Louisiana's cottage food law, R.S. 40:4.9, exempts low-risk foods made at home from the state Sanitary Code's equipment and construction rules: baked goods, candies, cane syrup, dried mixes, honey, jams and preserves, spices, and, unlike most states, pickles, acidified foods, sauces and syrups, as long as nothing contains animal muscle or fish protein. It covers you while gross annual sales stay under $30,000. There's no license or registration, but you need a current parish sales tax certificate before you sell, every product is labeled as not produced in a licensed or regulated facility, and baked goods can't be sold for resale. A 2025 bill to raise the limit to $150,000 stalled in a Senate committee. In the example below, a St. Martin Parish cook sorts six products. Below are the rules, the foods, the label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Low-risk foods made in your home: baked goods, candies, cane syrup, dried mixes, honey, jams and preserves, pickles and acidified foods, sauces and syrups, spices.
- Nothing with animal muscle protein or fish protein, and nothing with CBD.
- The exemption applies only while gross annual sales are under $30,000.
- No license or registration with the state; a current parish sales tax certificate is required to sell.
- A baker of breads, cakes, cookies or pies can't hire help, and can't sell them for resale.
- Custard and cream-filled bakery goods follow set rules: pasteurized milk, cooked mix, cold holding.
- Label: a clear statement that the food wasn't produced in a licensed or regulated facility.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the year's sales from the orders. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What R.S. 40:4.9 says |
|---|---|
| Exemption | From Sanitary Code equipment, design, construction and supply rules, for low-risk foods made in the home for sale |
| Limit | Doesn't apply to a preparer whose gross annual sales are $30,000 or more |
| Baked goods | No hired help; no sales to a retail business or anyone for resale |
| Bakery kitchen | Screened openings, no vermin, no pets where baking happens, refrigeration at 45°F or below, surfaces sanitized after each day |
| Custard and cream fillings | Pasteurized milk only; mix cooked to the equivalent of 145°F for 30 minutes; chilled to 45°F or below; no hand contact after cooking |
| Label | Clearly indicates the food wasn't produced in a licensed or regulated facility; unprocessed raw honey exempt |
| Sales tax | Registered to collect local sales and use tax, with a current parish certificate |
| Cane syrup | "Home" includes an open-sided shelter for the kettle or evaporator |
The law is R.S. 40:4.9, last amended by Act 357 of 2022. HB 150 of 2025, which would have raised the limit to $150,000 and rewritten the label, is listed as pending in the Senate's committee and didn't become law. This is general information, not legal advice.
The low-risk foods
| On the list | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| Baked goods, including breads, cakes, cookies and pies | Anything with animal muscle protein, such as meat pies |
| Candies | Anything with fish or shellfish protein, such as crawfish pies |
| Cane syrup; sauces and syrups | Foods containing CBD |
| Dried mixes; spices | |
| Honey and honeycomb products | |
| Jams, jellies and preserves | |
| Pickles and acidified foods |
Pickles and acidified foods are on the list, but their safety still rests on the recipe and the pH; how readings are taken is in pH testing for acidified foods.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Statement | That the food was not produced in a licensed or regulated facility |
| Raw honey | Unpasteurized, unfiltered honey that keeps its pollen is exempt |
The law asks for nothing more, but a customer with an allergy needs the ingredients and allergens, and your name and phone make a question easy to ask. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a St. Martin Parish cook
Bayou Teche Kitchen, a made-up home cook in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, I use in these examples, sells at a Saturday market and from home:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pralines | Yes | Candies |
| Pickled okra | Yes | Pickles and acidified foods |
| Hot sauce | Yes | Sauces, with no animal or fish protein |
| Doberge cake with custard filling | Yes, with rules | Pasteurized milk, cooked custard, kept at 45°F or below |
| Crawfish pies | No | Fish and shellfish protein |
| King cakes for a coffee shop to resell | No | Baked goods can't be sold for resale |
King cake season front-loads the year: January and February brought $8,100 of the $24,600 sold by September, 82% of the $30,000 line. With the holidays ahead, the cook watches the total weekly, since at $30,000 the exemption stops applying. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Louisiana cottage food checklist. Three sheets: the label and sales tax lines, each with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and why; and sales by month against $30,000, red past 90%. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
At $30,000 in gross sales the exemption no longer applies, and Carnival season can put a king cake baker near it before spring. The parish also expects sales tax on every sale, so the same total has to be right for two reasons.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the year's sales from the orders.
Each batch dated. A batch of pralines or pickled okra gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with them.
The year's sales. Market and home orders sit together, with Square connected for market sales, so the year's total against $30,000, and the sales the parish taxes, come from the same records; every list exports to CSV.
Readings on the batch. Fields of your own on the batch record hold each batch of pickled okra's pH.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the jar | The batch's lot and dates |
| The year's gross sales | Added up when it's close | From the orders, exported to CSV |
| A batch's pH | A log sheet | A field on the batch record |
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.