Cottage food

Cottage food is a legal class of home-kitchen sales, not a style of cooking. In California, a Cottage Food Operation may prepare and package certain non-potentially hazardous foods in a private home kitchen. The California Department of Public Health does not permit or register CFOs; it maintains the approved foods list. Registration and permitting belong to the local Environmental Health Department ¹.

Alameda County, a Bay Area enforcement example: the Homemade Food Act was signed 21 September 2012 and became effective 1 January 2013 ². San Francisco sits in a different county with its own EH office. Do not treat one county’s packet as statewide procedure.

Two classes (as CDPH currently states them) #

CDPH (page updated 14 May 2026) describes two classes:

• Class A — direct sales to the public (phone, internet, or in person, including mail or third-party delivery).
• Class B — direct sales or indirect sales through restaurants and food markets ¹.

The Health and Safety Code sets base gross annual sales figures ($75,000 Class A, $150,000 Class B on that CDPH page) and requires them to be adjusted. CDPH links a current adjusted-limit PDF from the same page. Do not treat the base numbers as this year’s cap. Read the live table.

All CFOs must, among other Health and Safety Code duties CDPH lists: stay on the approved foods list; complete cottage-food operator training within three months of registration or permitting; run sanitary operations; use labels that meet state and federal rules; stay inside the sales limits; register or obtain a permit locally ¹.

What this is not #

This is not Cottage cheese — a dairy product with its own identity. A tested Strawberry jam (powdered pectin) is a canning process. Selling jam from home is allowed only if that product category is on the current approved list and the operator is registered or permitted. CDPH’s current Approved Cottage Food List is the source for eligible products. Jam and Preserving teach the food; they do not grant a permit.

Sanitation is the sink. Food safety is the hazard. Neither replaces the county form.