Washington Cottage Food Laws: Permits, Labels & Penalties

To sell homemade food in Washington, you need a Cottage Food Permit from the Washington State Department of Agriculture before your first sale. The permit costs $355, covers two years, and requires passing a home kitchen inspection.¹ Washington’s cottage food law limits you to certain shelf-stable foods, caps annual gross sales at $35,000, and requires that you sell directly to the person eating the food.²

What You Can and Cannot Make

The permit only covers foods that stay safe at room temperature without refrigeration. Washington calls these “non-potentially hazardous” foods, meaning they don’t need temperature control to prevent bacterial growth or toxin formation.³ Approved categories include:

Baked goods such as breads, cookies, muffins, cakes, fruit pies, scones, donuts, crackers, and pretzels
Fruit jams, jellies, and preserves
Confections and candy
Dried fruit and fruit leathers
Nuts and seeds
Dry spice blends and dry rubs
Dry tea blends

The common thread is low moisture or high sugar or acid content. A fruit pie filled with apples or berries qualifies; a custard pie or cheesecake that needs refrigeration does not.⁴

Several categories are flatly off-limits even though they seem simple. You cannot sell canned pickled products like pickles, corn relish, or sauerkraut. You cannot sell home-canned salsas, tomato sauces, or vegetable butters. Acidified condiments such as mustards, barbecue sauces, and ketchups are out because they require pH control and often a process authority review under federal rules. Anything containing meat, dairy-based fillings, cream cheese frostings, or fresh fruit garnishes needs refrigeration and falls outside the permit.¹ Selling any of these means getting a commercial food processor license and producing them in a certified facility.

Where and How You Can Sell

Washington is strict about sales channels. You may sell directly to end consumers at your home, at farmers markets, at craft fairs, and at similar public events. That is essentially the complete list.²

You cannot ship by mail or courier, sell by mail order, sell on consignment, or sell at wholesale. You cannot sell to grocery stores, cafes, or restaurants for resale.⁵

There is one useful nuance. You can advertise your products on a website and even accept orders online. What the law prohibits is completing the sale remotely. The actual product handoff and payment must happen in person, from you to the buyer.¹

Annual gross sales cannot exceed $35,000. Cross that line and you need to transition to a commercial food processor license and move production into a certified facility.²

How to Get the Permit

The application goes through the WSDA Food Safety Program. Before you file, gather a few things.

Every person who handles food during production must hold a valid Washington State Food Worker Card. The card costs $10 and requires passing a food safety exam.⁶ If your home uses well water or another private source instead of a municipal supply, you need a bacterial water test performed within 60 days of submitting your application, with passing results included in the packet. You also need sample labels for every product you plan to sell, which the WSDA reviews against the labeling rules before issuing the permit.

One quirk catches applicants off guard: WSDA currently instructs you not to submit your recipes. Anything you send in becomes a public record under Washington’s Public Records Act and can be released to anyone who asks.¹ You still have to keep recipes on file at home and make them available during inspection.

The $355 fee is nonrefundable once WSDA receives your application. After paperwork review, an inspector schedules a visit to look at your kitchen, packaging area, restroom, and storage spaces for both raw ingredients and finished products. They evaluate sanitation, equipment condition, handwashing facilities, and storage practices. Fail the inspection and you must document how you fixed the problems and pay $125 for a re-inspection; fail a second time and the application is denied. Expect six to eight weeks from a complete application to permit in hand.¹

What Goes on the Label

Every cottage food product must be prepackaged and labeled in English with the following information:⁷

Your cottage food operation’s business name and the permit number WSDA issued you (not your personal name or home address)
The product name
All ingredients in descending order by weight, with subcomponents broken out in parentheses (imitation vanilla, for example, gets its own ingredients listed)
Net weight or volume
Allergen information following federal labeling rules
The statement “Made in a Home Kitchen that has not been subject to standard inspection criteria,” in at least 11-point font and a color that contrasts with the background

If you make any nutritional claim on the package, such as “low sugar” or “high fiber,” federal nutritional labeling requirements kick in. Most cottage food producers skip nutritional claims entirely because the testing burden is heavy.⁸

Other Licenses and Local Zoning

The WSDA permit alone isn’t enough to operate legally. Washington also requires a Master Business License through the Department of Revenue, and you must comply with any county or city business license, home occupation permit, and zoning rules that apply to your address.¹

Local zoning is the piece people overlook most often. Some cities and counties restrict commercial activity in residential zones or impose their own conditions on home occupations, including limits on customer traffic or signage. Check with your local planning or permitting department before you buy supplies or inventory.

Insurance Gap to Close Before Your First Sale

The cottage food permit does not shield you from liability if a customer gets sick. Standard homeowners policies typically exclude business activities, so a claim arising from food you sold can be denied even if your home coverage is otherwise strong. That is the gap most new producers don’t see coming.

Product liability insurance built for small food businesses covers illness or injury claims, property damage at events, and legal defense costs. Policies from providers that specialize in cottage food start around $300 a year. Many farmers markets also require proof of liability insurance as a condition of renting booth space, so getting coverage before you apply for a booth saves a last-minute scramble.

Taxes You Will Owe

Cottage food income is taxable. The IRS treats you as a self-employed sole proprietor, and you report income and expenses on Schedule C with your personal return.

On top of regular income tax, you owe self-employment tax of 15.3% on net profit: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.⁹ An additional 0.9% Medicare surtax applies when combined income exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers. You can deduct half of your self-employment tax when calculating adjusted gross income.

Most costs are deductible as ordinary business expenses: ingredients, packaging, labels, booth fees, the $355 permit fee, your Food Worker Card, and short-lived equipment. Equipment that lasts more than a year, like a stand mixer, is either depreciated or expensed under Section 179.¹⁰ The home office deduction is harder to claim because the IRS requires the space to be used “regularly and exclusively” for business, which a shared family kitchen rarely satisfies. A dedicated inventory or supply storage area in your home may qualify under the storage exception if your home is the sole fixed location of the business.¹¹

Washington exempts most grocery-type food from retail sales tax but does tax “prepared food.” Baked goods sold without utensils and not heated for the buyer generally fall on the exempt side, but the line gets blurry. Confirm with the Washington Department of Revenue if your specific products are unclear.

If you accept payments through Venmo, Square, PayPal, or similar platforms, those processors report your gross payment volume to the IRS on Form 1099-K once it exceeds $20,000 and 200 transactions in a calendar year.¹² You owe tax on all business income regardless of whether a 1099-K is issued.

Penalties for Operating Outside the Rules

Operating a cottage food business without a valid permit is a misdemeanor. A second or subsequent offense within five years is a gross misdemeanor.¹³

The WSDA director can also impose civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation per day, and can suspend or revoke your permit if you refuse an inspection, fail to keep required records, exceed the $35,000 sales cap, or otherwise violate the rules. When conditions pose an immediate danger to public health, WSDA can suspend a permit on the spot without a prior hearing.¹⁴

Adding Products After You Are Approved

Your permit covers only the products approved during the application. To add new items, you can either submit the changes at renewal at no extra cost, or request a mid-cycle amendment for an additional fee.¹ New products go through the same shelf-stability review, and you cannot start selling them until WSDA approves the change.

1
Washington State Department of Agriculture. Cottage Food Operation
2
Washington State Legislature. RCW 69.22.050 – Cottage Food Operations, Permits, Limitations
3
Washington State Legislature. WAC 16-149-130 – What Food Items Can I Sell
4
Washington State Legislature. WAC 16-149-120 – What Types of Food Can I Produce
5
Washington State Legislature. RCW 69.22 – Cottage Food Operations
6
Legal Information Institute. WAC 16-149-060 – Application Requirements
7
Legal Information Institute. WAC 16-149-110 – Labeling
8
Washington State Legislature. RCW 69.22.020 – Cottage Food Operations
9
Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040)
11
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 509, Business Use of Home
12
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
13
Washington State Legislature. RCW 69.22.090 – Penalties
14
Washington State Legislature. RCW 69.22.070 – Denial, Suspension, or Revocation of Permit