South Carolina's cottage food law is the Home-based Food Production Law, S.C. Code 44-1-143, expanded in 2022. A home kitchen can make foods that don't need refrigeration, breads, cakes, cookies, candy, chocolates, jams from acidic fruit, dried fruit and herbs, granola, roasted coffee, with no license, permit or application. Sales can go directly to consumers, online and by mail order, delivered within South Carolina, and to retail and grocery stores that post a sign; not wholesale, and restaurants need their own variance to serve it. The Department of Agriculture, which took over the program in 2024, publishes a long list of what's in and out: chocolate-covered strawberries are in, pickles, pepper jelly and sweet potato pie are out. Every package carries a label with an all-caps statement. In the example below, a Beaufort baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the foods, the label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No license, permit or mandatory application; an SCDA ID number for your label is optional.
- Foods that aren't potentially hazardous, made in your home's family kitchen.
- Sell directly to consumers, including online and by mail order, delivered only in South Carolina.
- Sell to retail and grocery stores, which post a sign; not wholesale.
- Restaurants can't serve it or use it as an ingredient without their own SCDA variance.
- Below $1,500 in net earnings a year, the label rules don't apply, but you sell in person and not through stores.
- Label: name and address or SCDA ID, product, ingredients, allergens, and the all-caps statement.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What 44-1-143 and SCDA's guidance say |
|---|---|
| License | None; no permit or mandatory application |
| Sales | Directly to a person, including online and mail order, delivered in South Carolina; or to retail stores, including grocery stores |
| Stores | Post clearly visible signage that home-based foods aren't subject to commercial food regulations |
| Wholesale | Not allowed |
| Restaurants | May sell it packaged; serving it or using it as an ingredient needs a variance the restaurant requests |
| Small sellers | Under $1,500 in net earnings a year: exempt from the section's labeling, but in person only and not at retail locations |
| Kitchen | No animals in the kitchen during production, no household activity at the same time, a separate handwashing sink, a working toilet, refrigeration |
| Water | Public water, or a private well tested every year for total coliform |
| Local rules | The section applies unless a local ordinance says otherwise |
The law and its history are in SCDA's Home-based Food Production Law Guidance (July 2025), which prints section 44-1-143 as amended by 2022's Bill 506. This is general information, not legal advice.
Which foods, by example
| Allowed | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| Breads, bagels, cheese bread with the cheese baked in, sourdough from a commercial starter culture | Quick breads with fresh, frozen or canned fruit or vegetables; sweet potato bread |
| Cakes and cupcakes iced with a non-TCS buttercream made with pasteurized eggs | Cheesecake, pumpkin cake, carrot cake unless from a dry mix |
| Fudge, truffles, hot cocoa bombs, chocolate-covered strawberries | Cream cheese and caramel icings, filled candy |
| Jams, jellies and preserves from acidic fruit with a science-based recipe | Fig preserves, pepper jelly, low-sugar jams, pickles, chow-chow, salsa, hot sauce |
| Fruit pies from acidic fruit, pecan pies, fried pies | Cream, custard, meringue, pumpkin and sweet potato pies |
| Dried fruit, herbs and teas dried at home; coffee roasted at home | Bottled drinks, cold brew, kombucha, boiled peanuts, repackaged bulk food |
SCDA's lists are examples; for anything not on them, the guidance points to Clemson Extension. Which foods count as potentially hazardous is in TCS foods list.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Operation | Name and address, or your SCDA ID number |
| Product | The standard name of the product |
| Ingredients | In descending order by weight |
| Statement | "PROCESSED AND PREPARED BY A HOME-BASED FOOD PRODUCTION OPERATION THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO SOUTH CAROLINA'S FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS." All capitals, in a contrasting color |
| Allergens | Each major allergen by its food source, naming the tree nut, fish or shellfish |
No health claims are allowed, and a Nutrition Facts panel isn't required. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Beaufort baker
Lowcountry Crumb, a made-up home baker in Beaufort, South Carolina, I use in these examples, sells at a Saturday market, ships orders around the state, and stocks a neighborhood grocery:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Benne wafers | Yes | Cookies |
| Peach preserves | Yes | Acidic fruit, science-based recipe |
| Chocolate-covered strawberries | Yes | On SCDA's allowed list |
| Fig preserves | No | Figs are low-acid |
| Sweet potato pie | No | On the not-allowed list |
| Boiled peanuts | No | Not covered |
The grocery shelves the benne wafers under a sign that they're home-based and not subject to commercial food regulations. A restaurant asked to serve the preserves with biscuits; that needs a variance the restaurant applies for, so for now it sells the jars packaged instead. By September Lowcountry Crumb had sold $33,100. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the South Carolina home-based 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, 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
A grocery account means standing orders and invoices, and shipped orders around the state mean customers you never meet. If a jar of preserves is questioned, which batch it was and which stores and customers got the rest is the answer that matters.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to.
Each batch dated. A batch of preserves gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Stores as customers. The grocery is a customer with its own orders, and each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows every store and customer a batch reached.
Market sales too. TaroStack connects to Square for market sales, so the grocery, shipped orders and the market sit together.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the jar | The batch's lot and dates |
| Which stores got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
| The grocery'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.