Who the Kentucky cottage food law covers
Kentucky's statute speaks of a "home-based processor": a person who makes non-potentially hazardous foods in his or her home and earns no more than $60,000 a year from selling them. You must be a Kentucky resident, and you don't have to grow any of the ingredients yourself.
"Home" has a precise meaning: the primary residence you live in, with no more than two ranges, ovens or double-ovens and no more than three refrigerators for cold storage, all made for home use and used in the kitchen inside the house.
Which foods you can sell
The statute and 902 KAR 45:090 together name the foods a home-based processor may make:
- Bread
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Fruit pies
- Pecan pies
- Candy
- Jams, jellies, preserves
- Fruit butter
- Sweet sorghum syrup
- Maple syrup
- Granola
- Trail or snack mix
- Popcorn
- Nuts
- Dried herbs and spices
- Dried grains
- Dried or freeze-dried whole fruits and vegetables
- Whole fruit and vegetables
- Mixed greens
Candy has two conditions: no added alcohol and no bare-hand contact. The same program also covers pork lard and tallow-based cosmetic products, like tallow balm.
These stay off limits for a home-based processor:
- Acid foods, acidified foods, formulated acid foods and low-acid canned foods
- Crème filled pies, custard and custard pies
- Pies with meringue topping, and cream, custard or meringue pastries
- Cheesecake
- Raw seed sprouts
- Garlic-in-oil products
- Pureed baby foods
Vacuum packing in anything other than a mason-type jar is prohibited. Jams and jellies go in glass jars with rigid metal lids, and a jam processed for less than ten minutes goes into a sterilized jar.
Where and how you can sell
Home-based products may only be sold directly to consumers within Kentucky. You can advertise and take orders and payments in person, electronically, over the internet or by phone.
| Way of selling | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Pick-up at your home or delivery | Yes |
| Farmers markets and flea markets | Yes |
| Festivals, county fairs, craft fairs and nonprofit charity events | Yes |
| A roadside stand | Yes |
| Online orders and payments | Yes, for consumers in Kentucky |
| Wholesale to stores or distributors | No |
| Buyers in other states | No |
The rules talk about pick-up and delivery. Planning to mail orders inside Kentucky? Ask the Food Safety Branch first.
Registration, fees and inspections
Register with the Department for Public Health, Food Safety Branch, before you sell. Send form DFS-250, the Application for Home-based Processor (from the Food Safety Branch or your University of Kentucky Extension office), with a $50 fee. The registration lists your name, the address where you cook and the products you make.
No food safety course is listed for home-based processors. The regulation does set kitchen rules:
When you outgrow the home-based processor rules
Farmers who grow their main ingredients can step up to home-based microprocessor. That certification covers acid foods, acidified foods such as pickles and salsa, and low-acid canned foods, after a Food Processing School from the University of Kentucky Extension and an approved scheduled process for every recipe. It costs $50 a year, also expires March 31, and sales go through farmers markets, certified roadside stands or the farm. The $60,000 cap applies there too.
Past $60,000, selling wholesale or shipping out of state? Then you need a permitted food processing establishment, and the federal label rules apply in full, including in most cases a Nutrition Facts panel.
FDA Food Labeling Requirements →