Colorado Cottage Food Law: $10K Cap, Training, and Labeling

The Colorado cottage food law, codified at C.R.S. § 25-4-1614, lets you sell certain homemade, non-perishable foods directly to consumers without a retail food license from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. You can earn up to $10,000 in net revenue per product per year, but you have to complete approved food safety training, label every product with a specific disclaimer, and handle sales tax like any other business.¹

What You Can Sell

The exemption covers foods that stay safe at room temperature. The statute’s approved list includes:

Baked goods such as cookies, breads, cakes, candies, fruit empanadas, and tortillas, as long as they don’t need refrigeration
Jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butter
Dry goods such as flour, spices, teas, nuts, and seeds
Dehydrated and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables
Pickled fruits and vegetables with a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below
Honey
Whole eggs, up to 250 dozen per month, subject to Colorado’s egg grading rules under C.R.S. § 35-21-105

The statute includes a catch-all for “other nonpotentially hazardous foods,” but in practice anything requiring refrigeration falls outside the exemption and needs full licensing. Cream pies and cheesecakes are common examples that don’t qualify.¹

You can produce cottage foods in your home kitchen or in a commercial, private, or public kitchen. Renting time in a community kitchen or church kitchen is allowed as long as every other requirement is met.¹

What You Can’t Sell, and Who You Can’t Sell To

Meat, poultry, dairy, and anything else that requires temperature control for safety are off-limits under the current framework.

Every sale must go directly from the producer (or a designated representative) to the person who will actually eat the food. Approved venues include your home, a roadside stand at your residence, farmers’ markets, and community supported agriculture organizations. You can advertise and take orders online, but the physical product has to be delivered within Colorado. No shipping across state lines.²

You cannot sell to grocery stores, restaurants, or any retail food establishment. Those are wholesale transactions and fall outside the exemption. Consignment is prohibited unless the store’s own employees act as your designated representative. You also cannot produce cottage foods for a catered event, because the law requires a direct sale to each individual consumer. And buyers themselves are barred from reselling what they buy from you.¹

The $10,000 Per-Product Revenue Cap

You can earn up to $10,000 in net revenue per product per calendar year. The cap applies to each distinct food item separately, so selling granola and honey means $10,000 from each before you hit the limit. Once a single product crosses the threshold, that product no longer qualifies for the exemption and would need commercial licensing to keep selling.¹

“Net revenues” means your ingredient and material costs come out before you measure against the cap. Track each product’s sales separately through the year. Lumping everything together is how producers unknowingly blow past a single product’s threshold.

Required Food Safety Training

Before you sell anything, you have to complete a food safety course. The law accepts training from Colorado State University Extension or any comparable program offered by a state, county, or district public health agency. CSU Extension’s course runs about three and a half hours and covers the cottage food law alongside safe kitchen practices.³

Your certificate is good for three years. After that, retake the course. CDPHE lists multiple approved training options on its cottage foods page, and keeping the certificate accessible matters because it’s one of the first things a health agency will ask for if someone files a complaint.²

Labeling and Point-of-Sale Signage

Every product needs a label, printed in English and affixed before sale, that includes:

Product name
Producer’s name and the address where the food was prepared
A phone number or email address (either one satisfies the statute)
Production date
Complete ingredient list
The required disclaimer

The disclaimer has to read exactly: “This product was produced in a home kitchen that is not subject to state licensure or inspection and that may also process common food allergens such as tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk, fish, and crustacean shellfish. This product is not intended for resale.”¹

You also need a placard, sign, or card at your point of sale with a shorter version: “This product was produced in a home kitchen that is not subject to state licensure or inspection. This product is not intended for resale.” That applies whether you’re at a farmers’ market booth or selling from your front porch.¹

Sales Tax and Business Registration

Cottage food income is not tax-free. CDPHE states that your cottage food operation is subject to both income tax and sales tax, and that some locations require additional local licenses or permits. Register your business at mybiz.colorado.gov and file retail sales tax returns through Colorado’s Revenue Online system.²

Home-rule municipalities such as Denver and Boulder may add their own sales tax requirements on top of the state rate. And if you operate under any name other than your own legal name, you’ll likely need to register a trade name with the Colorado Secretary of State through the business filings portal.⁴

Local Zoning, HOAs, and Liability

The state exemption from food licensing doesn’t override your city or county zoning code. Most Colorado municipalities classify a cottage food operation as a “home occupation,” which usually means the business has to stay secondary to the home’s residential use. Common restrictions include limits on outside signage, restrictions on customer traffic, prohibitions on exterior storage, and caps on non-resident employees. Some cities require a home occupation permit before you start.

If you live in a neighborhood with a homeowners association, read your covenants before investing in equipment or inventory. HOA rules can be stricter than municipal zoning, and the city won’t referee a dispute between you and your HOA.

Colorado does not require cottage food producers to carry product liability insurance, but going without it is a real exposure. If a customer has an allergic reaction or gets sick, you’re personally liable for medical costs and damages. Standard homeowners policies typically exclude claims tied to business activity, even part-time activity run from your kitchen, which means a denied claim leaves you paying out of pocket. Product liability policies for small food businesses generally run a few hundred dollars to around a thousand per year. Some farmers’ markets also require proof of coverage as a condition of renting booth space.

Pending 2026 Expansion

HB 26-1033, introduced in the 2026 legislative session, would significantly expand the cottage food law if enacted. The headline change is a revenue cap increase from $10,000 to $150,000 in gross revenue per product per year, with annual inflation adjustments after that.⁵

The bill would also let producers sell one type of temperature-controlled food, such as tamales, burritos, or tortas, with up to five flavor variations. Producers selling those items would have to maintain proper holding temperatures during transport, complete delivery within two hours, and use only federally inspected meat. Three violations involving temperature-controlled foods within a twelve-month period would permanently bar a producer from selling them. The bill also creates formal enforcement penalties: fines of up to $100 per violation for misbranded or unsafe products, plus up to $1,000 to cover investigation costs.⁵

Check the Colorado General Assembly website for the bill’s current status before relying on any of these expanded provisions. Until it passes, the $10,000 per-product cap and the ban on temperature-controlled foods are what govern your operation.

1
Justia Law. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 25 Section 25-4-1614 – Home Kitchens
2
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Cottage Foods Act
3
Colorado State University Extension. Cottage Food Safety Training
4
Colorado Secretary of State. File a Form
5
Colorado General Assembly. HB 26-1033 Revised Bill Text