Is This a Business Yet?
The cottage-food question and the exact line between a home kitchen and a commercial operation.
- 1. Cottage food or commercial: the line you're about to crossWhat a cottage-food exemption is, why the rules come entirely from your state, and how to tell whether you're operating under one right now.
- 2. What you're actually allowed to make at homeHow to tell whether your own product can legally be made in a home kitchen — the pH and water-activity science behind cottage-food lists, and how to classify your recipe against your state's.
- 3. The cottage-food rules that actually bite youThe everyday cottage-food violations that get operators fined — the label elements and exact disclosure wording, the sales channels and shipping limits, and the records you keep even while exempt.
- 4. The moment you legally have to leave your home kitchenThe four events that end a cottage-food exemption — passing the sales cap, selling wholesale, shipping across state lines, or making a food that needs refrigeration — and what changes the day you cross.