New York doesn't call it cottage food. Its version is the home processor exemption: register with the Department of Agriculture and Markets, for free, and you can make foods from its approved list, breads, cookies, cakes, fruit pies, jams, granola, confections, in your home kitchen without a food processing license. You can sell them retail or wholesale, at farm stands and markets, by home delivery, online, and to local cafés and stores, but only within New York State; nothing ships out of state. Foods that need refrigeration are out, and so are some surprises: homemade buttercream, chocolate coatings and anything with raw nuts. Every item is packaged at home and labeled with the maker's full address. In the example below, a Finger Lakes baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the foods, the label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Register with the Department of Agriculture and Markets as a home processor; there's no fee, and review can take up to 16 weeks.
- Make only foods on the approved list, using your home's ordinary kitchen.
- Sell retail or wholesale, at markets, stands and fairs, by home delivery, online, and to local cafés and stores.
- All sales within New York State; shipping out of state isn't allowed.
- Package and label at home, not at the market.
- The department's page sets no sales limit for home processors.
- Label: name, ingredients with allergens, net weight, the processor's name and full address; "Made in a Home Kitchen" recommended.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which cafés it went to. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What Agriculture and Markets says |
|---|---|
| Registration | Required; no fee; no expiration; tied to the location, so moving means reapplying |
| Foods | Only items on the approved list; nothing that needs refrigeration |
| Sales | Wholesale and retail, at farms, farm stands, farmers markets, green markets, craft fairs and flea markets, by home delivery, or online |
| Where | Within New York State only; no interstate sales or shipping |
| Wholesale | Allowed to local facilities in New York, such as restaurants, cafés and grocery stores |
| Packaging | Pre-packaged and labeled at home; not at the event |
| Water | A private well needs a potability test |
| Inspection | Kitchens reviewed on complaint |
| Who can't use it | Anyone holding a Health Department permit or an Agriculture and Markets license |
All of it is on the department's home processing page (Agriculture and Markets), with the registration form (FSI-898c). This is general information, not legal advice.
What you can make
Approved: breads, rolls, cinnamon rolls, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, cookies, biscotti, cakes and cupcakes, brownies, double-crust fruit pies, scones, jams and jellies from high-acid fruits, repackaged dried herbs, spices and fruits, fudge, popcorn, peanut brittle and granola made with commercially roasted nuts, crackers, pretzels, sugar confections. Not approved: homemade buttercream or cream cheese frostings with dairy or eggs, vegetable breads, pickles and relishes, sauces and salsas, pepper jellies, cheesecakes, tempered chocolate and candy melts, anything with raw nuts, dairy products, meat, beverages, nut butters, freeze-dried foods. Which foods need refrigeration is in TCS foods list.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Product | The common or usual name |
| Ingredients | In order of predominance by weight, every allergen clearly identified |
| Net quantity | Net weight or contents |
| Processor | Your name |
| Address | Street address or PO Box, city, state and ZIP |
| Home kitchen | Recommended: "Made in a Home Kitchen" or "Made at Home by …", at least 1/16 inch |
How to write the allergen line is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Finger Lakes baker
Finger Lakes Crumb, a made-up home baker in Ithaca, New York, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market and to a café in town:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Apple cider donuts | Yes | Doughnuts are on the list |
| Cupcakes with homemade buttercream | No | Homemade buttercream with dairy isn't allowed |
| Maple granola | Yes | With commercially roasted nuts |
| Hot pepper jelly | No | Pepper jellies aren't allowed |
| Chocolate-dipped pretzels | No | No chocolate or candy melts for topping |
| Double-crust apple pie | Yes | Double-crust fruit pies are allowed |
The café buys donuts and pie wholesale, which New York allows within the state. When a customer in Vermont asked for a shipped box of granola, the answer was no: home processor foods stay in New York. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the New York home processor 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, with no cap set. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Wholesale to cafés means orders, deliveries and invoices on top of market days, and every package labeled at home with the full address. Keeping track of which batch went to which café, and when, is the part a notebook loses.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which cafés it went to.
Each batch dated. A batch of donuts gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Cafés as customers. The café is a customer with its own orders, and each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows where a batch went.
Market sales too. TaroStack connects to Square for market sales, so wholesale and market sit together.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the bag | The batch's lot and dates |
| Which batch went to the café | Not recorded | Recorded with each order |
| The café's invoices | Written by hand | From its orders |
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.