food Act | Direct-to-Consumer Commerce Act, 2026 |
| Online orders | Yes, in the statute | Not spelled out; the delivery rules decide | Not spelled out; sales to informed end consumers |
| Delivery | In person, to an event venue, by mail or commercial carrier | Registration: within Utah; Homemade Food Act: in person only | Within Idaho, by you or a designated agent |
| Across the state line | Not spelled out in the statute | No: within Utah only | No: entirely within Idaho |
| Limit | $250,000 a year; no wholesale | Shelf-stable foods for registration | Meat only in listed cases |
Florida's statute is 500.80; Utah's rules are on UDAF's cottage food page; Idaho's Act is Senate Bill 1283. More on Florida in Florida cottage food law.
An example: a Pensacola baker
Gulf Breeze Sweets, the made-up home baker in Pensacola, Florida, I use in these examples, sells key lime cookies and mango jam online and ships them within Florida, and since August 2026 has a permitted kitchen for key lime pies. Then a customer in Georgia orders a box:
| Layer | Status |
|---|---|
| Cottage food sales online and by mail | Done: orders shipped within Florida |
| Cottage food label | Done, with "Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations." |
| Yearly cap | About $122,300 of $250,000 by September |
| The Georgia order | Baked in the permitted kitchen, under its food permit, and shipped from there |
| Food permit | Done August 3, 2026; renews August 3, 2027 |
| Sales tax | To check: when sales into Georgia start to count there |
| Packaging | Cookies in sealed bags, jam bubble-wrapped |
| Product liability insurance | Covers shipped orders; renews August 1, 2027 |
The home kitchen keeps the Florida orders; anything crossing a state line now comes from the permitted kitchen, so the question of what Georgia allows from a Florida home kitchen never comes up. The permitted kitchen is in bakery license.
Get the checklist
Download the license to sell food online checklist. One sheet: each layer, who issues it, what it is, whether you need it, the cost, the date done and the renewal date; the status and the total cost fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Two kitchens, one under cottage food and one under a permit, and orders going out from both: a checklist doesn't keep which box came from which kitchen, or how close the cottage food sales are to the cap.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each order's lots and dates, from whichever kitchen made them.
Two kitchens. The home kitchen and the permitted kitchen can be two sites, each with its own stock; more than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.
Each bake a lot. A bake gets a lot with its date, and lot labels print for the bags, so each box shows where and when it was made.
Where it went. Each order records the lots it got, and sales are kept by product and customer, so the cottage food total for the year is in your reports.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which kitchen made a box | Memory | The lot's site |
| Sales toward the cottage food cap | Added up from receipts | Sales reports |
| Which customers got a bake | Order emails | One recall report |
Lots, batches, sales orders and reports 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.