Cottage food rules
Indiana Cottage Food License: What Home Bakers Need
What Indiana really asks of home bakers, and how to start selling without chasing a license that does not exist.
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What to remember
- Indiana has no cottage food license and no income cap.
- House Enrolled Act 1149, passed in 2022, set the home-based vendor rules.
- You need a food handler certificate from an ANSI accredited issuer.
- You sell shelf stable food direct to consumers.
- Baked goods, candy and confections, and high acid full sugar jams are the foods named in the rules.
If you bake from your Indiana kitchen and sell to neighbors, the paperwork question is usually the first thing that stops you. The good news is smaller than you think. You are not filing for a license, because there is nothing to file for. You are meeting a certificate requirement and staying inside a list of foods. If you have looked at other states, home bakery license requirements walks through how these rules differ from place to place.
What Indiana asks of a home based vendor
House Enrolled Act 1149 was passed in 2022 and defines the requirements for home-based vendors in the preparation and sale of food products. The stated goal of the act was to allow safe food production in the home and the sale of home-produced foods that do not present a health risk. That framing tells you a lot about how the rules work: the state is not inspecting your kitchen the way it would a commercial one, and in exchange the food you sell has to be the kind that does not need refrigeration to stay safe.
Get a food handler certificate
A home-based vendor has to obtain a food handler certificate from a certificate issuer accredited by the American National Standards Institute, usually shortened to ANSI. That certificate is the thing you hold, not a license.
Check your bakes against the allowed list
The rules name baked goods that are not TCS, candy and confections, and high acid, full sugar jams, jellies and preserves. If a recipe sits outside that list, it is not yours to sell under these rules.
Sell direct to consumers
The law covers shelf stable homemade food sold direct to consumers, so keep your plan on that path rather than building toward wholesale.
What you can sell from your kitchen
The allowed list is short and worth reading twice before you print a menu. Baked goods that are not TCS are allowed, along with candy and confections, and high acid, full sugar jams, jellies and preserves. That covers a lot of what a home baker actually sells: cookies, bars, cakes, quick breads, fudge, and a jam made with enough sugar and acid to sit on a shelf. It does not cover everything, and the line is about whether the food is shelf stable, not about how good it tastes. If you sell across the state line, Illinois cottage food laws work differently and are worth a separate read.
Selling direct and getting paid
Once the certificate is in hand, the work shifts to the ordinary business of taking orders and getting paid. Most home bakers start with a text message and a notes app, which works until it does not. A home bakery app is worth a fair look at this stage, because the thing that breaks first is not your baking, it is a lost order or a price you guessed at. Recipes with real costing and ingredient inventory are what let you quote a number you can stand behind.
Keep your setup simple and repeatable. The same order form, the same pickup window, the same few payment methods, every week. You will spend less time chasing details and more time baking, and your customers will know exactly what to expect from you.
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Brevl runs on a computer and on a phone, so you can answer a message from the school pickup line and sit down at the desk later to plan the week. We set it up with you and move your old shop over, products, photos, reviews and dates included, and a real person answers, usually within minutes.
Common questions
Do I need a cottage food license in Indiana?
No. Indiana does not issue a cottage food license and sets no income limit. What a home-based vendor needs is a food handler certificate from a certificate issuer accredited by the American National Standards Institute.
What law covers Indiana home bakers?
House Enrolled Act 1149, passed in 2022, defines the requirements for home-based vendors in the preparation and sale of food products.
Can I sell cake with buttercream from my home?
The rules cover baked goods that are not TCS, candy and confections, and high acid full sugar jams, jellies and preserves. Check your specific recipe against that list before you sell it.
Is there a sales limit on Indiana home-based vendors?
Indiana cottage food rules set no income limit.
Who can issue my food handler certificate?
The certificate has to come from a certificate issuer accredited by the American National Standards Institute, known as ANSI.
Sources
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change, so confirm the current requirements with the Indiana Department of Health or your local health department before you sell.