Cottage Food License: State-by-State Guide

Cottage Food License applies to home bakers and home food producers of non-hazardous foods (bread, jam, cookies, granola). Who issues it is the first thing that changes at the state line — sometimes a state agency, often a city or county. Each state page below names the office we verified for that state, or says plainly that we could not.

Who issues this across the US

42 jurisdictions with a state issuer plus possible local rules; 7 jurisdictions where we have not verified the issuing office; 2 jurisdictions with no state licence at all.

What varies: whether any licence exists, which agency runs the programme, the allowed foods, the label wording, the sales cap, and whether you may ship.

Choose your state

Every figure below was located on that state's own government page by machine, and the page it came from is linked on the state's page along with the date it was checked. "Not verified" means exactly that — no government page we hold has been shown to state it, so we publish nothing. It does not mean the fee is zero.

Related filings

Most businesses that need a cottage food license end up needing at least one of these too.