Who the Ohio cottage food law covers
Ohio calls you a "cottage food production operation": a person who, in their home, makes foods that are not potentially hazardous, such as bakery products, jams, jellies, candy and fruit butter. There is no application to file. If you meet the definition and follow the rules, you are covered.
So a rented commercial kitchen, a second home or a kitchen with two ranges does not qualify. Hamilton County Public Health adds that the home must be in Ohio and that commercial grade cooking equipment is not allowed.
Which foods you can make under Ohio cottage food rules
Ohio works with a closed list. The Ohio Administrative Code approves 20 food types, and nothing else. Here they are, grouped:
- Non-potentially hazardous bakery products, like cookies, breads, brownies, cakes and fruit pies
- Jams and jellies
- Candy, but not fresh fruit dipped in or covered with candy
- Flavored honey from a beekeeper exempt under ORC 3715.021
- Fruit chutneys and fruit butters
- Granola, granola bars and candy-dipped granola bars, with commercially dried fruit only
- Maple sugar from an exempt maple syrup producer
- Popcorn, flavored popcorn, kettle corn, popcorn balls and caramel corn (not unpopped popping corn)
- Unfilled baked donuts
- Waffle cones, plain or dipped in candy, and pizzelles
- Dry cereal and nut snack mixes with seasonings
- Roasted coffee, whole bean or ground
- Dry baking mixes in a jar, like cookie mix
- Dry herbs, herb blends, seasoning blends and tea blends
- Dry soup mixes with commercially dried vegetables, beans, grains and seasonings
ODA reads candy broadly: no-bake cookies and chocolate covered pretzels count. Dry seasoning blends include barbecue rubs and seafood boil mixes.
Off limits by law: potentially hazardous foods, acidified foods and low-acid canned foods. ODA's examples include cheesecake, pumpkin pie, custard and cream pies, garlic in oil, cooked vegetables, and raw or cooked animal products such as meat. Egg noodles are potentially hazardous too, so they need a home bakery license.
Where and how you can sell cottage food in Ohio
Ohio cottage food is sold inside Ohio only. Package and label everything at home, before it leaves your kitchen.
| Where you sell | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| From your home, directly to the consumer | Yes |
| Farmers markets | Yes, prepackaged and labeled. No local health department license needed |
| Registered farm markets | Yes |
| Licensed grocery stores and other retail food establishments | Yes, the store may resell your labeled food |
| Licensed restaurants | Yes, to sell or to use in the food they serve |
| Festivals and celebrations | Only if run by a political subdivision of Ohio and no longer than 7 consecutive days |
| Unwrapped goods customers pick themselves | Only with a temporary or mobile food license from the local health department |
| Customers or stores in other states | No |
Online orders are not on ODA's list of places to sell, and ODA's pages say nothing about them. If you want to take orders through a website, ask the ODA Division of Food Safety first. Shipping to another state is never allowed.
License, fees, training and inspections
This is where Ohio is easy. A cottage food production operation is exempt from ODA licensing and inspection, so there is no permit, no registration form, no fee and no kitchen check before you start. Ohio's cottage food rules don't require a food safety course either, though county health departments like Hamilton County offer training if you want it.
ODA can still take samples of your products, at any time, to check whether they are misbranded or adulterated. Refusing a sample is one of the prohibitions in the rules.
- No license, permit or registration with ODA
- No fee and no sales cap
- No required food safety course
- Product sampling by ODA at any time
- Local zoning still applies, so check that home-based sales are allowed where you live
When you outgrow the Ohio cottage food law
Want to bake cheesecakes, cream pies or filled donuts at home? Then you need an Ohio home bakery license. ODA inspects your kitchen and reviews your labels. The license costs $10 a year and is renewed every September.
- No pets in the home
- No carpet in the kitchen
- A water test from the last 12 months if you're not on municipal water, negative for total coliform
- An accurate thermometer showing your refrigerator holds 45°F or less
Canned foods are a bigger step. For acidified or low-acid canned foods you attend Better Process Control School, have a process authority evaluate each product, register with FDA as a cannery and file your process with FDA before ODA inspects you. Beekeepers, tree syrup and sorghum makers, and apple syrup or apple butter makers who get at least 75% of their honey, sap, juice or apples from their own hives, trees or plants are not food processing establishments under Ohio law.
Maple Syrup Label Requirements →