South Carolina cottage food label requirements

South Carolina calls this the Home-based Food Production Law. No permit, no training, no routine inspection, and since 2022 you can sell online, by mail, and to grocery stores. The label is the whole obligation.

The label South Carolina actually requires

Section 44-1-143(D) says every food item packaged for sale "must be properly labeled," must "comply with federal laws and regulations," and must include:

1. The name and address of the home-based food production operation. If you don't want your home address on a cookie bag, the statute lets you request an identification number from the department instead. SCDA issues it through CPD Form #2108, which lists no fee.
2. The name of the product being sold.
3. The ingredient list, in descending order by weight. Sub-ingredients count.
4. Allergen declaration. The "comply with federal laws" clause pulls this in, and SCDA's guidance says it outright. Federal law covers nine: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame, the last added by the FASTER Act on January 1, 2023. Declare them in the ingredient list or in a "Contains" statement, and name tree nuts, fish, and shellfish by species.
5. The South Carolina disclaimer, word for word, in capital letters.

Net weight is not on the state list. SCDA's labeling quick guide shows one anyway, and it becomes mandatory the day you leave cottage food.

The exact disclaimer wording

PROCESSED AND PREPARED BY A HOME-BASED FOOD PRODUCTION OPERATION THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO SOUTH CAROLINA'S FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS.

Section 44-1-143(D)(4) requires it as "a conspicuous statement printed in all capital letters and in a color that provides a clear contrast to the background." There is no point-size minimum, but "conspicuous" rules out tiny grey type on a kraft bag. Print it as written, and don't use the pre-2022 version that began "NOT FOR RESALE—"; Act 208 of 2022 deleted that prefix. SCDA also says "No health claims may be made in association with foods produced in a home-based food operation."

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.

South Carolina has no cap, so trigger four is the one to watch. The state lets you sell to grocery stores under the cottage law, but a buyer putting your jar next to commercially made products will often ask for a panel as a condition of carrying you, even though § 44-1-143 doesn't.

Trigger one catches more people than the other four combined, and it catches them somewhere they don't expect. 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 you can and can't make in South Carolina

South Carolina uses an exclusion model: any "nonpotentially hazardous" food qualifies, with potentially hazardous foods defined by category and by a pH and water-activity table in § 44-1-143(A)(4). SCDA turns that into published lists and says "Making any food item that is not allowed will require a permit."

Allowed, per SCDA's May 2026 fact sheet: shelf-stable cakes, cookies, and cupcakes; dried herbs and spices; pies and high-acid pie fillings; roasted nuts; and sourdough bread made with a commercial starter. The full guidance adds jams, candies, granola, and more.

Prohibited:

If your product is on that list, cottage food law is not your path in South Carolina. Sauce makers and cheesecake bakers need a licensed commercial or shared-use kitchen and an SCDA food permit, and once you're operating out of one you're a food manufacturer under federal law — full labeling, including a Nutrition Facts panel, unless you qualify for the small business exemption below.

Where you can sell

Section 44-1-143(E) lets you sell "directly to a person, including online and by mail order, or to retail stores, including grocery stores." Stores that carry you must post signage. SCDA's FAQ adds that the law "is only applicable to sales intrastate" and that "products that cross state lines are subject to FDA regulations."

Interstate is a hard no everywhere, and the reason is jurisdictional rather than arbitrary: the moment a product crosses a state line it enters interstate commerce and FDA has authority over the whole operation that made it. Your state's cottage food exemption cannot exempt you from federal law. If you ship to one customer in another state, you have stepped outside the exemption for that shipment.

The cap, the permit, and the training

Two quirks. Section 44-1-143(G) says the section "does not apply" to an operation with net earnings under $1,500 a year: a floor, not a cap, which SCDA reads as no labeling duties but no retail sales either. And § 44-1-143(I) applies the law only "in the absence of a local ordinance to the contrary," so check your municipality before you print.

When you outgrow cottage food

With no cap, you leave South Carolina cottage food by choice, not by arithmetic. Any of these ends the exemption:

• You want to make hot sauce, cheesecake, or anything refrigerated.
• You want to ship to customers in Georgia or North Carolina.
• You want to say "high protein" on the bag.
• You list on Amazon.

Whichever one gets you first, the day after it happens you are a food manufacturer, and food manufacturers label under 21 CFR 101.9. Your label now needs a Nutrition Facts panel with a serving size pulled from the RACC table in 21 CFR 101.12 — not a serving size you chose.

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 have to 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 under the same section: if you're not an importer, have fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, and sell fewer than 10,000 units a year, you don't have to file anything at all.

And the exemption is void — filed or not — for any product carrying a nutrient content claim, a health claim, or other nutrition information, whether that appears on the label, in labeling, or in advertising. See FDA's labeling guidance for the full text.

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. That's against $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

Cottage food law changes most legislative sessions, and South Carolina last moved this one in 2022, when Act 208 added online, mail-order, and grocery-store sales. Before you print labels, check the current rules with the agency directly:

• SCDA — Retail Food Safety (Home-based Food Production)
• SCDA — Home-based Food Production Law Guidance, July 2025, v1.4 (PDF)
• S.C. Code § 44-1-143: Title 44, Chapter 1, S.C. Code of Laws

This page was last reviewed October 30, 2026. If you're reading it much later than that, verify the disclaimer wording and the allowed-foods list before you rely on either.