Selling and marketing
Selling Baked Goods From Home in South Carolina: 2026 Rules
What South Carolina's home food law actually covers, and the checks to make before your first paid sale.
On this page
What to remember
- Your kitchen falls under S.C. Code 44-1-143, the Home-based Food Production Law.
- The law covers non-potentially hazardous foods made at home.
- The list of covered foods changed in 2022, so old posts may be wrong.
- Price with ingredients, your hours, and overhead all counted.
Selling baked goods from home in South Carolina starts with one document, not one recipe. The state publishes a home-based food law book, and that is the version to trust over anything you find in a search. Read it once with your own menu in front of you.
Which South Carolina law covers your kitchen
South Carolina’s Home-based Food Production Law is S.C. Code 44-1-143. It covers non-potentially hazardous foods made in a home kitchen, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s home-based food law book.
The law is not frozen. A bill that became effective on May 23rd, 2022 allowed additional non-potentially hazardous foods to be exempted from food safety oversight, according to the same law book. That means the covered list has room to grow, and older summaries can be wrong. The state rules shift more often than most bakers expect.
Treat the law book as a yearly read, not a one-time read. Open it again before you add a new product, and again before the holiday season when your orders double.
What to confirm before your first paid order
The order matters. Confirm the food first, then the paperwork, then the price. Skipping ahead means you can end up with labels printed for an item you cannot sell.
Read the state law book
Download the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s home-based food law book and read the section that matches what you bake.
Write your menu down
List every item you plan to sell, including seasonal ones, so nothing gets checked from memory.
Call the department with the list
Ask which of your items are covered by S.C. Code 44-1-143 and what, if anything, you need to file.
Ask what goes on the label
Get the labeling answer in an email you can keep, before you order stickers or bags.
Ask where you can sell
Confirm the kinds of sales the law covers, then ask each market what it requires from a home baker.
Save the answers
Keep the name, the date, and the reply. It is your proof if a customer or a market manager asks later.
One phone call with your list in hand saves weeks of guessing. If an item is not covered, you find out before you have built a whole menu around it.
The three costs that decide your price
A price built on flour and butter alone will not pay you. Every batch carries ingredients, your time, and overhead, and all three come out of the sale before you keep anything.
For example, say a batch of four dozen cookies costs $18 in ingredients and $6 in bags and labels. Three hours of your time at $15 an hour is $45. Power for the oven, the drive to the market, and your share of the table fee add $9. The batch costs $78. Sell all 48 at $2.50 and you take in $120, which leaves $42, about 35 percent, after all three costs.
Packaging and delivery are the two costs that surprise people. A box, a sticker, a label, and a 20 minute drive are real money per order. Add them to the batch before you set the price, not after the first month. Our guide to whether this work is profitable walks through the same math on a full month of orders.
Test one price before you print a menu. Sell the batch at your number for two weeks and watch how many people say yes without asking for a discount. If everyone agrees instantly, your price is probably low.
Mistakes that cost South Carolina bakers money
Keep a simple record of every sale, every supply receipt, and every answer you get from the state. You will want it at tax time, and a market manager may ask for it.
Getting paid without losing the margin
Card payments through your own Stripe or Square account keep the money in your name from the first sale. Brevl charges one flat $20 a month and takes 0 percent of your sales. It also accepts Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash, so one order list shows every payment.
Your shop carries your photos, your colors, and your own web address, and it works on a phone and on a computer. If you already sell somewhere else, Brevl moves your products, photos, reviews, and dates over for you.
Take a deposit on custom orders. Half up front covers the ingredients, and it means a canceled cake does not come out of your own pocket.
- Requirements for Selling Baked Goods From Home (2026)
- Selling Baked Goods at Home: 5 Steps to Start (2026)
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Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from home in South Carolina?
South Carolina's Home-based Food Production Law, S.C. Code 44-1-143, covers non-potentially hazardous foods made in a home kitchen. Whether your specific item or your specific kind of sale needs a filing is a question for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Ask them with your menu in hand before you take money.
What does non-potentially hazardous mean for my menu?
It is the category the law covers. The state law book lists what falls inside it, and the list changed in 2022. Take your own menu to the department and ask about each item, especially anything with cream, custard, or meat. Do not guess from a blog post.
Can I sell at a farmers market in South Carolina?
Markets add their own rules on top of the state law. Ask the market manager what they require from a home baker before you pay for a table. Then confirm with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture that your items and your kind of sale are covered.
How do I price a batch so I actually make money?
Add ingredients, packaging, your hours, and overhead like power and travel. Divide by the number of items in the batch. Then set a price that leaves a margin after all of it. A batch that costs $78 and sells for $120 leaves $42, and that is the number that matters.
Do I have to charge sales tax on home baked goods?
That depends on what you sell and how you sell it, so ask the state tax office or a tax professional directly. Keep every receipt and record every sale from day one. Clean records make the answer easy to apply when you file.
Sources
General information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your own situation with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture and a tax professional.