Can I sell this from my home kitchen?
Pick your state and product for an instant cottage food verdict.
These filter scored foods or open an explainer. Marshmallow fluff is jarred commercial creme. Handmade marshmallows are the candy. Butter is frosting and compound butter — not a fluff-and-butter food, and not a generic Yes.
yes — allowed.
Sourdough bread in California: Allowed in nearly all states as a non-potentially-hazardous (non-TCS) food.
The verdict is the easy part. The California Permit Report has every form, fee, and label rule — plus your county's local requirements — in one PDF.
California
- Sales cap
- Tiered (see notes)
- Registration
- Registration required. Food handler cert: yes (specific course)
- Allowed products
- Only foods on the official state-approved foods list may be sold; this includes most non-perishable foods such as baked goods, jams and preserves, candies, chocolates, dried goods, and spices. Class A operations are…
How this works. Each product is mapped to a regulatory category (non-TCS baked good, TCS, meat, high-acid preserve, acidified, fermented drink, frozen, raw dairy). We start with a default verdict per category, then apply state-specific overrides where the statute differs from the federal baseline.
Not legal advice. Cottage food laws change every legislative session and county-level rules can add zoning and licensing requirements on top of state law. Confirm with your state department of agriculture and local health department before selling.
Or browse a food
Each guide is a 50-state + DC matrix (Allowed / Conditional / Not allowed) with statute notes. Butter, marshmallow fluff, and handmade marshmallows stay separate chips — fluff is jarred creme, not the candy.
Butter tags scored foods that already name butter — buttercream icing, cake with buttercream, and flavored butter. It is not a fluff-and-butter food, and it is not a generic “butter is allowed” verdict.
Five steps to sell baked goods legally in the U.S.
Read your state's cottage food law
+
Check your county zoning
+
Register or certify if required
+
Label your product correctly
+
Sell only through allowed channels
+
Go deeper.
You might like these too
While you're checking the rules — vintage-varsity tees for the cottage-baker life. Sourdough, lamination, and the craft, on heavyweight garment-dyed cotton.
