Maryland HB 535 raises the cottage food annual revenue cap to $100,000

Maryland's cottage food rules include a dollar ceiling. Stay at or under that number from cottage food sales, and you can still be a cottage food business under the statute. Go over it, and that definition no longer fits. For years the ceiling has been $50,000 a year.

HB0535 — titled *Food Establishments - Cottage Food Businesses - Maximum Annual Revenue* — changes that one number. The official synopsis is a single sentence: it increases from $50,000 to $100,000 the maximum amount of annual revenue a business may generate from the sale of cottage food products to be considered a cottage food business.

The bill, in official facts

What that means in plain English

If you sell cottage food products from a Maryland home kitchen, the state uses annual revenue from those sales as part of whether you still count as a cottage food business. HB0535 doubles that ceiling. After the effective date, the maximum in the statute is $100,000 a year instead of $50,000.

The official page does not say how to count the year, what counts as “revenue,” or what happens if you go over. Those questions belong with the statute, the Maryland Department of Health, and — if you need it — a lawyer who reads Maryland food law. This post does not fill those gaps.

When the new number applies

The official bill page lists the effective date as October 1, 2026. Until that date, this post does not treat $100,000 as the current maximum. Chapter 320 is enacted; the date the General Assembly printed on the bill is still in the future.

What this post does not claim

The official synopsis describes one change: the annual-revenue maximum. This post does not claim that Maryland changed what you may bake, how you must label, where you may sell, or whether you need a local permit. If those rules matter to your kitchen, read them from the official sources — not from a news write-up.

• This is not legal advice. It is a plain-English restatement of the official bill page.
• The official record is the bill page and the enrolled chapter, not Crosodo.
• Local zoning, business licenses, and market rules are separate. A state revenue-cap change does not answer those questions.
• The Maryland selling guide still shows $50,000. That is the current maximum until October 1, 2026. Use this post for the 2026 bill facts.

Official source

Every fact in this post comes from the Maryland General Assembly's 2026 Regular Session page for HB0535, last checked September 3, 2026. The page lists the title, sponsors, governor approval as Chapter 320 on April 28, 2026, the October 1, 2026 effective date, the Health - General §21-301 statute citation, the floor votes, and the synopsis quoted above.

• HB0535 / Chapter 320 — official bill page
• Maryland Department of Health — cottage food
• Crosodo Maryland state guide
• Selling cottage food in Maryland — current $50,000 cap until October 1, 2026

Increasing from $50,000 to $100,000 the maximum amount of annual revenue a business may generate from the sale of cottage food products to be considered a cottage food business.

That is the official synopsis, word for word. If the General Assembly page or the Maryland Department of Health later posts implementing guidance, we will update this post from those sources — not from hearsay.