Oregon's cottage food law is the Cottage Food Exemption, ORS 616.723, expanded in 2023 by Senate Bill 643. A home kitchen can make foods that don't need refrigeration, baked goods, candy, jams and jellies from acidic fruit, fruit butters, coffee beans, popcorn, nut mixes, and sell them with no license and no inspection from the Department of Agriculture, up to $52,700 in gross sales a year since March 13, 2026. Sales can be in person, online or by mail, and to grocery stores and other retailers with a written agreement to shelve it separately, but not to restaurants, caterers or schools. Two things set Oregon apart: the label names any pets that live in the home, and the law asks for sales records detailed enough to show where every sale went, kept for three years. In the example below, a Corvallis baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the label, the records, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No ODA license or inspection, for foods that don't need time or temperature control.
- Up to $52,700 in gross sales a year, adjusted for inflation.
- Sell to end users any way: from home, online, by mail, at events.
- Sell to a retailer only packaged and labeled, with a written agreement to display it separately with a sign.
- Never to restaurants, caterers, schools, day cares, hospitals, nursing homes or prisons.
- Anyone working for you holds a food handler card.
- Label: the homemade statement, product, ingredients, business name, phone, address or ODA number, net weight in both units, allergens, and any pets in the home.
- Keep sales records for three years: who, where, when, what, how many, at what price.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the records Oregon asks for, from the orders. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What OAR 603-025 says |
|---|---|
| Foods | Baked goods; confectionery, freeze-dried included; coffee beans; dried teas and spice blends; jams, jellies and fruit butters from fruit with a natural pH below 4.60; honey products; syrups; nut mixes; popcorn; repackaged freeze-dried and dried foods; powdered drink mixes |
| Not allowed | Anything needing time or temperature control; marijuana items |
| Kitchen | Clean and sanitary, with no family cooking, cleaning or entertaining while you work |
| Sales limit | $52,700 in annual gross sales, effective March 13, 2026 |
| Workers | Each employee holds a food handler certificate |
| Retailers | Only packaged and labeled; the retailer agrees to separate storage, display and signage; you keep the agreement |
| Institutions | No sales to restaurants, caterers, schools, day care, hospitals, nursing homes or correctional facilities |
| Losing it | ODA can require a license for breaking the rules, refusing to test a food it suspects needs refrigeration, or not keeping records |
All of this is in ODA's Cottage Food Exemption guide (March 2026), which summarizes OAR 603-025-0311 to 603-025-0335; the $52,700 figure comes from the department's March 2026 rule, up from $51,200 with the West's 2.9% CPI. Which foods need refrigeration is in TCS foods list. This is general information, not legal advice.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Statement | "This product is homemade, is not prepared in an inspected food establishment, and must be stored and displayed separately if merchandised by a retailer." |
| Product | The name of the food |
| Ingredients | With sub-ingredients, in descending order by weight or volume |
| Business | Business name and phone number |
| Address | Full street address; city, state and ZIP if you're in a city directory; or ODA's Unique Identification Number |
| Net quantity | In both U.S. and metric units |
| Allergens | As the federal allergen law requires |
| Pets | If pets live in the home, a statement that they do, naming the species: cat, dog, rabbit |
Type is at least 1/16 inch, measured on a lowercase "o", and logos can't crowd it. A Unique Identification Number costs $25 a year and keeps your street address off the label. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
The records
| Sale | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Any sale | Date sold or shipped, product, price, quantity |
| At an event | One address for the event, and the organizer's contact details |
| Online | Each buyer's address and contact information |
| Through a store | The store's address and its point of contact |
| The year | A running total showing gross sales stay under $52,700 |
Records stay accessible for three years, and ODA can ask to see them within five business days.
An example: a Corvallis baker
Willamette Crumb, a made-up home baker in Corvallis, Oregon, I use in these examples, sells at a Saturday market, ships online orders, and stocks a co-op grocery:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Marionberry jam | Yes | Fruit with a natural pH below 4.60 |
| Apple butter | Yes | The same rule, for fruit butters |
| Pumpkin butter | No | Pumpkin's natural pH is above 4.60 |
| Hazelnut toffee | Yes | Confectionery |
| Cream puffs | No | Need refrigeration |
| Bottled cold brew | No | Not on the list; powdered drink mixes are |
The baker's cat means every label carries "Pets present in the home: cat." The co-op signed a one-page agreement to shelve the jam apart with a homemade sign, filed with the records. By September Willamette Crumb had sold $40,000, 76% of $52,700. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Oregon 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 the $52,700 limit, 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
Oregon's records rule is a sales ledger: every online buyer's address, every store delivery, every event, with a running total, kept three years and produced in five business days. A shoebox of receipts and a spreadsheet updated on Sundays won't meet a five-day request.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and the records Oregon asks for, from the orders.
Orders as the ledger. Each order records the customer, the date, the products, quantities and prices, and the lots they got, and every list exports to CSV, so a records request is an export, not a weekend.
Stores as customers. The co-op is a customer with its own orders, and one recall report shows every customer a batch reached; TaroStack connects to Square for market sales.
Each batch dated. A batch of jam gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Each sale's date, product, price, quantity | Receipts | Recorded with each order |
| Three years of records in five days | Hunted for | Exported to CSV |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
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.