Who the Alabama cottage food law covers
Alabama calls you a "cottage food production operation": a person working out of their own home who makes cottage food for sale and sells it only directly to consumers in the state. Home means your primary residence, with a kitchen and appliances designed for common residential use.
The health department can still step in when a food is suspected of making people sick: it may order a stop sale, seize or hold the food.
Which foods you can sell from home
A cottage food is a non-potentially hazardous food made in your home: it does not need time or temperature control to stay safe, and it contains no meat, poultry or fish. The law names these foods:
- Cakes, breads, Danish pastries, donuts, pastries and pies
- Jam, jellies and fruit preserves
- Candy
- Dried and dehydrated herbs, herb mixes, vegetables or fruits
- Roasted coffee
- Dried baking mixes
- Fermented or preserved vegetables or fruit that don't produce alcohol, at an acidity the department allows
Some foods need proof first. Pickles and acidified foods like salsa need a pH verification, and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables need a water activity verification, from a processing authority or the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. A reading from your own pH meter is not enough for the first approval.
Process Authority →Off limits: anything that needs refrigeration for safety, and anything with meat, poultry or fish, like beef jerky or pigs in a blanket. A cake with a splash of liquor is fine below 3% alcohol, according to ADPH.
Where and how you can sell
Every sale goes straight to the consumer, and that consumer has to be in Alabama. Inside that rule you have plenty of room: take orders on social media, sell from a booth, or mail a box of pralines to a customer in Mobile.
| Way of selling | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| In person, by phone or online, to a consumer in Alabama | Yes |
| Delivery by you, an agent or by mail, inside Alabama | Yes |
| From a tent, booth, cart, van or storefront not permitted by the health department | Yes |
| Farmers markets | Ask the Farmers Market Authority, which runs state-sanctioned markets |
| Restaurants or other permitted food establishments | No |
| Consignment in a retail store | No |
| Customers outside Alabama | No |
Advertising is fine. The law doesn't limit social media posts, flyers or a website, as long as the sale itself stays direct and in state.
Food safety course and county review
Before your first sale, pass a food safety course approved by the health department. The Alabama Cooperative Extension Service runs a course built for cottage food operators, and ANSI-accredited food safety programs count too. Keep your certificate current: when it expires, you take the course again.
Then take three things to your local county health department:
Nobody inspects your kitchen. The county reviews your paperwork, may charge a fee (it varies by county), and can give you a written confirmation of the review if you need one for a business license.
When you outgrow the cottage food law
Want to sell to stores, restaurants or customers in other states, or make foods with meat or that need refrigeration? Then you leave the cottage food law and need a permitted kitchen. Federal labeling applies in full at that point: net quantity, the manufacturer line and in many cases a Nutrition Facts panel.
FDA Food Labeling Requirements →