Who counts as a cottage food business in Maryland
Maryland calls you a "cottage food business": you produce or package cottage food products in a residential kitchen, sell them the way the law allows, and keep your annual revenue from those products within the cap. The food is made, packaged, labeled and stored in your home. It can't be cooked or bagged on site at a market.
Heads up: MDH's guidance documents and the regulation COMAR 10.15.03.02 still print the old $50,000 figure. The statute is what counts, and it now says $100,000.
Which foods you can sell
Only non-potentially hazardous foods: food that stays safe on a shelf without refrigeration. MDH's allowed list includes:
- Breads, bagels, biscuits, tortillas, muffins, brownies and cookies
- Cakes and cupcakes without perishable icing or fillings
- Pies, turnovers and tarts from fruits with a natural pH of 4.6 or below
- Hot-filled jams, jellies and preserves from acid fruits like apples, peaches, plums and berries
- Fruit butters from apple, apricot, grape, peach, plum, prune or quince only
- Hard candy, brittle, toffee, lollipops and chocolate-covered pretzels or nuts
- Granola, trail mix, popcorn, kettle corn and roasted nuts
- Whole roasted coffee beans, and repackaged commercial spice, seasoning and tea blends
These stay off limits as cottage food:
- Anything that needs refrigeration: cheesecake, cream and custard pies, pumpkin, sweet potato and meringue pies
- Pickles, salsa, pepper jelly, relish and other acidified or fermented foods (sourdough bread is the exception)
- Low-acid canned foods, and garlic or vegetables in oil
- Meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, milk and dairy products
- Beverages of any kind, syrups and extracts
- Homemade nut and seed butters, fudge and soft caramels
- Sugar-free jams and jellies, dehydrated or freeze-dried foods (store-bought shelf-stable candy is the one freeze-dried exception)
Some foods sit in between. Buttercream or cream cheese icings, glazes made with water, moist quick breads like banana or zucchini bread, and baked goods with alcohol added after baking can qualify if a third-party lab shows a water activity of 0.85 or below or a pH of 4.6 or below. Keep copies of those results with you at public events.
Where and how you can sell
Every sale happens inside Maryland. Interstate sales are prohibited, so advertise online as much as you like, but sell and mail only to customers in the state.
| Way of selling | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| From your home, at farmers markets and public events | Yes |
| Bake sales | Yes, when tied to a fundraising event |
| Personal delivery | Yes |
| Mail order | Yes, within Maryland only |
| Grocery stores, convenience stores, retail bakeries, food co-ops | Yes, after MDH review and its compliance letter |
| Restaurants, coffee shops and cafeterias | No |
| Customers in other states | No |
A "retail food store" is a licensed food service facility selling prepackaged food. A gift or antique shop without a food license doesn't qualify, and neither does a table outside a shop or your apartment building that isn't part of a fundraiser.
Free samples are fine if you portion and wrap them at home. The packaged products on your table carry the full label, so customers can read the ingredients.
Licenses, the MDH review and training
A cottage food business needs no license from MDH when it follows the law. Most home bakers simply start: no application, no fee, no kitchen inspection. Two things do go through MDH, both through its Cottage Food Business Request Form:
- A unique ID number, if you'd rather not print your home address on the label
- Approval to sell to retail food stores: you submit the store label and proof of a food safety course from the past 3 years, approved by MDH and the American National Standards Institute
Counties and towns can still regulate home businesses. Check zoning and business license rules with your local government, and ask your local health department before you join a farmers market or event.
Inspections only follow a complaint or a reported illness. Then the health department may enter your home kitchen, look around and take samples, and you have to let them in.
When you outgrow the Maryland cottage food law
Over the cap, selling across state lines, or making refrigerated foods? MDH's decision tool points to three routes:
| Your plan | What you need |
|---|---|
| Retail sales, including online sales nationwide, with up to 49% wholesale | A food service facility license from your local health department, in a commercial kitchen |
| Mostly wholesale (more than 50% of sales) | A food processing plant license from MDH, after plan review and a pre-opening inspection |
| You own an agriculturally zoned farm | An on-farm home processing license, which covers some foods cottage food doesn't |
Once you sell as a licensed business, federal labeling applies in full: ingredient list, net quantity in two units, and in most cases a Nutrition Facts panel.
Nutrition Facts Label Requirements →