California cottage food label requirements

Two things make California different, and both matter more than the label itself: the Class A / Class B split, and an unusually short list of what you're allowed to make.

The label California actually requires

Under § 114365.2(e), every cottage food product needs:

1. "Made in a Home Kitchen" — or "Repackaged in a Home Kitchen" if that's what you're doing. At least 12-point type, on the primary display panel.
2. The name of your cottage food operation.
3. Your registration or permit number, and the county that issued it. Class A prints a registration number; Class B prints a permit number. County guidance typically has you write it as "Registration Issued by [County] County."
4. The common name of the product.
5. The ingredient list, in descending order by weight, if the product has two or more ingredients. Sub-ingredients count — if your chocolate chips contain soy lecithin, that shows up.
6. Net quantity and an allergen declaration, both per the federal rules that § 114365.2(e) incorporates. County guidance generally wants net quantity in both US and metric units. The federal allergen list is nine: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame, which joined under the FASTER Act on January 1, 2023. Declare them parenthetically in the ingredient list or in a "Contains" statement, and name tree nuts by species — "almonds," not "tree nuts."

The exact required wording

Made in a Home Kitchen

Or, if you're only repackaging:

Repackaged in a Home Kitchen

At least 12-point type, on the primary display panel. San Diego County's guidance sets a floor of 1/16-inch height for all other label text, measured at the lowercase "o." Don't invent a variation — "made in a home kitchen, not inspected by the state" is a different statement, not this one.

One California quirk that trips people up: under § 114365.2(f), your advertising has to carry it too. Any public ad must state that the operation is county-approved, give the registration or permit number, and include the "Made in a Home Kitchen" statement — your website and your farmers market signage, not just the package.

Class A vs Class B

This is the fork in the road, and it decides your cap, your fees, and whether someone walks through your kitchen.

A "direct sale" under § 113758 is you to the customer: your kitchen door, a farmers market, a farm stand, a CSA box, a holiday bazaar, or an online order you fulfill yourself. An "indirect sale" runs through a third-party retailer with its own permit — a coffee shop that stocks your granola. Class A can't do that. Both caps are adjusted annually for inflation against the California Consumer Price Index, so confirm the current-year figure with your county. Either class is capped at one full-time-equivalent employee who isn't a household family member.

CDPH does not issue these. Registration and permits go through your county environmental health department, and fees vary by county. Orange County, as one published example, charges $225 for the initial application and label review (up to 10 labels), then $128 a year for Class A or $384 for Class B. Your county's number will differ. Every operator also completes a state-approved food processor course within three months of registration and again every three years.

Where a Nutrition Facts panel becomes required

No US state requires a full Nutrition Facts panel on cottage food products. You need one when:

1. You make a nutrient content claim — "high protein," "low sugar," "keto," "sugar free." Any of these obligates the panel that substantiates it.
2. You make a health claim — connecting your food to a disease or health condition.
3. You outgrow your state's cottage food cap and move to a commercial kitchen. At that point you are a regular food manufacturer and the cottage exemption is gone.
4. You sell wholesale or into retail. Cottage exemptions are almost universally direct-to-consumer only.
5. You sell on Amazon or another marketplace that requires a panel. Amazon's requirement is contractual, not legal, and it does not care what your state says.

California county guidance is explicit that a panel becomes mandatory the moment your label uses words like "free," "low," "reduced," "high," or "light." And under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(18), the exemption is void if the claim appears in advertising — not just on the package. Calling your granola "high protein" in an Instagram caption is enough to require the panel on the bag.

What California will not let you make

California uses an approved-list model. If a food isn't on CDPH's Approved Cottage Foods List, you can't make it under this law — which is the opposite of how Texas now works, and it catches a lot of people.

Not allowed as cottage food in California:

This is the single biggest difference between California and the rest of the country, and it isn't a technicality. If you make hot sauce, salsa, jerky, a dairy product, or anything canned, California cottage food law is closed to you. Your path is a licensed commercial or shared-use kitchen under a processed food registration. The day you rent that kitchen you become a food manufacturer under federal law, and full labeling applies — including a Nutrition Facts panel unless you qualify for the small business exemption below. Worth knowing before you spend three months perfecting a salsa recipe.

Allowed, in the CDPH categories: baked goods without cream, custard, or meat fillings; candy and confections; chocolate-covered nonperishable foods; dried and dehydrated foods; frostings, icings, fondants, and gum pastes without eggs, cream, or cream cheese; honey and sorghum syrup; fruit butters, jams, jellies, and preserves meeting 21 CFR 150; nuts, nut mixes, and roasted or pasteurized nut butters; and vinegars and mustards.

That is a partial list, and the full one is longer than most guides suggest. The 2020 revision ran to 35 categories, picking up dried pasta, dry baking mixes, popcorn, roasted coffee and dried tea, vegetable and potato chips, candied apples, waffle cones, donuts, and marshmallows made without eggs. CDPH revises the list periodically, so pull the current Approved Cottage Foods List PDF from the link below and check your exact product against it before you commit. If it isn't on that PDF, it isn't cottage food in California.

If your product is a prepared meal rather than a shelf-stable good, look at California's separate MEHKO program (microenterprise home kitchen operations) instead. Different law, different rules, authorized county by county.

Where you can sell

AB 1144 changed this in 2022 and many older pages still say otherwise: California cottage food operators can fulfill by mail and third-party delivery now. What hasn't changed is the boundary. Both "direct sale" and "indirect sale" are defined in § 113758 as transactions within the state, and once a product crosses a state line it enters interstate commerce and FDA has authority over the whole operation that made it. A state exemption cannot exempt you from federal law.

When you outgrow cottage food

Any of these ends the exemption:

• You cross $75,000 as a Class A, or $150,000 as a Class B.
• You want to sell into shops without upgrading to Class B.
• You want to ship out of state.
• You want to make salsa, sauce, jerky, dairy, or canned goods.
• You want to say "low sugar" on the label — or in an ad.

Whichever comes first, you're a food manufacturer the day after, labeling under 21 CFR 101.9. Your panel's serving size comes from the RACC table in 21 CFR 101.12, not from you.

You might still be exempt, even out of a commercial kitchen

21 CFR 101.9(j)(18) exempts small businesses from the Nutrition Facts requirement if you have fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees and sell fewer than 100,000 units in the US in a 12-month period. You file an annual notice with FDA to claim it. FDA is blunt about the follow-up: "FDA DOES NOT NOTIFY FIRMS WHEN IT IS TIME TO FILE A NOTICE." That's on you.

There's a smaller carve-out in the same section: not an importer, fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, fewer than 10,000 units a year, and you don't have to file anything.

The exemption is void — filed or not — for any product carrying a nutrient content claim, a health claim, or other nutrition information, on the label, in labeling, or in advertising. See FDA's food labeling guide.

If you've hit one of the triggers and need the panel itself, Nutrillius builds an FDA-compliant Nutrition Facts panel from your recipe in about a minute — $39 one time, no subscription. Compare that to $1,609–$1,724 for a single lab-analyzed sample at Medallion Labs, or $195 and a two-to-four week wait through a university extension lab.

Verify this yourself

California's caps are inflation-indexed, the approved foods list gets revised, and your fees are set locally. Three things to check before you print labels:

• CDPH — Cottage Food Operations, including the current Approved Cottage Foods List PDF
• Cal. Health & Safety Code § 113758 and § 114365.2
• Your county environmental health department — they register you, set your fee, and review your labels

Last reviewed August 4, 2026. Plenty of California cottage food pages still show a $50,000 cap and say you can't ship by mail. Both were true before 2022 and neither is now — good reason to confirm anything you read against the county.