Cottage Food Label Requirements in Nebraska (2026)

Cottage food rules in Nebraska — the whole program

Who can sell homemade food in Nebraska

Nebraska does not license home food businesses; it exempts them. A 'producer of food at a private home' is carved out of the definition of 'food establishment' by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 81-2,245.01(7), which excludes 'a private home where a producer of food that meets the requirements of section 81-2,280 is prepared for sale directly to the consumer including, but not limited to, at a farmers market, fair, festival, craft show, or other public event or for pick up at or delivery from such private home.' The substantive conditions are in § 81-2,280: food must not be adulterated and must not be one of nine excluded categories; the producer must complete a food safety and handling course; and the producer must register with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture before conducting any sales. Two consequences follow from the wording of the exemption itself. First, the food must be prepared in a private home — the NDA cottage food page states that if products are not pre-made at a private home the cottage food exemption cannot be used, and attributes that clarification to LB 262 (2024). Second, sales must be direct to the consumer; NDA answers 'No' to selling through a retailer and states 'Cottage food must be sold directly to the customer.' Nebraska is unusual in two respects that materially widen the exemption relative to most states: since LB 262 (2024) time/temperature control for safety (TCS) foods are permitted unless they fall in one of the nine excluded categories, so refrigerated products such as cheesecake, ice cream, cheese and pudding made from approved-source dairy are within the exemption provided they are held and delivered under the temperature and transport rules of § 81-2,280(7)(b); and § 81-2,280(8) expressly preempts non-conforming local food safety ordinances. The exemption is from the food establishment permit and inspection regime only — the food must still not be adulterated, and other Nebraska statutes (notably the Nebraska Milk Act for raw milk, and the egg number requirement for shell eggs) continue to apply on their own terms.

What you may and may not sell

Allowed:

• Any food that is not adulterated and is not within the nine excluded categories of § 81-2,280(2) — Nebraska defines the exemption by exclusion, not by a positive list, so there is no statutory list of permitted products
• Non-TCS baked goods: breads, cakes, cookies, pies and other pastries (NDA confirms cake containing egg is allowed 'as long as the cake has been cooked fully and eggs are no longer raw')
• Jams and jellies — NDA states traditional jams and jellies can be sold as long as they are made using pectin
• Candy and confections, including chocolate-covered fruit
• TCS foods generally, since LB 262 (2024), subject to the § 81-2,280(2) exclusions, the ingredient-list labeling duty of § 81-2,280(6) and the in-person delivery and two-hour transport rule of § 81-2,280(7)(b)
• Dairy-containing TCS products made with milk or milk products from an approved source (purchased from a licensed entity such as a grocery store): NDA expressly allows ice cream, cheese, cheesecake and pudding on that basis, noting they require refrigeration or freezing
• Homemade ice cream, provided no raw (uncooked) egg is used
• Freeze-dried foods, where the food being freeze dried is not itself on the excluded list

Not allowed under the program:

• Any adulterated food (§ 81-2,280(2))
• Any part of an animal, vertebrate or invertebrate, or animal by-product — NDA reads this as meat, lard, tallow, bone broth, bone meal and the like, and states the food sold cannot contain meat ingredients (§ 81-2,280(2)(a))
• Fluid milk or milk products as defined in the Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance adopted by reference in the Nebraska Milk Act — NDA names milk, cream, sour cream and yogurt as common excluded items; raw milk may be sold only on the farm directly to the end user under the Milk Act and cannot be made into cheese or ice cream for sale (§ 81-2,280(2)(b))
• Raw eggs (§ 81-2,280(2)(c)); shell eggs themselves are outside cottage food altogether — NDA directs producers with fewer than 3,000 hens to request a free egg number instead
• Unpasteurized juice (§ 81-2,280(2)(d))
• Infused oils or honey (§ 81-2,280(2)(e)); NDA renders this as 'infused oils or infused honey'
• Sprouts — NDA annotates this exclusion as '(ALL)' (§ 81-2,280(2)(f))
• Low-acid canned food and hermetically sealed acidified food (§ 81-2,280(2)(g))
• Tofu, tempeh, or similar meat substitutes (§ 81-2,280(2)(h))
• Kimchi, kombucha, or similar fermented foods (§ 81-2,280(2)(i))
• Any food not prepared in a private home — per NDA, LB 262 (2024) requires all cottage food products to be prepared in a private home

How much you may sell

No cap. Neither § 81-2,280 nor § 81-2,245.01 contains any annual sales, revenue, volume or gross-receipts limit; the full text of both sections was read and neither mentions money. Nebraska limits the exemption by food category, by preparation location, by direct-to-consumer channel and by training and registration — not by dollars.

Where you may sell

• Direct to the consumer only. § 81-2,245.01(7) frames the exemption around food 'prepared for sale directly to the consumer', and NDA states plainly that cottage food must be sold directly to the customer and answers 'No' to selling through a retailer — so no wholesale, no consignment and no third-party retail
• Farmers markets, fairs, festivals, craft shows and other public events, named in § 81-2,245.01(7)
• Pick up at, or delivery from, the producer's private home (§ 81-2,245.01(7))
• Internet and mail order for non-TCS food: § 81-2,280(7)(a) provides that food that is not TCS 'may be delivered by United States mail or a commercial mail delivery service'. The statute does not restrict shipping to in-state addresses, but it is a state exemption and does not itself authorise interstate commerce — the FDA position on interstate shipment was not researched here
• TCS food: no shipping. § 81-2,280(7)(b) requires TCS food to 'be delivered only by the producer to the consumer in person', held at a temperature in accordance with the Nebraska Pure Food Act and transported for no longer than two hours. NDA's farmers market answer states cheesecake must be kept at 41F or colder at the market; the 41F figure comes from NDA's guidance rather than from § 81-2,280 itself, which cross-refers to the Pure Food Act for the temperature
• Advertising is permitted but triggers a duty: where sales are for pickup or delivery, the uninspected-kitchen and allergen notification must appear on the producer's website (if one exists) and in any print, radio, television or Internet advertisement for those sales (§ 81-2,280(5)(c))

Permit, registration and fees

Registration is handled by Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA), Food Safety and Consumer Protection — cottage food program page at nda.nebraska.gov/fscp/foods/cottagefood, contact agr.foodsafety@nebraska.gov. Registration is with the department; there is no county or city permit layer, because § 81-2,280(8) preempts non-conforming local food safety ordinances..

1. Determine that every product is within the exemption: not adulterated, not in any of the nine excluded categories of § 81-2,280(2), and prepared in a private home
2. Complete a qualifying food safety and handling course BEFORE any sales, as required by § 81-2,280(3): a nationally accredited food safety and handling education course covering food safety issues, regulations and techniques to maintain a food-safe environment; a certified course offered at a culinary school or as required by a county, city or village to obtain a food handler permit; or a course approved by the department. NDA lists as examples ServSafe, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department online food safety training, StateFoodSafety, and the UNL Cottage Food Law online course
3. If the home uses private well water, have the well tested for nitrate or bacterial contamination and keep the result — proof of testing is part of the registration under § 81-2,280(4)(c). NDA links the Nebraska Public Health Environmental Laboratory (DHHS) for well testing
4. Register with NDA on the department's prescribed form before conducting any sales, supplying the producer's name, address and telephone number; the type of food safety course taken and the date it was successfully completed; and the private well water test proof if applicable (§ 81-2,280(4)). NDA notes registration can only be completed if a food safety course is shown
5. Confirm the registration appears on NDA's published list of registered cottage food producers — NDA warns it can take up to 10 days to be added
6. Set up the required consumer notification for each channel used: at the sale location for markets, fairs, festivals, craft shows and other public events; and at the private home, on the website if one exists, and in every advertisement, for pickup or delivery sales (§ 81-2,280(5))
7. Label each package or container with the producer's name and address, adding ingredients in descending order of predominance for any TCS product (§ 81-2,280(6))
8. If contact information later changes, email agr.foodsafety@nebraska.gov to update the registration

Fee: No fee is set by statute and none is stated on NDA's cottage food page. § 81-2,280(4) requires registration 'on forms prescribed by the department' and prescribes the content of the registration but no charge, and the NDA page describing the process does not mention a fee, a payment step or an amount. Widely repeated third-party statements that Nebraska cottage food registration is 'free' were NOT confirmed against any primary NDA or statutory text, so treat $0 as an absence of any stated fee rather than as a confirmed price. Note that two adjacent costs are real and separate: the food safety course itself (commercial options such as ServSafe or StateFoodSafety are paid; the UNL Cottage Food Law course is offered by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension) and private well water testing where applicable.

Renewal: No renewal term appears in § 81-2,280, which states only that the producer 'shall register with the department prior to conducting any sales of food' — there is no expiry, no renewal cycle and no renewal fee in the statutory text, and NDA's page describes no renewal step, only an email route to update changed contact information. Third-party sources describe the registration as one-time and non-expiring; that characterisation is consistent with the statute read but was NOT confirmed by an explicit NDA or statutory statement that the registration does not expire.

Food safety training

Required, with one narrow exemption — and this is the single most distinctive obligation in the Nebraska program. Under § 81-2,280(3), prior to conducting any food sales the producer must successfully complete one of: (a) a nationally accredited food safety and handling education course covering food safety issues, regulations and techniques to maintain a food-safe environment; (b) a certified food safety and handling training course offered at a culinary school, or one required by a county, city or village in order to obtain a food handler permit; or (c) a food safety and handling education course approved by the department. The statute exempts one situation only: 'a producer selling food that is not time/temperature control for safety food directly to the consumer at a farmers market'. That exemption is cumulative — it requires non-TCS food AND direct sale AND at a farmers market — so a producer who sells non-TCS baked goods at a farmers market but also takes home pickup orders, ships by mail, or attends a craft show or festival does not qualify for it and must take the course. The same clause exempts that farmers-market-only, non-TCS producer from the registration requirement of § 81-2,280(4) as well. No renewal interval, no minimum number of hours and no certification body are specified in the statute; NDA names ServSafe, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department online training, StateFoodSafety and the UNL Cottage Food Law online course as acceptable examples, and states that registration can only be completed if a food safety course is shown.

Inspection

No routine inspection of the home. The whole architecture of the Nebraska program is that a qualifying private home is excluded from the definition of 'food establishment' in § 81-2,245.01, so the food establishment permitting and inspection regime of the Nebraska Pure Food Act does not reach it — which is precisely why § 81-2,280(5)(a)(i) makes the producer tell the consumer that the food 'was prepared in a kitchen that is not subject to regulation and inspection by a regulatory authority'. Nothing in § 81-2,280 provides for kitchen plan review, pre-approval visits, or scheduled inspections. Two real points of state contact remain: the registration itself, which NDA will not complete without proof of a food safety course, and private well water testing under § 81-2,280(4)(c). Beyond that, the food remains subject to the adulteration prohibition, and the department's general enforcement and complaint powers under the Nebraska Pure Food Act were not examined here — the absence of routine inspection is not immunity from investigation.

What your city or county may add

Nebraska preempts conflicting local food safety rules, which makes it one of the more permissive states on this point. § 81-2,280(8) provides that 'the provisions of this section supersede and preempt any ordinance, rule, regulation, or resolution regulating food safety and handling adopted or enacted by a political subdivision that is not in conformance with this section.' A county, city or village therefore cannot impose its own cottage food permit or kitchen standard that departs from § 81-2,280, and Nebraska's local health departments (Lincoln-Lancaster County and Douglas County among them) do not license these producers. Three caveats sit outside that preemption. First, it is directed at rules 'regulating food safety and handling' — zoning, land use, business licensing and sales tax are not food safety and handling rules and were not researched here, so a home occupation or zoning restriction may still apply. Second, § 81-2,280(3)(b) expressly recognises local food handler permit courses as a way to satisfy the training requirement, so a producer who already holds a county or city food handler permit has met that duty. Third, private venues set their own terms: NDA's answer on farmers markets states the producer must follow any requirements the market operation imposes on its vendors, which is a contractual matter and unaffected by preemption.

Program sources: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 81-2,280, 'Producer of food at private home; requirements; registration; contents' — full text of subsections (1)-(8), official Nebraska Legislature statute page read through the r.jina.ai text proxy: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=81-2,280 · Neb. Rev. Stat. § 81-2,245.01, 'Food establishment, defined' — full text of subdivisions (1)-(12) including the (7) private-home exemption, plus the official Source note listing Laws 1997 LB199 §9 through Laws 2025 LB245 §3, official Nebraska Legislature statute page read through the r.jina.ai text proxy: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=81-2,245.01 · National Agricultural Law Center, 'Cottage Food Law Statutes: Nebraska' (verbatim reproduction of NE Code §§ 81-2,245.01 and 81-2,280, used to corroborate the proxy-read official text) — https://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/cottagefood/Nebraska.pdf · Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Consumer Protection, 'Nebraska Cottage Food Registration' program page (registration content and 10-day listing delay, accepted food safety courses, well water testing link, and the department's FAQ answers on meat ingredients, eggs, raw milk, approved-source dairy, ice cream, cheesecake at 41F, freeze-dried food, jams made with pectin, mailing address, LB 262 private-home preparation requirement, and direct-to-customer-only sales) — https://nda.nebraska.gov/fscp/foods/cottagefood · National Environmental Health Association, '2025 State Food Safety Enacted Legislation' (August 2025) — description of Nebraska L 245 (2025) as a Pure Food Act / Weights and Measures Act bill on food establishment, food processing plant and salvage operation permits and fees: https://www.neha.org/PDFs/Food_Safety_Enacted_Legislation_825.pdf