West Virginia cottage food label requirements

Article 40 is new. Senate Bill 44 passed March 14, 2026 and took effect June 12, 2026. For the first time, pickles, salsa, hot sauce, fermented foods, cut produce, and cheesecake can be made at home and sold, under a WVDA "potentially hazardous cottage food vendor permit." Shelf-stable cottage foods were already deregulated in 2019 and SB 44 left them alone.

There are five situations where the answer flips and you do need a panel. They're below, after the part you actually came for.

The label West Virginia actually requires

Section 19-35-6(c) says all nonpotentially hazardous foods "shall be labeled in compliance with the department's labeling standards and provide information about their content and sources." WVDA's Labeling Requirements (2026) is that standard. It applies to every food "made in a home, farm or community kitchen" for direct sale, hazardous or not, and requires:

1. Statement of identity, the common name of the product, on the principal display panel.
2. Company name of the producer, packer, or distributor. If the name isn't the actual producer, add a statement of the relationship ("Distributed by").
3. City, state, and zip code of the producer. WVDA does not ask for a street address.
4. The ingredient list, in descending order by weight, beginning with the word "Ingredients:". Single-ingredient products still need one. Sub-ingredients count. If your chocolate chips contain soy lecithin, that has to show up.
5. Net contents in the bottom third of the principal panel, in U.S. units followed by the metric equivalent in parentheses. Honey by weight, syrups by volume. For nonpotentially hazardous foods, a legible hand-written net content statement is acceptable.
6. A "Contains" allergen statement directly below the ingredient list. Federal law covers nine: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. Sesame joined the list under the FASTER Act on January 1, 2023. WVDA wants the "Contains" format rather than parenthetical declaration, and tree nuts, fish, and shellfish must be named by species — "almonds," not "tree nuts."
7. The West Virginia kitchen statement, word for word.

Products that need refrigeration or freezing must say so, with any cooking instructions, and WVDA asks for lot codes for recall purposes. For unpackaged or bulk shelf-stable items, the label information can go on a placard at the point of sale, on a receipt, or on the website if the product is sold online.

The exact disclaimer wording

This product was made in a non-commercial kitchen that may not be subject to inspection and may contain cross-contact allergens not included in the allergen statement.

That is the wording in WVDA's Labeling Requirements (2026), which governs shelf-stable cottage foods under § 19-35-6(c). WVDA sets no type-size minimum beyond "a size and style that is easily legible to the average person." The emergency rule for permitted hazardous foods, 61CSR42 § 6.3.9, uses a near-identical sentence that reads "non-commercial or home kitchen"; if you hold a potentially hazardous vendor permit, WVDA reviews your label before issuing it and will tell you which version to print.

Don't paraphrase it, and don't drop the cross-contact clause; it is the half of the sentence that other states don't have, and it is there for a reason.

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.

West Virginia has no cap, allows online sales, and allows a third-party carrier to deliver, so the usual pressure points don't apply. What does: § 19-35-6 covers sales "by the producer to the consumer," so a store buying for resale takes you out of the exemption (trigger four), and the shipping freedom tempts people onto marketplaces (trigger five). WVDA's own label review also flags any nutrient claim.

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 West Virginia

West Virginia uses two models stacked. Shelf-stable foods follow an exclusion model: anything nonpotentially hazardous may be made and sold with no permit. Potentially hazardous foods follow a permit model under Article 40 and 61CSR42: listed categories may be made at home once WVDA issues a permit and, for most of them, a process authority has approved the recipe.

No permit needed (nonpotentially hazardous): breads, rolls, biscuits, cakes, candies, cereals, trail mixes, granola, coated and uncoated nuts, fruit pies, honey, standard-fruit jams and jellies (grape, strawberry, raspberry), molasses, sorghum, tree syrup, popcorn, cotton candy, pepperoni rolls, whole dehydrated fruits and vegetables, tomato sauce and juice, and whole or chopped canned tomatoes, per WVDA's guide.

Permit required (potentially hazardous), per 61CSR42 § 5.2:

Prohibited outright: meat, meat products, poultry, seafood, and Grade A dairy products (§ 19-40-1); wild-harvested mushrooms and sprouted seeds (61CSR42 § 5.3).

If your product is on that prohibited list, cottage food law is not your path. Jerky and cheese makers in particular need a licensed commercial kitchen and, for meat, a grant of inspection. Once you're operating out of one you're a food manufacturer under federal law — which means full labeling, including a Nutrition Facts panel unless you qualify for the small business exemption below.

Where you can sell

West Virginia is the most permissive state in this group on shelf-stable channels. The statute itself says a nonpotentially hazardous food "must be sold by the producer to the consumer, whether in person or remotely, or by an agent of the producer or a third-party vendor," and delivered "by the producer, an agent of the producer, a third-party vendor, or a third-party carrier." You can take an order on your website and mail the box.

What the statute does not do is reach across the state line. Section 19-35-6(e)(6) says the exemption does not excuse you from "any applicable law of the federal government, including any federal law prohibiting the sale of certain food items in interstate commerce," and (e)(7) adds "any applicable law of another state." For permitted hazardous foods the limit is explicit: § 19-40-2(b) says they "shall be sold only within the geographic boundaries of the State of West Virginia."

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

Section 19-35-6(f) preempts counties and cities from prohibiting or regulating shelf-stable cottage food sales, with carve-outs for government-owned venues and temporary events of 14 days or less. You still need to register your business name with the state and pay taxes, and a local health department can still investigate a reported foodborne illness. For hazardous foods, selling without registering draws a 30-day notice and then a $250 civil penalty under 61CSR42 § 10.1. Note that 61CSR42 was filed as an emergency rule on June 1, 2026; the permanent rule may differ, so confirm the fee schedule with WVDA.

When you outgrow cottage food

West Virginia has no cap, so the exits look different here. Any of these ends the exemption:

• A grocery store or a shop wants to buy for resale.
• You want to ship out of state as a regular channel.
• You want to make jerky, cheese, or anything else on the prohibited list.
• You want to say "high protein" on the bag.
• A marketplace asks for a panel.

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 West Virginia has moved in 2019 (SB 285), 2021 (HB 2633), and 2026 (SB 44 and the 61CSR42 emergency rule). Before you print labels, check the current rules with the agency directly:

• WVDA — Potentially Hazardous (Homemade) Cottage Food Items Rule
• WVDA — Labeling Requirements 2026
• WVDA — Guide for Homemade Food Products
• W. Va. Code § 19-35-6: Nonpotentially hazardous foods
• W. Va. Code ch. 19, art. 40: Cottage Foods
• SB 44 (2026), enrolled

This page was last reviewed October 30, 2026. If you're reading it much later than that, verify the permit rules and the kitchen statement before you rely on either.