Cottage food rules
Maryland Cottage Food Business Registration: $50,000 Cap
What Maryland actually asks for, the $50,000 cap, and the form to send before you sell.
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What to remember
- The Maryland Department of Health Office of Food Protection handles cottage food matters.
- You stay a cottage food business only under $50,000 in yearly sales.
- House Bill 0535 would raise that cap to $100,000.
- Selling to a retail food store means sending lab results with a request form.
Most home bakers expect a form, a fee, and a certificate in the mail. Maryland works differently, and knowing that before you bake saves you a wasted afternoon. This guide walks through the Maryland cottage food business registration steps, the revenue cap, and the paperwork that actually matters.
What Maryland asks for before you sell
The Office of Food Protection sits inside the Maryland Department of Health, and it handles cottage food matters for the state. That is where your questions go. The office is at 6 St. Paul Street, Suite 1301, Baltimore, MD 21202, and the phone number is (410) 767-8400.
There is no certificate that arrives in the mail and no seal to hang on the wall. What you get is a decision on your request, plus a set of rules you agree to follow. Most of the work sits on your side: what you sell, how you label it, and how much you sell in a year.
The $50,000 cap and the bill that would raise it
Maryland defines a cottage food business partly by revenue. A business may generate up to $50,000 a year from cottage food sales and still be considered a cottage food business, according to Maryland House Bill 0535. Go past that number and you are running something else, with a different set of requirements.
House Bill 0535, filed for the 2026 session, would raise the ceiling from $50,000 to $100,000. It is a bill, not a law, so plan against $50,000 until it passes. If your market season runs strong, keep a monthly total so a good December does not surprise you.
$50,000
Yearly cottage food sales allowed before a business stops being a cottage food business
Where to send your request form
Confirm what you may sell
Maryland cottage food rules cover certain baked goods and shelf stable items. Check the list in does Maryland have cottage food laws before you buy packaging or print labels.
Register your name and tax accounts
Maryland Business Express provides online tools to register a business in Maryland, register a trade name, and set up tax accounts in Maryland.
Send the Cottage Food Business Request Form
Mail or deliver it to the Office of Food Protection at 6 St. Paul Street, Suite 1301, Baltimore, MD 21202.
Add lab results for retail stores
If you want your goods on a store shelf, laboratory results must be submitted for review through the same request form.
Keep your yearly sales total
Write down every sale. The $50,000 ceiling is measured over the year, and you need your own record to see it coming.
What a Maryland home baker keeps: a worked example
Say you sell a two layer cake for $55. Ingredients come to $9.50, a board and a box $3.25, and your share of electricity, water, and wear on the mixer $1.75. That is $14.50 before your time. Three hours at $15 an hour adds $45, so the cake costs $59.50 and loses $4.50.
At $75 the same cake leaves $15.50 after ingredients, packaging, overhead, and your own pay. The cap and the form are the easy part. The price is where the money is made or lost, and your hourly rate belongs in the math from the first cake.
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Mistakes that cost Maryland home bakers money
What to check before you commit
Before you print a single label, settle three things: what you may sell, how your sales are counted, and how you will keep records. Sales tax is its own question in Maryland, and the answer changes what you charge. Read Maryland cottage food law and sales tax before your first market day.
Labels are the other quiet cost. A missing ingredient line or a missing address means reprinted stickers and a wasted sheet. The Maryland cottage food label template shows what has to be on yours.
Everything else about staying legal, from caps to labels to county questions, sits in the cottage food rules guides.
- Maryland cottage food law: what home bakers need
- Cottage food law registration: what to file and where
- Cottage food business tax deductions
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my Maryland kitchen?
Maryland does not hand out a cottage food license the way some states do. You request approval from the Maryland Department of Health Office of Food Protection, which handles cottage food matters, and you keep your yearly cottage food sales under $50,000 to stay in that category.
How much can I sell before I stop being a cottage food business?
The current ceiling is $50,000 in yearly revenue from cottage food sales, according to Maryland House Bill 0535. A bill filed for the 2026 session would raise it to $100,000. Until that passes, plan against $50,000 and keep a monthly running total.
Where do I send my Maryland cottage food paperwork?
Send it to the Maryland Department of Health Office of Food Protection at 6 St. Paul Street, Suite 1301, Baltimore, MD 21202. The phone number is (410) 767-8400. If you want to sell to a retail food store, laboratory results go with the Cottage Food Business Request Form.
Do I need to register a business name in Maryland?
Maryland Business Express provides online tools to register a business in Maryland, register a trade name, and set up tax accounts. Whether you need each one depends on how you sell and what you call your shop. Start there and work through the list before you print labels.
Can I sell my baked goods to a grocery store in Maryland?
You can ask, but the request is different. Laboratory results must be submitted for review through the Maryland Department of Health Cottage Food Business Request Form when a business asks to sell to a retail food store. Plan for the testing cost and time before you approach a store.
Sources
General information, not legal or tax advice. Maryland rules and pending bills change. Confirm details with the Maryland Department of Health Office of Food Protection before you sell.