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Most cottage food laws allow the same handful of in-person venues. A few — online, shipping, wholesale — depend entirely on your state. Here's how to tell which is which.
If you make food at home to sell — baked goods, jams, candies, dry mixes, and the like — you're working under what's usually called a cottage food law. The single most important thing to understand is that there is no national one. These laws are written and enforced state by state, and they vary widely. A venue that's perfectly fine for a baker one state over may be off-limits for you.
There's a second piece that follows from the first: cottage food is almost always intrastate. That's a plain word for a simple idea — you sell to customers within your own state. The moment a sale crosses a state line, you're usually outside cottage food rules and into federal territory, which is a different and much heavier set of requirements.
So as you read the venues below, treat them as a map of what's commonly allowed — not a promise about your address. The specifics live on your state's requirements page, and we'll point you there more than once.
Across the country, a familiar cluster of in-person, direct-to-customer venues tends to be permitted. These are the safe places to start when you're planning your first sales, because in-person, hand-to-hand selling is the heart of most cottage food laws — and where the fewest surprises hide.
Here's where bakers get tripped up. The following channels are allowed in some states, restricted in others, and flatly prohibited in a few. Don't assume — check.
Selling online. Taking an order through a form, a message, or a payment app is often treated separately from delivering the food. Many states are fine with you accepting orders online as long as the customer picks up in person or you hand it over directly. The online part is the payment; the handoff is what the law cares about.
Shipping by mail. This is usually the most restricted channel of all. Some states permit shipping within state lines; others prohibit mailing cottage food entirely. And shipping across state lines is generally not allowed under cottage food rules at all, because that's interstate commerce.
Wholesale to shops and restaurants. Selling through a third party — a coffee shop that resells your cookies, a grocer that stocks your jam, a restaurant that serves your bread — is called indirect or wholesale sales. Some states allow it, sometimes with a higher tier of permit or added labeling; many restrict cottage food to direct-to-consumer sales only.
It's easy to think of "where can I sell" and "what goes on my label" as two separate questions. They're not. Your state ties them together, and the label is often where a venue rule quietly shows up.
Nearly every cottage food law requires a disclaimer on the label — wording along the lines of the food being made in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the state. The exact words, the required font size, and whether your permit or registration number must appear are all set by your state, not by any national standard. Get the wording wrong and a market manager or inspector can pull you from the table, which turns a labeling detail into a venue problem.
The allowed foods matter here too. Cottage food laws generally cover non-hazardous items — shelf-stable things that don't need refrigeration for safety. Anything requiring temperature control to stay safe is usually excluded, and that list also varies by state.
You don't have to guess, and you shouldn't. The answer for your address exists, it's written down, and it's findable. Work through these in order, and write down what you learn as you go — you'll want it when you build your label.
Starting a food business from your kitchen is a real, legitimate thing that thousands of people do well and legally every year. The rules can feel intimidating, but they exist to be followed, not to trap you — and once you've read your state's page, most of the fog lifts.
This article is general information to help you ask the right questions, not legal advice. Before you sell, confirm the details directly with your state's agriculture or health department, or your state's requirements page. When you're ready to turn those rules into a compliant label, that's exactly what we're here to help you build.
Most cottage food laws allow the same in-person venues — home pickup, farmers markets, roadside stands, and local events. Online sales, shipping, and wholesale to shops vary by state, and cottage food is almost always intrastate. The exact rules, including the required label wording, live on your state's page — check it before you sell.
The exact disclaimer wording, its legal font size, and whether a permit number goes on the label are set by your state. Pick yours and get a compliant label in seconds.
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