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Cottage Food Label Requirements by State

Every U.S. state writes its own cottage food label rule — a different “home kitchen” disclaimer, a different minimum font size, different required fields. Pick your state below for the exact wording, sourced and dated. Then build the label free.

What a cottage food label has to do

A cottage food label is not packaging copy. It is the state’s substitute for an inspection: because your kitchen was never licensed as a commercial one, the label is what tells the buyer where the food came from, what is in it, and that no health department checked it. Every requirement below follows from that single idea, which is also why the rules are unforgiving about wording — a paraphrase that reads better does not perform the function the statute assigned to the sentence.

The disclaimer is the part states write for you

46 of the 51 states we cover require a specific “home kitchen” disclaimer on the label, and most of them fix the wording in the regulation itself. That is the difference between this line and every other line on your label: the others describe your product, this one is dictated. Retyping it from memory, softening it, or translating it into your brand voice is the most common way a compliant product becomes a non-compliant one.

The remaining 5 states we cover require no disclaimer sentence at all — which does not mean their labels are unregulated, only that the warning is not among the required elements. Each state page carries its own sentence verbatim, in quotation marks, cited and dated.

Font size is a legal requirement, not a design choice

21 of the 51 states we cover set a minimum type size for the disclaimer, most commonly 10-point. A label that carries the exact statutory sentence in type below the minimum fails the same inspection as a label missing the sentence, and it fails it invisibly: the wording is right, so nothing looks wrong until someone measures it. This is the requirement most often lost when a label is resized to fit a smaller jar.

Where a state sets no minimum, the general rule still applies — the statement has to be legible and prominent to an ordinary buyer. States that set no number are listed as such on their own page rather than assigned a default we invented.

The elements almost every state requires

• Ingredients, in descending order by weight — 49 of 51. The ordering is part of the requirement, not a convention: listing by weight is what makes the list readable as a formulation. Sub-ingredients of a compound ingredient generally have to appear too.
• Allergen declaration — 43 of 51. The major food allergens must be called out even when they are already visible in the ingredient list. This is the element with real consequences attached: it is the one that turns a labelling error into a harm.
• Your name and physical address — 45 of 51. A P.O. box generally does not satisfy it. This is the traceability element — the reason the state tolerates an uninspected kitchen at all — and it is also the one home bakers most want to avoid, which is worth knowing before you build a business on direct sales.
• A permit or registration number on the label — 6 of 51. The minority rule, and easy to miss precisely because it is rare: providers who copy a label template from another state omit it without noticing.

Two more elements — the product’s own name and the net weight or quantity — are required by most states we cover, but each writes the requirement in its own words, so we publish no national count for them rather than a number that would really be measuring our own reading. Your state’s page lists its required elements exactly as its rule states them.

Why the rules differ so much from state to state

There is no federal cottage food law. Each state built its own exemption from its own food code, at its own time, and usually as a compromise: what may be sold, where it may be sold, how much may be sold, and what the label must say were all negotiated separately. That is why a neighbouring state can require a sentence yours forbids, and why label templates travel badly across state lines. It is also why sales channel matters — several states write different requirements for farmers-market sales, online sales and shipping.

How to use these pages

Open your state below. Copy the disclaimer exactly as it appears, including punctuation and capitalisation, and check the minimum type size before you commit to a label dimension. Then work through the required elements list — those are the fields an inspector reads in order. Every rule is cited to that state’s statute or agency and carries the date we last verified it; where a state’s rule is genuinely ambiguous, the page says so rather than inventing certainty.

States we cover

Each state rule is cited to its statute or agency and dated on its page. General information, not legal advice — confirm with your state or local agency before selling.