Nebraska's cottage food law, Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-2,280, is broad. A home kitchen can make almost any food, including foods that need refrigeration, except a short list: meat and other animal parts, fluid milk, raw eggs, unpasteurized juice, infused oils and honey, sprouts, canned or sealed acidified foods, tofu and tempeh, and fermented foods like kimchi and kombucha. Before selling, you take a food safety course and register with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, unless you only sell shelf-stable food directly at a farmers market. Sales are direct to consumers at markets, fairs and events, or for pickup and delivery from home; shelf-stable food can go by mail, while refrigerated food is delivered in person within two hours. Every package carries your name and address, and every sale a notice that the kitchen isn't inspected. In the example below, a Kearney baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the label and notice, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Take a food safety course: a nationally accredited one, a culinary school or local food handler course, or one the Department approves.
- Register with the Department of Agriculture before selling; registered producers appear on a public list.
- Exception: shelf-stable food sold directly at a farmers market needs neither the course nor registration.
- Refrigerated foods are allowed, except meat, fluid milk, raw eggs and a few others.
- Sell direct: farmers markets, fairs, festivals, craft shows, pickup or delivery from home.
- Shelf-stable food can be mailed; refrigerated food is delivered in person, cold, within two hours.
- Label: name and address; ingredients too for refrigerated food. Plus a notice: not inspected, may contain allergens.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What 81-2,280 says |
|---|---|
| Not allowed | Any part of an animal or animal byproduct; fluid milk products; raw eggs; unpasteurized juice; infused oils or honey; sprouts; low-acid canned and hermetically sealed acidified food; tofu, tempeh and similar; kimchi, kombucha and similar fermented foods |
| Training | Before any sales, a nationally accredited food safety course, a culinary school or local food handler course, or a Department-approved course |
| Registration | Name, address and phone, the course and its date, and a well water test for nitrate or bacteria if you use a private well |
| Exception | Shelf-stable food sold directly to consumers at a farmers market needs no course or registration |
| Selling | Direct to consumers at a farmers market, fair, festival, craft show or other public event, or for pickup or delivery from home |
| Shelf-stable food may go by U.S. mail or commercial carrier | |
| Refrigerated food | Delivered only by you in person, kept at temperature, no more than two hours in transit |
| Local rules | Preempted where they don't conform |
The law is printed on the Department's cottage food registration page, and the LB 304 committee statement explains the 2019 expansion. The Department's Q&A adds that "animal parts" means meat, lard, tallow and bone broth, not eggs or milk as ingredients. This is general information, not legal advice.
The label and notice
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Package or container label | Your name and address |
| Refrigerated food | Also the ingredients in descending order |
| Notice at the sale | Prepared in a kitchen not subject to regulation and inspection by a regulatory authority, and may contain allergens |
| Pickup and delivery sales | The same notice at your home, on your website, and in every ad |
How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Kearney baker
Platte Valley Bakehouse, a made-up cottage food producer in Kearney, Nebraska, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market and takes orders for pickup and delivery:
| Product | Allowed? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit kolaches | Yes | Shelf-stable: can be mailed |
| Cheesecake | Yes | Refrigerated: registered, ingredients on the label, delivered in person within two hours |
| Cookies at the farmers market only | Yes | No course or registration needed for that alone |
| Runzas | No | No meat |
| Kimchi | No | Fermented foods are excluded |
| Canned dill pickles | No | Sealed acidified food is excluded |
The baker started with cookies at the market, then took an online course and registered to add cheesecakes and mailed kolaches. By September Platte Valley had sold $29,400. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business, and which foods need refrigeration in TCS foods list.
Get the checklist
Download the Nebraska cottage food checklist. Three sheets: the label and notice, each line with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and how; and sales by month. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Refrigerated cakes delivered across town, kolaches in the mail, and a market table make three kinds of orders, each with its own rules. When a customer calls about one cake, which batch it was and who else got that batch is the answer that matters.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went.
Each batch dated. A batch of cheesecakes gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Orders by customer. Delivered, mailed and market orders record the lots each customer got, so one recall report shows where a batch went; TaroStack connects to Square for market sales.
Recipes by version. Each recipe is versioned, and each batch records the version it was made from, so the ingredients behind a cheesecake's label are on record.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the box | The batch's lot and dates |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
| The ingredients behind a label | Remembered | The batch's recipe version |
Lots, batches, versioned recipes 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.