Cottage food rules
Kansas Cottage Food Laws: What Home Bakers Need
What Kansas asks of home bakers, what it does not, and how to grow without a sales cap.
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What to remember
- No license, permit, registration, or inspection for non-TCS shelf-stable cottage foods sold direct to consumers.
- No dollar cap on how much you can sell, so your kitchen and your hours are the real limit.
- The exemption sits in K.S.A. 65-689(d)(4) inside the Kansas Food Code.
- The current Kansas Food Code took effect on June 2, 2023.
If you have been putting off selling your bakes because you assumed there was a permit to chase first, Kansas is a friendlier place to start than most. Here is what the rules actually say, and what to watch as your baking grows. If you bake somewhere else, or you are getting ready to move, start with how to research your state’s cottage food laws instead.
What Kansas asks of you
For cottage foods that are shelf stable and sold straight to the person who eats them, Kansas does not require a license, permit, registration, or inspection. That covers the everyday case: you bake in your own kitchen, a customer orders from you, and the food does not need to stay cold on the way home. No inspector visits your kitchen, and there is no application sitting in a queue.
The exemption that makes this work is written into the Kansas Food Code at K.S.A. 65-689(d)(4), which covers producers selling directly to consumers. The version of the food code in force now took effect on June 2, 2023, after the state’s most recent adoption of the code. If you find an older article quoting different rules, look at the date on it before you plan around it.
There is no cap on what you can sell
Kansas sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales. That is worth sitting with for a minute, because in many states that number is the thing that quietly decides how big a home baker can get. Here, the ceiling is your oven, your counter space, and the hours you actually have. Growth looks like a second stand mixer and a calmer weekly plan, not a form to file.
That freedom cuts both ways. With no cap to bump into, it is easy to say yes to more orders than one oven can carry, or to price by guesswork and work harder for the same money. Cost your recipes properly and know what a batch really earns before you fill a whole weekend with it.
Getting ready to take orders
Pick bakes that hold up on a counter
Choose items that are shelf stable and sold direct. If a recipe depends on staying cold, leave it out of your menu for now.
Cost every recipe before you sell it
Ingredient prices, packaging, and what a batch makes. A price that feels normal can still leave you with almost nothing.
Decide how customers reach you and how you get paid
One clear way to order and one clear way to pay saves a hundred back and forth messages. Brevl takes cards through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash.
Keep a simple record of what you sold
A short weekly note of what went out, what it cost, and what came in makes pricing decisions much easier later.
Recheck the food code when your menu changes
A new item can sit outside the exemption even when everything else on your table is fine. Confirm before you list it.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
Free, no signup.
Where to look next
Kansas updated its food code recently, so older summaries are still floating around and they contradict each other. What the new Kansas cottage food laws change walks through the parts worth confirming before you print a menu or quote a price to a customer.
When you are ready to move past a group chat and sell from your own shop, Brevl keeps your recipes, your costs, and your orders together. We set it up with you and move your old shop over, products, photos, reviews, and dates, so you are not starting from an empty page. A real person answers, usually within minutes.
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell bakes from my home in Kansas?
For non-TCS, shelf-stable cottage foods sold directly to consumers, Kansas does not require a license, permit, registration, or inspection. Whether a particular bake qualifies depends on the food itself, since the exemption is written for foods that do not need temperature control.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell?
No. Kansas sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, so the real limit is your kitchen, your equipment, and your time.
Where do the Kansas cottage food rules come from?
The direct-to-consumer producer exemption sits at K.S.A. 65-689(d)(4) within the Kansas Food Code.
Which version of the Kansas Food Code applies now?
The current Kansas Food Code took effect on June 2, 2023, following the state's most recent adoption of the code. Older write ups may describe different rules.
Sources
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so confirm the details with the Kansas Food Code or a qualified professional before you rely on them for your business.