Kentucky Cottage Food Laws: Registration, Limits, and Labeling

Kentucky’s cottage food laws let you make and sell certain shelf-stable foods from your home kitchen after registering with the Department for Public Health, with no commercial food manufacturing license required. You’ll register under one of two tracks: a home-based processor, which covers baked goods, dried items, candy, and high-acid jams and jellies, or a home-based microprocessor, a farmer-only track that opens up higher-risk items like salsa, pickles, and pressure-canned vegetables. Both tracks cap you at $60,000 in annual gross cottage food sales and restrict you to direct-to-consumer sales inside Kentucky.

Which Registration Track Fits You

The first decision is which category you fall into, because it controls what you can sell, what training you need, and whether an inspector shows up before you start.

A home-based processor makes shelf-stable foods in a primary residence kitchen. No workshop, no formal training, and no pre-approval inspection are required to register. Local health officials may conduct annual kitchen inspections, and the state can order food sampling if it receives a consumer complaint or suspects a product is mislabeled or contaminated.¹

A home-based microprocessor is a track reserved for farmers. You must grow a predominant ingredient used in your products.² In exchange, you can produce higher-risk items like canned tomatoes, pickled vegetables, salsa, barbecue sauce, vinegars, and pressure-canned vegetables.³ The requirements are heavier: a University of Kentucky workshop, two tests given during that workshop, scientific review and approval of every recipe, and a kitchen inspection before you start selling.⁴

Flour counts as a predominant ingredient exception for bread. Oil, vinegar, sugar, and seasonings do not count toward the growing requirement.²

What You Can Sell as a Home-Based Processor

Every product must be non-potentially hazardous and shelf-stable, meaning it stays safe at room temperature without refrigeration. The approved list includes:⁵

Breads, cookies, cakes, fruit pies, and pecan pies
Dried herbs, spices, grains, and dried or freeze-dried fruits and vegetables
Nuts, granola, trail mix, snack mixes, and popcorn, plain or seasoned
Candy produced without alcohol and with no bare-hand contact during production
High-acid fruit jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butters
Sweet sorghum syrup and maple syrup
Whole fruits and vegetables, and mixed greens

A few things catch people out. Low-acid jams or jellies made from vegetables or herbs are not allowed under the home-based processor program. Cakes with custard or cream fillings don’t qualify because they require refrigeration. Ingestible hemp-derived cannabinoid products are specifically prohibited for home-based processors.⁶

What Microprocessors Can Add

Microprocessors can produce everything a home-based processor can, plus pickled fruits and vegetables, salsa, barbecue sauce, pepper or herb jellies, vinegars, low or no-sugar jams and jellies, and pressure-canned vegetables.³ These products carry greater food safety risk, which is why the state requires workshop training, recipe approval, and inspection before certification.

Where You Can Sell and How Much You Can Earn

All cottage food sales in Kentucky must be direct-to-consumer and within state borders. Selling to grocery stores, restaurants, or wholesale distributors is not allowed.

Home-based processors can sell from home by pickup or delivery, at farmers markets, roadside stands, fairs, and community events, and through online platforms. Online sales are permitted as long as the product stays within Kentucky. Shipping across state lines pulls you into interstate commerce and out of the cottage food exemption entirely.

Microprocessors face tighter sales channels and are generally limited to farmers markets, certified roadside stands, and sales on the processor’s farm.

Both tracks are capped at $60,000 in annual gross cottage food sales. Once your business outgrows that limit, you have to transition to a licensed commercial operation.

How to Register

Both processors and microprocessors register through the Food Safety Branch of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. You’ll provide your name and contact information, the physical address of the primary residence where you’ll process, a list of all food products you plan to sell, and your water source, either public utility or private well.⁵ Only one person can be listed as the applicant per registration, and the processing location must be your primary residence.

Microprocessors have extra steps before filing. You need proof of completing the University of Kentucky workshop, approved recipes for every product you plan to sell, and draft labels for each product.⁴ The University charges a fee for each recipe review on top of the workshop cost. Individually modest, these fees add up across a large product line.

Registration runs on an annual cycle through March 31. Expect a renewal invoice each year, and keep your registration certificate on file at home. Operating without a valid registration can trigger enforcement.

Labeling Every Package

Every product leaving your kitchen needs a label with specific information:⁷

The common or usual name of the food
Your business name and address, including street, city, state, and zip code
Ingredients listed in descending order of predominance by weight
Net weight or volume by standard measure or numerical count
Allergen identification for any of the nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, wheat, soybean, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, and shellfish
The statement “This product is home-produced and processed” in 10-point type
The date the product was made¹

Sesame was added to the federal major-allergen list in 2023, and Kentucky’s labeling guide mirrors the full nine. Older label templates often leave it off. Products with incomplete allergen disclosures are considered misbranded under Kentucky law, which can trigger inspection and food sampling.⁸

One container rule applies to jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butter: they must be packaged in glass containers with rigid metal covers.¹

Kitchen Rules and Inspections

Kentucky does not require a separate commercial kitchen, but your home kitchen still has to meet basic sanitation standards during production. You must keep children under twelve and all pets or animals out of the kitchen while you’re processing food.⁹

Home-based processors do not need an inspection before starting, but the state can inspect annually and can order food sampling in response to a complaint or suspected mislabeling or adulteration.¹ Microprocessors face a mandatory inspection before certification is granted.

If the state believes an imminent health hazard exists, it can order you to stop production until the issue is resolved to the state’s satisfaction.¹ Consumer complaints about mislabeled allergens or unsanitary conditions are the most common triggers.

Taxes and Insurance

Cottage food income is taxable. You report earnings and expenses on Schedule C of your personal Form 1040 and pay taxes on profit rather than total revenue. If your net self-employment earnings exceed $400 in a year, you also owe self-employment tax covering Social Security and Medicare.

Most production costs are deductible: ingredients, packaging like jars, boxes, and labels, and small equipment like mixers, digital scales, and pH meters. For kitchen space used in production, the simplified home office deduction allows $5 per square foot of dedicated business space up to 300 square feet, for a maximum of $1,500.¹⁰ Mileage for deliveries and farmers market trips is deductible at 72.5 cents per mile for 2026.¹¹

Kentucky does not require cottage food producers to carry product liability insurance. Skipping it is still a gamble. Standard homeowners policies typically exclude claims arising from business activities conducted in the home, so if a customer has an allergic reaction or gets sick and blames your product, your personal assets are exposed. Dedicated food liability policies for small cottage operations generally run $25 to $50 per month. If you drive to farmers markets or make deliveries, check whether your personal auto policy covers business trips, because many don’t.

1
Justia Law. Kentucky Code 217.136 – Home-Based Food Processors
2
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 902 KAR 45:090 – Home-Based Processors and Farmers Market
3
University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension. Homebased Processing and Microprocessing
4
Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Step-by-Step Guide for Home-Based Microprocessor Certification
5
Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Home Based Processor Application Instructions
6
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 902 KAR 45:190
7
Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Labeling Requirements for Home-Based Processors
8
FDA. Food Allergies
9
Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Summary of Updates to Home-Based Processing
10
IRS. Simplified Option for Home Office Deduction
11
IRS. The Standard Mileage Rates and Maximum Automobile Fair Market Values Have Been Updated for 2026