Starting a candy business, step by step
- Read your state's cottage food law and check that your candies are on its list
- Settle each recipe, and weigh a finished batch so you know your yield
- Check your recipes against the federal candy rules: alcohol, inclusions and colors
- Register, get a permit or take the training your state asks for
- Choose bags, boxes or wrappers for each product
- Make a label for every candy and every package size
- Start selling where your state allows, and plan the move to a licensed kitchen
Can you start a candy business from home?
In many states, yes. Candy is one of the foods cottage food laws were made for, because most of it keeps at room temperature. Colorado lists candy, fudge and cotton candy. Connecticut goes further and names chocolates, cake pops and freeze-dried candy. Pennsylvania has no cottage food exemption, but home candy makers can register their kitchen as a Limited Food Establishment.
The exceptions are where people get caught. A few examples from our state pages:
| State | The candy catch |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin | Candy is not a baked good, so it needs a DATCP license, however shelf-stable it is |
| Nevada | Candies are fine; ganache, truffles and other cream-based chocolates are not |
| New York | No tempered chocolate or candy melts for dipping, and nothing with alcohol |
| Kentucky | Candy only without added alcohol and without bare-hand contact |
| Washington | Stovetop candies like fudge, caramels, brittles and taffy, checked with a candy thermometer |
Your home kitchen also stays out of FDA's facility registration. FDA spells out what counts as a home:
Pick candy that is safe on a shelf
Cottage food laws are written for foods that stay safe without refrigeration. Dipped fresh fruit shows how differently states draw that line:
- Oregon: caramel apples and chocolate covered strawberries need refrigeration, so they are out
- New York: fruit dipped in chocolate or candy melts is prohibited, since nothing in the dipping process kills germs on the fruit
- Mississippi: dipped strawberries and caramel apples are allowed if the fruit is whole and uncut, and the apple goes out without its stick
Freeze-dried candy is a gray area. Michigan allows it if you use a commercial freeze dryer and let every cycle finish, Utah lists freeze-dried candies as permitted, and Oregon allows freeze-drying only for confectionery. New York lists freeze-dried foods as prohibited. Check your state before you buy a machine.
Freeze Dried Candy Label →Three federal rules only candy makers have
The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has a paragraph written just for confectionery. Candy that breaks it counts as adulterated, which means it may not be sold:
- Non-food objects: nothing embedded in the candy unless FDA finds, by regulation, that the object has a practical function and does not make the candy harmful. A toy sealed inside a chocolate egg is an example
- Alcohol: no more than 0.5% by volume, and only from flavoring extracts, unless the state where the candy is sold permits more
- Non-nutritive substances: only safe ones with a practical purpose in making, packing or storing the candy, and never in a way that deceives the buyer
So rum truffles, bourbon caramels and wine gummies depend on state law, and several cottage food laws rule them out completely. Michigan lists candies made with alcohol among the foods you can't sell as cottage food.
Check your colors before you stock up
Bright candy often depends on color additives, and one of them is on its way out. FDA has revoked the authorization for FD&C Red No. 3 in food, and names candy among the foods where it is found. Manufacturers get a deadline to reformulate, so ask your color supplier which dyes are in your gel colors and sprinkles now.
Colors you keep go on the label one by one. Our custom candy label page shows how to name them, along with the candy serving sizes.
Custom Candy Label →When you move to a licensed kitchen
Most candy businesses that grow end up in a commercial kitchen, a rented shared kitchen or with a co-packer. The usual triggers are selling to shops, shipping to other states, passing your state's sales cap or adding a candy your cottage food law doesn't allow.
- A state or local food license for the kitchen you use
- FDA food facility registration, unless the kitchen qualifies for an exemption such as a retail food establishment
- The full federal label, including Nutrition Facts unless an exemption fits
- Your name qualified as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by" when a co-packer makes the candy
Packaging that sells and protects
Candy packaging has two jobs: keep moisture out and give the label a flat, readable spot. Decide the package before the label, because a narrow bar wrapper and a gift box need different label layouts.
- Cello bags with a back label
- Gift boxes with a bottom label
- Bar wrappers with a linear label
- Tubs for cotton candy
- Single lollipops in clear wrap
Our tool makes the Standard, Tabular and Small package (linear) layouts from the same recipe, so one candy can have a box label and a wrapper label. Download a true-size PDF, or a sheet layout for Avery 5126, 5168, 5164 or 5163 labels if you print at home.
Avery Food Labels →Your candy label, by product
Each kind of candy has its own label questions, from the serving size to the chocolate names FDA has standardized. Pick yours:
Custom Chocolate Bar Label →Gummy Label →Lollipop Label →Cotton Candy Label →Or enter your recipe in our tool. Cooking boils off water, so you type the weight of the batch after cooking and the numbers follow. You see the finished label free, and pay only to download it.
Start your candy label free →Candy and cottage food law in your state
Each state page lists the foods allowed at home, the sales cap, the permit and the label statement. Find yours:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin