Oregon Cottage Food Laws: Sales Cap, Labeling, and Limits

Oregon’s cottage food law lets you make and sell certain shelf-stable foods from your home kitchen without a license, inspection, application, or registration fee. For 2026 the annual sales ceiling is $52,700 in gross revenue, and the allowed products include baked goods, candy, jams from high-acid fruit, honey, dried foods, and similar items that stay safe at room temperature. You do need a food handler card for anyone preparing food, and every package needs a specific label.

What You Can Sell

The exemption covers packaged foods that don’t need refrigeration to stay safe. The statute lists categories but uses “including but not limited to” language, so other shelf-stable items with the same safety profile can qualify. The named categories are:

Baked goods such as breads, cookies, pastries, and muffins, without fillings that require refrigeration
Candy and confections
Coffee beans and teas
Popcorn
Jams, jellies, honey, syrups, and fruit butters
Nut mixes
Repackaged freeze-dried and dehydrated foods
Powdered drink mixes

The legal test is that the food is “not potentially hazardous,” meaning it can sit at room temperature without allowing dangerous bacteria to grow.¹

Jams and Fruit Spreads: The pH Rule

Jams, jellies, and fruit butters are allowed only when made from naturally high-acid fruits with a pH of 4.6 or below. Most berries, stone fruits like cherries and plums, and pome fruits like apples and pears qualify. Figs, melons, Asian pears, and persimmons do not. Spreads that include low-acid vegetables are prohibited even when mixed with high-acid fruit, so pumpkin butter, hot pepper jelly, and tomato jam fall outside the exemption.

Cannabis Is Excluded

The statute explicitly states that “food” under this exemption does not include anything containing cannabis.¹ Cannabis edibles are regulated separately by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

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

Anything that needs refrigeration to be safe is off-limits. That rules out cream-filled pastries, cheesecakes, most dairy-based products, meat products, and any food where temperature control prevents spoilage. Acidified foods and other items with more complex safety controls also fall outside the exemption.

Institutional sales are a hard boundary. You cannot sell cottage food to restaurants, caterers, schools, daycare centers, hospitals, nursing homes, or correctional facilities.¹ If any of these buyers are part of your plan, you need a different license.

The $52,700 Annual Sales Cap

The base cap written into the statute is $50,000 per year, adjusted annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (West Region).¹ For 2026 the adjusted figure is $52,700.² The cap applies to gross sales, not profit, so ingredient costs and other expenses don’t reduce the number.

Cross the threshold and you lose the exemption. From that point you need to operate under a standard ODA food license, which means a licensed kitchen (commercial, or a domestic kitchen license through ODA), higher fees, and inspections. The cap covers the calendar year’s total gross sales, so pausing in October and restarting in January isn’t a reset.

Where You Can Sell

Oregon is more generous than most states on sales channels. You can sell directly to consumers from your home, at farmers markets or other events, online, and through the mail.¹ The statute uses “in any manner” when describing direct-to-consumer sales.

You can also sell to retailers, including coffee shops, if the retailer agrees to two conditions: they must store and display your products separately from other foods, and they must clearly indicate that the items are homemade and not from an inspected facility.¹ Keep a written record of that agreement.

For online sales, keep records that include each buyer’s address and contact information along with the sale details.

Labeling Every Product

Every product needs a label on its principal display panel. The required elements are:

The disclaimer: “This product is homemade, is not prepared in an inspected food establishment and must be stored and displayed separately if merchandised by a retailer”¹
The common name of the food
Ingredients listed in descending order by weight
Net weight or net volume in both U.S. customary and metric units
Your business name and phone number
Address information: full street address with city, state, and ZIP; or city, state, and ZIP if your business is listed in a directory; or a unique identification number issued by ODA
Allergen warnings per federal labeling rules

If you’d rather not print your home address on every package, request a unique identification number from ODA and use that instead.

Allergen Disclosure

Federal law requires disclosure of nine major allergens: milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish, and sesame.³ Sesame was added as the ninth allergen effective January 1, 2023, under the FASTER Act, so older guides listing only eight are out of date. For tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, name the specific species.

You can disclose allergens in parentheses after the ingredient (“flour (wheat)”) or in a separate “Contains” statement right after the ingredient list (“Contains wheat, milk, and soy”). Oregon follows the federal standard, and allergens must be declared no matter how small the quantity.⁴

Pets in the Home

If you have pets, they must be kept out of the kitchen during food production, and your label must identify the type of animal present. A line like “Dogs were present in the home during the preparation of this food” satisfies the rule. Omitting the pet disclosure when you have animals at home is a compliance issue even if they never set foot in the kitchen.

Food Handler Cards

Everyone who helps prepare food for sale must hold a valid Oregon food handler card. This is written into the statute.¹ The card costs $10, is valid for three years, and is available through your county health department or an approved online training program.⁵ The training covers handwashing, temperature control, and preventing cross-contamination. If your spouse or teenager helps with production, each needs their own card.

Starting Up: No Application Required

There is no form to file. The cottage food exemption is exactly that: an exemption from licensing.⁶ No registration fee, no kitchen inspection, no approval waiting period.

ODA does recommend contacting your local food safety inspector before you start selling to confirm your products qualify. It’s an informal check rather than a formal approval, and it’s a cheap way to catch a labeling or product mistake before customers do. Your practical checklist:

Get a food handler card for every person who will prepare food
Design labels that include every required element above
Confirm your products are shelf-stable and don’t need temperature control
Contact your local ODA inspector to verify you qualify
Request an ODA identification number if you’d rather not print your home address

Local zoning is separate from the state food rules. Cities and counties can limit customer visits, signage, or deliveries at home-based businesses, and some require a home occupation permit. If customers will pick up at your home, check local rules before you start.

When You Outgrow the Exemption

If your plans don’t fit the cottage food rules, Oregon offers a domestic kitchen license through ODA. It allows home-based production with more product flexibility, with inspections, fees, and standard commercial food safety requirements. A domestic kitchen bakery license starts at $179, scaled to sales volume; a domestic kitchen food processor license runs $223.⁷

You’d move to the licensed pathway to sell refrigerated foods, exceed the $52,700 cap, sell to restaurants or institutional buyers, or produce acidified foods and similar items with more complex safety controls. It’s a manageable step up compared with renting a commercial kitchen, and it’s the natural next move for producers who outgrow the exemption.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 616.723 – Exemption from ORS 616.695 to 616.755 for Establishments in Residential Dwellings
2
Oregon Department of Agriculture. Permanent Administrative Order – Cottage Foods Inflation 2026
3
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Food Allergies
4
Oregon Department of Agriculture. Food Labeling Requirements and Guidelines
5
Oregon Health Authority. Food Handler Cards
6
Oregon Department of Agriculture. What Can I Do Without a License?
7
Oregon Department of Agriculture. Fee Schedules for Licenses