Cottage Food Label Requirements in Illinois (2026)

Cottage food rules in Illinois — the whole program

Who can sell homemade food in Illinois

Under 410 ILCS 625/4, a 'cottage food operation' means an operation conducted by a person who produces or packages food or drink, other than the foods and drinks listed as prohibited in paragraph (1.5) of subsection (b), in a kitchen located in that person's primary domestic residence or another appropriately designed and equipped kitchen on a farm, for direct sale by the owner, a family member, or an employee. Illinois therefore works the opposite way round from most states: rather than an allowed list, the law permits all food and drink except what it expressly forbids, and it extends beyond the residence kitchen to a properly equipped farm kitchen. The registration number belongs to one person and one kitchen: an operator may be helped by family members and by employees (a person employed by and paid by the cottage food operator), but every person who prepares or packages product must hold the food protection manager certification, and two people cannot register one business across two separate home kitchens. Anyone preparing or packaging cottage food must be a Department-approved certified food protection manager (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(6)). The operation must register annually with the local health department of the unit of local government where it is located; if a county has no local health department, that county must contract with a local health department in an adjacent county to register operators there, and that adjacent department then holds the inspection powers of subsection (d). A person who produces or packages a baked good that is not a time/temperature control for safety food, for sale by a religious, charitable or nonprofit organization for fundraising, is exempt from the Section altogether (410 ILCS 625/4(g)). Home rule units may not regulate cottage food operations inconsistently with the State scheme (410 ILCS 625/4(h)).

What you may and may not sell

Allowed:

• Baked goods that are not time/temperature control for safety foods: breads, cookies, cakes, brownies, high-acid fruit pies, pastries
• Baked goods containing dairy or non-raw eggs only as an ingredient, for example buttercream and other baked good frostings
• Candy that is not a time/temperature control for safety food, including candy made with dairy such as caramel
• Jams, jellies, preserves and fruit butters
• Dry herbs, dry herb blends and dry tea blends
• Dry noodles made with eggs as an ingredient
• Acidified and fermented foods such as pickles, kimchi and hot sauce, subject to a tested recipe or a written food safety plan plus pH testing
• Canned tomatoes and canned products containing tomatoes, subject to an exactly followed USDA or cooperative extension recipe or annual commercial laboratory acidification testing
• Microgreens (edible plant seedlings grown in soil or substrate and harvested above the soil line), which are excluded from the sprout prohibition
• Cut leafy greens that are dehydrated, acidified, or blanched and frozen
• Cultivated mushrooms (only wild-harvested, non-cultivated mushrooms are prohibited)
• Extracts made with alcohol, such as vanilla extract, and baked goods using alcohol as an ingredient, provided the product is not intended for use as a beverage
• Baked goods containing cheese, which a local health department may require to be laboratory tested at the operator's expense to confirm they are not time/temperature control for safety foods
• Any other food or drink not named in the prohibited list of 410 ILCS 625/4(b)(1.5), including time/temperature control for safety foods where they are kept at the holding temperatures set in the Department's rules

Not allowed under the program:

• Meat, poultry, fish, seafood or shellfish
• Dairy, except as an ingredient in a baked good or in candy that is not a time/temperature control for safety food, such as caramel, or as an ingredient in a baked good frosting such as buttercream
• Eggs, except as an ingredient in a food that is not a time/temperature control for safety food, including dry noodles, or in a baked good frosting such as buttercream where the eggs are not raw
• Pumpkin pies, sweet potato pies, cheesecakes, custard pies, creme pies, and pastries whose fillings or toppings are time/temperature control for safety foods
• Garlic in oil, or oil infused with garlic, unless the garlic oil is acidified
• Low-acid canned foods (canned food with a finished equilibrium pH above 4.6 and water activity above 0.85)
• Sprouts
• Cut leafy greens, unless dehydrated, acidified, or blanched and frozen
• Cut or pureed fresh tomato or melon
• Dehydrated tomato or melon
• Frozen cut melon
• Wild-harvested, non-cultivated mushrooms
• Alcoholic beverages
• Kombucha
• Any processed food containing one of the above items, except where the statute itself allows it as an ingredient

How much you may sell

No cap. The gross receipts limit that older versions of the law carried (the pre-2022 text of 410 ILCS 625/4(b)(3) capped exempted sales at $25,000 in a calendar year) no longer appears in the current Section, and the IDPH Cottage Food Guide answers the question directly: 'Is there a sales cap on my earnings? No! In previous versions of the bill there had been limits but those no longer apply.' The separate home kitchen operation status at 410 ILCS 625/3.6 does carry a limit of $1,000 in monthly gross sales, but that is a different, more restricted status (baked goods only, direct sale, and only where the local governing body has adopted an authorising ordinance), not the cottage food operation described here.

Where you may sell

• Direct to consumers only, for their own consumption and not for resale (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(11)); selling to a grocery, bakery, restaurant or CSA to resell or to use as a menu ingredient is not allowed
• Farmers' markets, and mobile farmers markets operated from a vehicle or trailer that changes location
• Fairs, festivals, public events, and online sales
• Pickup from the private home or farm of the operator, unless prohibited by a local law applying equally to all cottage food operations; in a municipality of 1,000,000 or more (Chicago) the operator must comply with municipal law applying equally to all home-based businesses
• Delivery to the customer, and pickup from third-party private property with the consent of the property holder
• Shipping is allowed inside Illinois for foods that are not time/temperature control for safety foods; each shipped product must be sealed in a tamper-evident manner such as a sticker or pop top, and no cottage food product may be shipped out of State (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(12))
• Registration is filed where the operator lives, but sales may be made anywhere in the State, including outside the registering unit of local government (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(1.3))

Permit, registration and fees

Registration is handled by The State-certified local health department of the unit of local government where the operation is located (for example the Chicago Department of Public Health, or a county health department); statewide policy is set by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which does not itself register operators.

1. Complete an ANSI-accredited Certified Food Protection Manager course and pass the proctored exam, for yourself and for every person who will prepare or package product; the Food Handler card is not sufficient (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(6))
2. Obtain the registration application from the health department of the unit of local government where you live; if your county has no health department, it must contract with an adjacent county's health department, which will register you and will hold the inspection powers
3. Submit the application with your product list and your food protection manager certificate; if you will sell fermented or acidified foods, submit either a USDA or cooperative extension tested recipe, or a written food safety plan per product category following IDPH guidelines, plus a pH test for a representative product (the plan annually at registration, each pH test every three years)
4. If you will sell canned tomatoes or canned products containing tomatoes, either follow exactly a USDA or state cooperative extension tested recipe, or submit the recipe to a commercial laboratory at your expense, use only the tomato varietals in the tested recipe for later batches, and provide the annual test results at registration and to an inspector on request
5. If your kitchen is not on a municipal water supply (for example a private well), expect the local health department to require a water sample test for E. coli and coliform at your expense
6. Receive the certificate of registration and identifying registration number from the local health department; keep a copy available, since any local health department may ask to see it, including when you vend in another county
7. Label every prepackaged product with the name of the operation and the unit of local government where it is located; the registration number and the name of the municipality or county where the registration was filed; the common or usual name of the product; all ingredients including colors, artificial flavors and preservatives in descending order of predominance by weight; the date the product was processed; federal allergen labeling; and, in prominent lettering, 'This product was produced in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department that may also process common food allergens. If you have safety concerns, contact your local health department.'
8. Display the point-of-sale notice: a placard at a physical display, or a message on the online sales interface at the point of sale, reading 'This product was produced in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department that may also process common food allergens.'
9. Where a product is difficult to label or package properly, ask the local health department of the place of sale for permission to sell it unpackaged, in which case other prominent written notice must be given to the purchaser

Fee: Set by the local health department, which may impose a fee not to exceed $50 (410 ILCS 625/4(c)); a department may charge anything from $0 to $50, and neither the Illinois Department of Public Health nor the Department of Agriculture may charge a registration fee. Separate costs fall outside that cap: the Certified Food Protection Manager course and exam (the IDPH guide gives a market range of roughly $100 to $300, valid five years), laboratory pH or acidification testing, and any well water test.

Renewal: Annually. Registration must be completed each year with the local health department (410 ILCS 625/4(c)); departments may run renewals on a rolling basis or at a fixed date each year. The Certified Food Protection Manager certificate is renewed every five years. A written food safety plan for fermented or acidified foods is resubmitted annually at registration, while each supporting pH test is renewed every three years.

Food safety training

Yes, and it is the demanding version. Every person who prepares or packages a product as part of a cottage food operation must be a Department-approved certified food protection manager (410 ILCS 625/4(b)(6)). IDPH guidance is that this means an ANSI-accredited Certified Food Protection Manager course of at least eight hours with a proctored exam, completed and passed before the registration can be approved, and that the shorter Food Handler training does not satisfy the requirement. The certificate is valid for five years. Employees who only handle sales, marketing or administration do not need it; employees who touch preparation or packaging do.

Inspection

Cottage food operations are not routinely inspected: unlike a licensed restaurant or retailer, the home kitchen is not inspected as a condition of registration, which is exactly what the mandatory home-kitchen statement on the label and at the point of sale discloses to buyers. Inspection is complaint-driven. Under 410 ILCS 625/4(d), where there is a consumer complaint or a foodborne illness outbreak, on notice from a different local health department, or where IDPH or the local health department has reason to believe an imminent health hazard exists or that a product is misbranded, adulterated or out of compliance with the Section, the Department or the local health department may inspect the premises of the operation, set a reasonable fee for that inspection, and invoke penalties and cessation of sales until the situation is addressed to its satisfaction; if the situation cannot be addressed, the local health department may revoke the registration following its own process. Under 410 ILCS 625/4(e), a local health department that receives a complaint or illness report about an operator registered elsewhere must refer it to the department where that operator is registered.

What your city or county may add

Illinois runs its cottage food programme through local health departments, so the local layer is where the practical detail lives. The local department sets the registration fee up to the $50 statutory ceiling, issues the certificate and registration number, may run a self-certification programme for operators to affirm compliance, may require laboratory testing of a baked good containing cheese, and may require a water test where the kitchen is not on a municipal supply. A local health department at the place of sale, not necessarily the one that registered you, is the body that can permit non-prepackaged sales. Local government also retains its ordinary powers: zoning and home-occupation rules may limit selling from the home, street cart or sidewalk sales may need a municipal peddler-type permit, and in a municipality of 1,000,000 or more the operator must comply with municipal law applying equally to all home-based businesses. The limit on all of this is 410 ILCS 625/4(h): a home rule unit may not regulate cottage food operations in a manner inconsistent with State regulation, and the Section is declared a limitation on the concurrent exercise of home rule powers. The specific fee, form and processing time therefore vary by county; IDPH guidance notes approval can take up to about six weeks depending on the department's workload.

Program sources: 410 ILCS 625/4, Cottage food operation, and 410 ILCS 625/3.6, Home kitchen operation, verbatim reproduction in 'Cottage Food Law Statutes: Illinois', National Agricultural Law Center, University of Arkansas (undated PDF; no Public Act source line printed) — https://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/cottagefood/Illinois.pdf · Illinois Department of Public Health, 'Cottage Food Guide' (2022), developed by IDPH with local health departments, University of Illinois Extension and stakeholder groups (PDF hosted by University of Illinois Extension) — https://extension.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/idph_cottage_food_guide-_2022.pdf · Illinois Department of Public Health, 'Cottage Food' programme page — https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/food-safety/cottage-food.html · University of Illinois Extension, Cottage Food programme, 'Regulation Questions' (registration with the local health department, fee not to exceed $50, ANSI-accredited CFPM certificate required) — https://extension.illinois.edu/cottage-food/regulation-questions · 410 ILCS 625/4 as it stood before the Home-to-Market reform, source line 'P.A. 97-393, eff. 1-1-12; 98-660, eff. 6-23-14' (used only to identify the superseded $25,000 cap and farmers'-market-only rule) — https://law.onecle.com/illinois/410ilcs625/4.html