Maryland Cottage Food Laws: Labels, Sales, and Liability

Maryland cottage food laws let you make and sell certain shelf-stable foods from your home kitchen without a commercial food license, as long as your gross revenue stays at or below $50,000 a year and you follow the state’s rules on products, labeling, and sales channels.¹ Cross the revenue cap, sell a food that needs refrigeration, or ship out of state, and you’re outside the exemption.

Who Qualifies

Maryland defines a cottage food business as one that produces or packages cottage food products in a residential kitchen and earns no more than $50,000 in annual revenue from those products.¹ That $50,000 is gross revenue, not profit. Once you cross it, you’ll need a full food establishment license from the Maryland Department of Health.

The kitchen has to be in a Maryland residence, though you don’t have to own the home. You aren’t required to be licensed by the Department of Health so long as you follow the statute’s labeling, sales, and product rules.² The exemption does not cover taxes. You’re still responsible for reporting income and collecting any taxes that apply.

What You Can and Can’t Make

Only non-potentially hazardous foods qualify. That means foods that stay safe at room temperature and won’t grow the bacteria that cause foodborne illness. The Maryland Department of Health’s guidelines break the allowed categories down as follows:³

Baked goods without potentially hazardous fillings or toppings, including bread, biscuits, tortillas, muffins, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and pastries. Pies, turnovers, and fruit tarts qualify when the fruit has a natural pH of 4.6 or below.
Hot-filled canned acid foods such as jelly, jam, and preserves made from fruits with a natural pH of 4.6 or below, plus certain fruit butters.
Non-potentially hazardous candy that doesn’t need refrigeration.
Dry herbs, herb mixes, and teas.

Anything that needs temperature control is out. That excludes dairy, fresh meats, seafood, eggs as a standalone product, and low-acid canned foods. If you’re unsure whether a specific product qualifies, the Department recommends contacting your local health department before you start selling.

What Your Label Must Say

Every product has to be prepackaged and labeled before sale, and the label rules are stricter than most new operators expect.² At minimum, each label must show:

Your business name and address, or your business name and phone number together with a unique identification number issued by the Maryland Department of Health.
The product name.
An ingredient list in descending order by weight.
Net weight or volume.
Allergen information covering the nine major federal allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.⁴
Nutritional information, but only if you make nutritional claims on the label or in your marketing.

The label must also carry this exact sentence: “Made by a cottage food business that is not subject to Maryland’s food safety regulations.” The statute requires it in at least 10-point type in a color that clearly contrasts with the background.² Don’t paraphrase it. Use the wording from the statute.

Using an ID Number Instead of Your Home Address

If you’d rather not print your home address on every package, you can request a unique identification number through the Department’s ID and Retail Sales Request Form. If you use one, your label must include your business name, phone number, and the assigned ID number in place of the address.³

Extra Label Items for Retail Store Sales

If your product will be sold through a retail food store rather than directly to consumers, the label needs three more items on top of the standard requirements: your business phone number, your email address, and the date the product was made.²

Where You Can Sell

The statute gives cottage food operators a wider range of sales channels than many realize:¹

Directly from your home, with customers picking up.
At farmers markets. Some jurisdictions have their own market rules, so check with the local health department first.
At fairs, festivals, craft shows, and similar public events.
By personal delivery, bringing products to customers yourself.
By mail delivery within Maryland.
To retail food stores, including grocery stores, convenience stores, retail bakeries, and food cooperatives. This channel has extra approval steps described below.

Online sales are allowed and count toward your $50,000 revenue cap. All sales must stay within Maryland; interstate shipping is prohibited.³ Products also have to be stored at the premises of your cottage food business, not warehoused somewhere else.

Selling to Retail Food Stores

Before you can sell a single item to a retail store, you must submit two things to the Maryland Department of Health through its ID and Retail Sales Request Form: the label you plan to use, and documentation that you completed a food safety course within the past three years.² The course has to be approved by the Department and the American National Standards Institute and must cover basic food safety, cleaning and sanitizing, personal hygiene, pest control, and food handling.³

You cannot sell to a retail store until the Department notifies you in writing that you’ve met the requirements. This is the closest thing the cottage food law has to a licensing step, and skipping it puts both you and the store at risk.

Local Rules Still Apply

The state statute doesn’t override county or municipal law. Cottage food businesses must comply with all applicable local rules on the preparation, storage, and sale of food.³ Zoning, home-based business permits, and local health department requirements can all still apply, and they vary considerably between jurisdictions.

Contact your local permits, licensing, and zoning department before you start. Some counties want advance notice before you sell at a farmers market or public event. The state won’t inspect your kitchen, but a local jurisdiction can impose additional conditions.

What Happens If You Break the Rules

The Maryland Department of Health can investigate any complaint alleging a violation.² Common triggers are selling prohibited foods, missing or inaccurate labels, and exceeding the $50,000 cap. Local health departments have their own enforcement authority and can act on complaints independently.

Consequences scale with the violation. A labeling mistake may bring a warning and a requirement to fix your packaging. Selling temperature-controlled foods or blowing past the revenue cap can lead to a stop-sale order. If what you’re doing actually requires a full food establishment license, operating without one carries its own penalties under Maryland’s general food safety statutes.

Liability and Insurance

Maryland does not require cottage food businesses to carry product liability insurance. The label disclaimer stating that your products are not subject to state food safety regulations does not shield you from a lawsuit if a customer gets sick or has an allergic reaction. You’re personally liable for any harm your products cause.

Some farmers markets require proof of insurance as a condition of participation even though the state does not. Whether coverage makes sense for you depends on your sales volume and risk tolerance, but a single allergic reaction claim from a mislabeled product can exceed what many cottage food businesses earn in a year.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Health-General 21-301 – Definitions
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Health-General 21-330.1 – Cottage Food Businesses
3
Maryland Department of Health. Guidelines for Cottage Food Businesses
4
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FASTER Act – Sesame Is the Ninth Major Food Allergen