New Jersey's cottage food rule, N.J.A.C. 8:24-11, asks more of an applicant than most states do. A home baker applies to the Department of Health for a Cottage Food Operator Permit: $100, good for two years, with a food protection manager certificate (not a food handler card), proof your water is potable, and a product questionnaire for every product, frosting and filling, each approved before you sell it. There's no kitchen inspection. Sales stay under $50,000 a year and happen in person in New Jersey: from your home, the customer's home, farmers markets and farm stands, events. You can take orders and payments online, but nothing goes by mail or carrier, nothing leaves the state, and nothing goes to stores or restaurants. In the example below, a Hammonton baker sorts six products. Below are the steps, the foods, where you can sell, the label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Apply for a Cottage Food Operator Permit: $100, valid two years.
- Send a food protection manager certificate, a water bill or well test, and a product questionnaire for every product, frosting and filling.
- Only approved, non-TCS products, made in your home's kitchen; adding a product means a new application and fee.
- Up to $50,000 in gross annual sales.
- Hand over the food in New Jersey: your home, the customer's home, farmers markets, farm stands, temporary events.
- Orders and payments can come online or by phone; delivery by mail or carrier isn't allowed.
- No stores, restaurants, wholesale or out-of-state sales.
- Label: product, ingredients, Contains line, your name, business and permit number, town and "NJ", and the statement.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the year's sales from the orders. More below.
The steps
| Step | What the Department of Health asks |
|---|---|
| Zoning | Confirm your town allows a cottage food business at home; the Department won't approve one it doesn't |
| Application | Form CFO-1 |
| Training | A food protection manager certificate in good standing |
| Water | A recent water bill, or a total coliform test of well water from within 60 days |
| Products | A product questionnaire for each product, frosting and filling: ingredients by weight, process, sources, label |
| Fee | $100, nonrefundable |
| Permit | Valid two years; adding products takes a new full application and fee, and restarts the two years |
The rule is N.J.A.C. 8:24-11, and the Department's FAQ explains the application and the product questionnaire. This is general information, not legal advice.
What you can make
The rule's list: baked goods, including breads, cakes, cupcakes, pastries and cookies; candy, brittle and toffee; chocolate-covered nuts and dried fruit; dried fruit; dried herbs and seasonings; dried pasta; dry baking mixes; fruit jams, jellies and preserves; fruit pies, empanadas and tamales, but not pumpkin; fudge; granola, cereal and trail mix; processed honey and sweet sorghum syrup; nuts and nut butters; popcorn and caramel corn; roasted coffee and dried tea; vinegar and mustard; waffle cones and pizzelles. Other non-TCS foods can be added by written application. Raw, unprocessed honey isn't cottage food and needs no permit. Which foods need refrigeration is in TCS foods list.
Where you can sell
| Allowed | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| At your home, but not to eat there | To anyone who isn't the consumer |
| At the customer's home in New Jersey | To a retail food establishment or wholesaler |
| A New Jersey farmers market or farm stand | By U.S. mail or a common carrier |
| A temporary retail food event in New Jersey | Outside New Jersey |
| Elsewhere in New Jersey where the law allows | Over $50,000 in gross annual sales |
Taking orders, payments and advertising online or by phone is fine, as long as the food is handed over in New Jersey.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Product | The common name |
| Ingredients | In descending order by weight |
| Allergens | "Contains" followed by each major food allergen |
| Operator | Your name, business name and permit number |
| Place | The municipality you make it in, then "New Jersey" or "NJ" |
| Statement | "This food is prepared pursuant to N.J.A.C. 8:24-11 in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Department of Health." |
Away from a home, at a market or event, the permit and a placard with the same statement go on display. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Hammonton baker
Pinelands Pantry, a made-up cottage food operator in Hammonton, New Jersey, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market and delivers orders around town:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Blueberry pie | Yes | Fruit pies |
| Blueberry jam | Yes | Fruit jams |
| Almond butter | Yes | Nut butters are on the list |
| Pumpkin pie | No | Fruit pies exclude pumpkin |
| Ricotta cannoli | No | Needs refrigeration |
| Pies shipped to Philadelphia | No | No carrier delivery, nothing out of state |
The baker's first application listed the pie crust, the blueberry filling and the jam as three questionnaires; the almond butter came later, on a second $100 application that restarted the permit's two years. Blueberry season carried the year to $32,500 by September, 65% of $50,000. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the New Jersey cottage food checklist. Three sheets: the label, each line with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and why; and sales by month against $50,000, 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
New Jersey approves products one by one, so the recipe on file is the recipe you have to make, and the year's gross sales can't pass $50,000. A changed filling, a new flavor, and a busy summer are each easy to lose track of.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the year's sales from the orders.
Recipes by version. Recipes are versioned, so the recipe you submitted is a version on a date, and each batch records which version it was made from, so a changed filling is a new, dated version.
Each batch dated. A batch of pies gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
The year's sales. Market and delivered orders sit together, with Square connected for market sales, so the total against $50,000 comes from the records; every list exports to CSV.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| The approved recipe | A copy of the questionnaire | A recipe version on a date |
| A batch's date | Written on the box | The batch's lot and dates |
| The year's gross sales | Added up by hand | From the orders, exported to CSV |
Lots, batches, versioned recipes and orders 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.