Cottage food rules
Do You Need a License to Sell Baked Goods From Home in Florida?
Know exactly which baked goods you can sell from your Florida kitchen, where you can sell them, and the one number you have to watch.
On this page
If you have been sitting on a stack of cake orders from friends and neighbors and wondering whether you are allowed to charge for them, this is the page to read before you take the next one. Florida has a specific path for home bakers, and it is friendlier than most people expect. It also has edges, and knowing where they are keeps you out of trouble.
What to remember
- Florida home kitchens can produce certain low risk foods for sale without a food permit from the state. - Loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, cakes, pastries, cookies, candies, and fruit pies are all named as approved cottage foods. - Gross sales must not exceed $250,000 annually. - You can sell in person, on your website, and by mail order. You cannot sell wholesale. - Everything must be properly packaged and labeled, and free samples must be prepackaged.
So do you need a license or not
The state’s word is permit, not license, and for cottage foods the answer is no. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services states that cottage food operators can produce and sell these products directly to consumers without obtaining a food permit from the department. That is the whole point of the cottage food law: small, low risk food production happens in home kitchens, and the state does not require a permit for it.
What the law does instead is draw a box. Stay inside the box and you are fine. Step outside it and the cottage food allowance stops applying to that sale.
Which baked goods are inside the box
Florida publishes a list of approved cottage food products. The ones that matter most to a home baker are loaf breads, rolls, and biscuits, plus cakes, pastries, and cookies. Candies and confections are on there too, along with fruit pies, dried fruits, granola, trail mixes, and cereals. There is also room for honey, jams, jellies, and preserves, homemade pasta, coated or uncoated nuts, dry herbs and seasonings, vinegar, and popcorn.
If your signature bake is not named on that list, do not assume it is covered. Check first. Our guide to the cottage food approved list walks through how to read it, and cottage food approved foods covers how to check a specific recipe before you sell it.
The number you have to watch
Gross sales for a cottage food operation must not exceed $250,000 annually. That is a ceiling on what you take in over a year, not what you keep. Most home bakers will never get close to it, but it is worth writing down, because the day you cross it is the day this set of rules stops fitting your business.
Where you can sell, and where you cannot
The department lists three ways cottage food operators may sell: directly to consumers in person, on their own website, and by mail order. A farmers market table, a neighbor’s porch pickup, a birthday cake order, and a shipped box of cookies all sit inside that.
Wholesale does not. Cottage food products cannot be sold wholesale, so a coffee shop reselling your muffins or a grocery store putting your granola on a shelf is outside the cottage food rules. Selling to the person who eats the bake is the line.
Packaging, labels, and samples
Cottage foods must be properly packaged and labeled. That applies to a box of six cookies handed over at the door just as much as to a cake going out for a party. Free samples for tasting are allowed, but the samples themselves must be prepackaged, so no open tray of cut squares on the table with people helping themselves.
What this page does not answer
This covers Florida’s cottage food rules only. Questions about how you set up your business, what insurance you carry, and how you handle taxes are separate from the food permit question, and they are worth asking a professional rather than guessing from a blog post. Local requirements can also differ from the state rules, so a quick call to the department before you start selling is never wasted time.
Getting from “I bake” to “I take orders”
Check your bake against the approved list
Florida names the cottage foods you can make at home, including loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, cakes, pastries, cookies, candies and confections, and fruit pies. If your item is not on that list, the cottage food route does not cover it.
Confirm you are selling direct to the person eating it
Cottage food operators sell in person, on their own website, and by mail order. Wholesale selling is not allowed.
Keep an eye on gross sales
Gross sales must not exceed $250,000 annually. Write down what you take in so you always know where you stand.
Package and label every order
Cottage foods must be properly packaged and labeled. Free samples are allowed, but they must be prepackaged.
Set up a simple way to take orders and get paid
Once the rules are clear, the next job is making it easy for people to order and pay you without a pile of back and forth texts.
Mistakes that cost home bakers
Once you know your bakes fit, the practical work is pricing them so you actually make money and taking orders in a way that does not eat your evenings. Our guide to taking made to order orders picks up where this one leaves off.
Sources
This guide is general information about Florida's cottage food rules as published by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, not legal advice. Rules can change and local requirements may differ. Confirm your own situation with the department before you sell.