Cottage Food Law

A cottage food law is a state statute that allows individuals to produce and sell certain homemade food products from a residential kitchen without the commercial kitchen licensing, inspection, and facility requirements that apply to conventional food businesses. Cottage food laws focus on shelf-stable, non-hazardous products — such as baked goods, jams, candy, and dried herbs — that pose low inherent public health risk and are sold directly to consumers. All fifty states have enacted some form of cottage food allowance, though the specifics vary considerably from state to state.