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Selling homemade food in Alabama means your label has to follow the Alabama cottage food production operation — Ala. Code § 22-20-5.1, rewritten by Act 2021-456 (SB 160, effective 1 August 2021) and mirrored in the State Board of Health rules at Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-22-.01(4)(a)14. No food service permit and no state licence; there is no dollar cap since 2021, and sales may be made in person, by phone or online with delivery by mail or through an agent — to consumers inside Alabama only. Two duties remain: a current certification from an ADPH-approved food safety course, and registration with your COUNTY health department, which reviews a sample label before issuing a number. Here is exactly what that label must show in 2026 — the required fields, the allergen rule, and the verbatim disclaimer and its font size — sourced to the statute and dated.
Print this statement on the label, word for word:
At least 10-point font. Alabama prescribes CONTENT, not wording: a statement that the food is not inspected by the department or local health department, and a disclaimer that the food may contain allergens — so no sentence is legally verbatim. The wording shown is the one published by the state's approved trainer (Alabama Extension FCS-2058) and reprinted on the county registration form, which is what your reviewer reads. Read literally the statute puts the 10-pt minimum on the food name, your name, your address and the not-inspected statement, while the Board of Health rule and the county form put all five items — ingredients and allergen disclaimer included — under the same 10-pt heading: set the whole block at 10 pt. The county registration number is not a label field.
Alabama is unusually strict on the fine print: EVERY required element must be at least 10-point font, and it demands TWO distinct label statements — a non-inspection statement AND a separate allergen 'may contain allergens' disclaimer — not one combined line. A P.O. Box is expressly allowed in place of a home street address, which matters for home sellers who don't want their residence printed on every jar. And it is a pure exemption: no permit, no registration number, nothing of that kind on the label.
Alabama requires a non-inspection statement AND a separate allergen 'may contain allergens' disclaimer. Many operators print only the non-inspection line and fail the allergen requirement.
The minimum 10-point font requirement is not limited to the disclaimer — per ADPH it applies to ALL required label information (name, address, ingredients). Shrinking an ingredient list to fit a small jar is a common violation.
Alabama issues no cottage-food permit/registration number, so nothing of that kind goes on the label — don't invent a 'permit #' field. Operators must still complete an ADPH-approved food safety course (Alabama Cooperative Extension or any ANSI-accredited program), but that certificate is not a label element.
The on-label phrase references the 'Health Department' (per ADPH), not 'Department of Public Health' — and ADPH does not fix one exact verbatim phrase. Don't copy another state's mandated string (e.g. 'Made in a home kitchen') as if Alabama prescribed it; confirm current wording with ADPH.
Timeline: No label pre-approval or permit-issuance step. An operator may label and sell once they hold the required ADPH-approved food safety training certificate — effective immediately upon completing training. Confirm the current approved course provider (Alabama Cooperative Extension or an ANSI-accredited program) with ADPH.
Cost: $0 — no permit required. Alabama's cottage food law is a pure exemption with no registration or permit fee; the only out-of-pocket cost is the required food safety training course (fee varies by provider; some Extension options are low-cost — confirm current pricing with ADPH).
Cottage food laws get revised, and a new disclaimer or font size can quietly make your label non-compliant. Leave your email and we'll write to you only when Alabama's cottage food label rules change. Nothing else, ever — and you can unsubscribe from any message.
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Make my Alabama label →Alabama requires this exact statement on a cottage food label: “This food is not inspected by the Health Department. — NOTE: not verbatim — confirm with agency. ADPH requires (a) a statement that the food is not inspected by the Health Department and (b) an allergen disclaimer, but states the requirement functionally rather than mandating one fixed word-for-word phrase. Confirm exact wording with ADPH before printing.” It must be set at a minimum of 10-point type.
No. Alabama does not require a permit or registration number printed on the label.
At minimum: product name — the common name of the food; your business / producer name; the address of the cottage food operation; a complete ingredient list, in descending order by weight (sub-ingredients included); an allergen declaration — the 9 major FDA allergens, in the ingredient list or a “Contains:” line; net weight, in US customary and metric units; the state's required disclaimer at a minimum of 10-point type (see below).
No. CottageCompliance gives general information based on each state's published rules, dated to when we last verified them. Always confirm with your state or local agency before selling.
Source: Ala. Code § 22-20-5.1 (2025 Code of Alabama; history: Act 2014-180, Act 2021-456) and Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-22-.01, reprinted by the National Agricultural Law Center (current through 31 December 2024). County registration procedure, form and SB 160 effective date: Jefferson County Department of Health, « Alabama Cottage Food Law », 3/2024. Label wording, allowed foods and the aw < 0.88 / pH < 4.2 limits: Alabama Cooperative Extension FCS-2058, revised April 2022. Verified 2026-08-10. General information, not legal advice — confirm with your state or local agency before selling.