Kansas cottage food laws let you sell homemade, shelf-stable food directly to consumers without a license, permit, registration, or food safety course. The rule sits in K.S.A. 65-689, which exempts food that does not require refrigeration or specialized processing when it is sold straight to the person who will eat it.1Justia Law. Kansas Code 65-689 – Same; License Requirements, Fees, Inspections, Denial, Hearing, Display; Exceptions There is no cap on how much you can earn. Kansas does not officially use the phrase “cottage food,” but that is what everyone calls it, and the state’s home kitchen producers fall under this exemption.
Foods You Can Sell
The exemption covers foods that stay safe at room temperature. The chemistry behind the rule is water activity and acidity: products with a water activity at or below 0.85, or a pH of 4.6 or lower, are considered non-potentially-hazardous.2Food and Drug Administration. Water Activity (aw) in Foods You don’t need to memorize the numbers, but they explain why the list looks the way it does.
Common qualifying products include:
- Baked goods: bread, cookies, brownies, muffins, cakes without cream or custard fillings, fruit-only pies, and pastries
- High-acid fruit jams, jellies, and fruit butters
- Candy and confections: fudge, caramel corn, toffee, brittles
- Honey sold directly to consumers
- Peanut butter and other nut butters
- Granola, trail mix, roasted nuts, popcorn, dried fruits, dried herbs, dry baking mixes, and spice blends
- Flavored vinegars
- Ungraded eggs from flocks of 249 hens or fewer, sold direct to consumers
If a recipe sits near the borderline, you can send a sample to a private food lab for pH and water activity testing. Testing usually runs between $15 and $50 per sample, and having the results on file is the fastest way to answer a regulator’s question later.
Foods That Are Off-Limits
Anything that needs refrigeration to stay safe is out. This is where new producers most often get it wrong. Custard pies, cream-filled pastries, and cheesecakes look shelf-stable in the kitchen but have water activity levels too high to qualify.
Home-canned vegetables, meats, and naturally fermented foods are prohibited under the exemption because of botulism risk. High-acid fruit jams and jellies are fine without a license, but canned pickles, salsa, and shelf-stable vegetables require a Kansas Department of Agriculture food processing license, an approved recipe from a process authority, and completion of a Better Process Control School course. Pepper jellies land in a gray area; those made with pepper-flavored vinegar or a small amount of pepper powder are generally exempt, while others may need lab testing to confirm acidity.
Meat, poultry, and dairy are entirely off the table under the home kitchen exemption. Those products run through separate state and federal licensing regimes with facility requirements a home kitchen cannot meet.
Where and How You Can Sell
The exemption is built around direct-to-consumer sales. You have to sell to the person who will eat the food, not to a business that will resell it. Farmers’ markets, roadside stands, craft fairs, festivals, pop-up events, and sales from your own home all qualify.3Kansas Department of Agriculture. Food Sales at Farmers’ Markets and Similar Locations
You cannot sell to grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores, or any business that will resell or serve your product. Consignment arrangements are also out. Any of those would require a KDA food processing license.
Online Sales and Shipping
Kansas allows you to take orders online and deliver or ship directly to the consumer. Unlike many states, Kansas does not confine you to in-state customers. You can ship across state lines, but you take on the receiving state’s cottage food rules when you do, and some states prohibit receiving shipped cottage food at all. Check the destination state’s rules before you list a product for out-of-state buyers.1Justia Law. Kansas Code 65-689 – Same; License Requirements, Fees, Inspections, Denial, Hearing, Display; Exceptions
Third-Party Delivery Apps
Kansas law does not explicitly address services like DoorDash or UberEats, and the KDA has not published formal guidance. The safe path is to deliver the product yourself. If you want to use a third-party courier, call the KDA Food Safety and Lodging program at (785) 564-6767 or email KDA.FSL@ks.gov and get a written determination first.
How to Label Your Products
Every packaged product needs a label with:
- The common name of the product (for example, “Chocolate Chip Cookies”)
- Your full name and physical street address, including city, state, and zip code
- An ingredient list in descending order by weight
- Net quantity — weight, volume, or count
- Allergen disclosures for any of the major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans
The KDA’s farmers’ market guidance confirms the common name and producer name and address as the state’s minimum requirements.3Kansas Department of Agriculture. Food Sales at Farmers’ Markets and Similar Locations The rest are standard federal food labeling requirements that apply to all packaged food sold in the United States. Kansas does not require a disclaimer that the food was made in an uninspected home kitchen, though some producers add one voluntarily.
Inspections and Enforcement
No license does not mean no oversight. Kansas does not run routine inspections of home kitchens under the exemption, but K.S.A. 65-689(e) states that exempt producers are not exempt from inspection or regulation when a violation is observed or reported to the secretary.1Justia Law. Kansas Code 65-689 – Same; License Requirements, Fees, Inspections, Denial, Hearing, Display; Exceptions If a customer reports a foodborne illness or a market organizer flags a concern, a KDA inspector can come to your home.
Treat the kitchen as if it could be inspected any day. Keep the workspace clean, store ingredients properly, document your recipes and where you buy from, and hold onto any lab results for products near the borderline. Producers who can show their food qualifies as non-potentially-hazardous rarely run into problems.
Taxes You Still Owe
The licensing exemption does not touch your tax obligations. Income from a home food business is self-employment income to the IRS. Most home producers file as sole proprietors and report profit or loss on Schedule C with their Form 1040.
If your net earnings hit $400 or more in a year, you owe self-employment tax at 15.3% of net profit, covering Social Security at 12.4% and Medicare at 2.9%.4Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) Federal income tax also applies to that profit at your marginal rate. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in total federal tax for the year, the IRS wants quarterly estimated payments to avoid underpayment penalties. Kansas taxes the same income at the state level.
Track every expense: ingredients, packaging, labels, booth fees, delivery mileage. Those costs reduce your taxable profit, and a simple spreadsheet by date is enough to hold up in an audit.
Insurance, Zoning, and HOA Rules
A few things state food law doesn’t cover can still shut you down.
Your homeowners policy almost certainly excludes business activity in the home. If a customer gets sick from your product or falls on your porch during a pickup, a personal policy is likely to deny the claim. Product liability insurance covers food-related claims like foodborne illness; general liability insurance covers other business risks like an injury at your booth. Several insurers write policies aimed specifically at cottage food operations, and the premium is a deductible business expense.
State law tells you whether you need a food license. Your city or county decides whether you can run a business out of your home in the first place. Many Kansas municipalities regulate home-based businesses through zoning, sometimes requiring a home occupation permit and limiting customer traffic or signage. Call your local planning or zoning department before you start.
If a homeowners association governs your neighborhood, read the CC&Rs. Some prohibit commercial activity outright, and even silent documents can lead to complaints once customers and delivery vehicles start showing up.
When to Call the KDA
If you are not sure whether a specific product qualifies, the KDA Food Safety and Lodging program will look at your product and give you a determination. Call (785) 564-6767 or email KDA.FSL@ks.gov.3Kansas Department of Agriculture. Food Sales at Farmers’ Markets and Similar Locations Asking before you order ingredients and print labels is cheaper than unwinding a product line that turns out to need a processing license.