Cottage food rules
How to Get a Cottage Food License in Washington State
Get clear on the Washington steps, get your kitchen and paperwork ready, and open your shop without guesswork.
On this page
Selling from your kitchen is a real business, and the paperwork is the least fun part of it. The good news is that most of the work is things you already do: writing down what you make, costing out a batch, keeping the kitchen clean, and knowing who your customers are. Work through it in order and none of it is hard.
What to remember
- Get the current requirements from the state before you print labels or take an order.
- Have your recipes, your costs, and your selling plan written down before you apply. - Build your shop and your customer list while you wait, so you can sell the day you are cleared. - Keep records from the first sale. They protect you if a question ever comes up.
Start With the State, Not With a Search Result
Plenty of pages will tell you exactly what Washington requires. Some of them were written years ago. The only version that counts is the one the state publishes now, so go to the state agency that handles food safety in Washington and read its cottage food page start to finish. Save it or print it, and write the date on it. When a question comes up later, you want to know whether you are reading this year’s rules or something older.
What to Have Ready Before You Apply
The application is usually the short part. The slow part is having answers ready. Before you sit down to fill anything in, write out:
- Every item you plan to sell, with the recipe and the batch size
- What each batch costs you in ingredients and packaging
- Where you plan to sell: from your porch, at a market, by preorder, or delivered
- Your business name and the contact details you want customers to use
- How you will keep your kitchen and your records
That list does double duty. It gets you through the paperwork, and it becomes the backbone of your pricing and your shop later.
Your Label Is Part of the Product
Whatever the state requires on a cottage food label, your label is also the first thing a customer reads. Draft it early with your business name and a way to reach you, then add the required wording once you have confirmed it from the state page. Print one test label and look at it in your hand before you order a roll of five hundred. Wording that seemed fine on a screen has a way of looking wrong on a sticker.
Be Specific About How You Plan to Sell
When you talk to the state, do not just ask whether you can sell from home. Ask about each way you actually plan to sell, because a market table, a preorder pickup, and a shipped box are not the same thing. Write the answers down next to each channel so you are not relying on memory six months from now. If online orders are part of your plan, read do I need a license to sell baked goods online alongside this.
Set Up Your Shop While You Wait
Paperwork takes time. Use that time to build the part customers see. Brevl is one flat $20 a month with no cut of your sales, and it works on your phone and on a computer. Your shop is yours to set up with your own photos, your colors, and your own web address. Card payments go through your own Stripe or Square account, and you can also take Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. There is a 14 day free trial.
Keep Records From the First Sale
Write down what you baked, when you baked it, what it cost, and who bought it. Keep your receipts for ingredients. If a customer ever asks about an order, or if you need to show where your numbers came from, that stack of notes answers it in a minute. It also makes your pricing better, because you stop guessing what a batch really costs.
A Few Things Worth Doing Twice
Check the list of what you are allowed to sell against your menu, not once, but again whenever you add a new item. Read the label rules again before you reorder stickers. Read the state page again at the start of each year. Rules get updated quietly, and the bakers who get caught out are the ones who read the page once, three years ago.
If you are still working out whether you need anything at all, start with do I need a license to sell baked goods from home and how to get a permit to sell baked goods from home. Once you know what you can sell, check it against cottage food approved foods.
This guide is general information for home bakers, not legal advice. Cottage food rules in Washington can change. Confirm the current requirements with the state before you sell.