Do You Need a License to Sell Baked Goods From Home in NY?

On this page

1. What the Home Processor Exemption actually covers
2. Where the rules say you can sell
3. The wait is the hard part
4. What to do, in order
5. If you are comparing states
6. Once you are cleared to sell

If you bake from your kitchen and sell what you make, the first thing you want to know is whether the state expects a license. In New York there is a specific answer for home food processors, and it is worth reading slowly before you print a single label.

What the Home Processor Exemption actually covers

The New York Department of Agriculture and Markets describes the Home Processor Exemption as covering foods such as certain baked goods, jellies, or snack mixes prepared in your home kitchen. Under that exemption you are not required to hold Article 20-C licensing for that activity.

Read the word certain twice. The department’s description names categories, not every single thing that comes out of an oven. Before you build a menu around a recipe, check that your item sits inside what the state describes. Our guide to cottage food approved foods walks through how to read an approved list without guessing.

Where the rules say you can sell

This is the part home bakers skim past. The exemption is tied to how you market your food. The department describes marketing at wholesale and or retail, including at farms, farm stands, farmers markets, green markets, craft fairs, flea markets, and through home delivery.

So the market stall on Saturday morning and the box you drop at a customer’s door both appear on that list. A venue that is not named there is a question, not an assumption. Ask the department before you accept a deposit.

The wait is the hard part

The department advises applicants to allow up to 16 weeks for review of Home Processor exemption requests because of high volume. Sixteen weeks is roughly four months. If you are counting on holiday orders, that timeline decides when you need to start.

What to do, in order

1. 1

   Confirm your item is covered

   Check your specific bake against what the department describes as covered. Certain baked goods, jellies, and snack mixes are named. If your item is not clearly in that group, ask before you buy packaging.

2. 2

   Send in your exemption request

   Submit a Home Processor exemption request to the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets. Their home processing page is the place to start.

3. 3

   Plan around the review window

   Allow up to 16 weeks, as the department advises. Put that date on your calendar and set your first selling day after it.

4. 4

   Sell through the channels the rules name

   Farms, farm stands, farmers markets, green markets, craft fairs, flea markets, and home delivery are the channels listed. Keep your selling inside them.

If you are comparing states

Rules differ enough from state to state that advice from a baker in another state can send you the wrong way. If you have family or customers across a border, read the Florida version of this question so you can see how differently two states describe the same trade. And if you are still working out which items you can sell at all, the cottage food approved list guide shows how to check a list properly.

Once you are cleared to sell

The paperwork is the gate, not the business. Once your dates are set, you want orders coming in somewhere you control, with your photos, your prices, and your own web address.

You can take card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. Recipes with real costing help you price a batch before you list it, and we set the shop up with you and move your old orders and photos over.

The licensing question has an answer in New York, and it is written down on the department’s page. Read it, check your items against it, and give yourself the full review window. Then get back to baking.

Sources

1. agriculture.ny.gov

This guide is general information about New York rules for home food processors, not legal advice. Rules change and details vary by item and by venue. Confirm your situation with the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets before you sell.