How to start a home food business in the US: the three legal routes

You can start a home food business in the US in three legal ways: sell shelf-stable foods such as breads, cookies and jams under your state's cottage food law; sell home-cooked meals where a state and county allow a home kitchen operation, such as California's microenterprise home kitchens; or cook in a rented licensed kitchen and sell anything your permit covers. Cottage food is the easiest start, but each state caps your sales and sets what you can make. California caps a Class A cottage food business at $88,878 in 2026, and its home kitchen meal operations at 30 meals a day, 90 a week and $100,000 a year.

Not legal advice. Home food rules are set by each state, and some counties and cities add their own. Check your state agency and local health department. Figures were read on the sources' own pages on October 20, 2026.

The three legal routes for a home food business

Step 1: Find out what your state allows

Start with your state's cottage food law. Here are four large states, from our cottage food laws guide, which is based on the state agencies' pages:

Our Texas cottage food page goes into one state in detail.

Even outside cottage food laws, a private home kitchen isn't treated as a food establishment under the FDA Food Code model in one narrow case: a religious or charitable bake sale of non-perishable foods, where the law allows it and a sign tells customers the food wasn't made in an inspected kitchen. That's for fundraisers, not a business.

Step 2: If you want to sell meals, check for a home kitchen law

Most cottage food laws don't cover meals, because hot food, cooked meat and dairy dishes need temperature control. A few places have separate home kitchen laws for meals.

California's microenterprise home kitchen operations (MEHKOs) are the best-known. Los Angeles County's rules, which follow state law, include:

• up to 30 meals a day and 90 a week;
• up to $100,000 in verifiable gross annual sales;
• food sold directly to a customer for eating on-site, pick-up or delivery;
• the operator must live in the home;
• employees' combined hours of no more than 40 a week, not counting family or household members;
• if you also run an approved compact mobile food cart, up to 80 meals a day, 200 a week and $150,000.

A MEHKO is only possible where your county or city has opted in, so call your local environmental health department first.

Step 3: Choose your products and cost them

Pick products that are allowed on your route, travel well and that you can make in batches in a home kitchen. Then cost every recipe: ingredients, packaging, labels and your time. The recipe cost calculator and cake price calculator do the math, and the home bakery business plan template helps you plan the rest.

Step 4: Register the business

Treat it as a real business from day one.

• Choose a structure (most start as a sole proprietor; an LLC separates personal liability).
• Get an EIN from the IRS online, free.
• Ask your state about sales tax on what you sell.
• Check local home business rules and your lease or HOA.
• Register with your health department or state agency where your route requires it.

Step 5: Label everything correctly

Cottage foods need a label with your state's home-kitchen statement, plus the usual food label information: the product name, ingredients in order of weight, net quantity, your name and address (Texas lets you use a DSHS registration number instead of your home address), and allergens. The FDA lists nine major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame.

Make labels free with the food label maker, which has a US mode with the nine allergens. Small sellers are usually exempt from the Nutrition Facts panel: FDA exempts retailers with up to $500,000 in annual gross sales, or up to $50,000 in food sales to consumers, if they make no nutrition claims.

Step 6: Set up how customers order and receive food

The law often decides how you can deliver. Texas requires you, an employee or a household member to deliver cottage food in person; New York keeps all sales inside the state; California's Class A allows mail and third-party delivery within the state. A MEHKO sells direct to customers for on-site eating, pick-up or delivery.

How Menuthere helps. Menuthere gives you an ordering page and QR codes free, with 0% commission and 50 orders a month, and the major allergens, calories and a halal mark tagged on each item. You choose pickup, your own delivery within a radius, or both, on every plan. Lite (US$17 a month) adds unlimited orders, scheduled pickup and delivery times, card payments through your own Stripe account, and dishes that need notice, so you only get orders you have time to make. See our pages on a home bakery website and a tiffin service website.

Take orders ahead and cook to order. with 0% commission.

Create your free ordering page

Step 7: Keep records against your cap

Caps are yearly and based on gross sales, so keep every order and payment record. California's MEHKO rules say sales must be verifiable, for example with invoices. An ordering system that keeps your order history makes this easier than a notebook.

Step 8: Know when to move to a licensed kitchen

Move when you hit your cap, want to sell to stores or cafés (beyond what your state allows), or want to make foods your home route excludes. A shared commercial kitchen rented by the hour is the usual next step, then your own premises. Our guides to starting a bakery, a meal prep business and a catering business cover what changes.

Worked example: how far do the caps go?

Here's how two home businesses in California run into their limits. The prices are assumptions; the caps are from the sources below.

A MEHKO selling dinners. At the maximum of 90 meals a week, 52 weeks a year:

So above about $21.37 a meal, the dollar cap binds before the meal cap does.

A Class A cottage baker selling cookie boxes at $24. The 2026 Class A cap of $88,878 allows about 3,700 boxes a year (around 71 a week). Moving to Class B ($177,756) doubles that, and Class B can also sell through permitted shops and restaurants.

Your home food business checklist

• Route chosen: cottage food, home kitchen meals or a rented kitchen
• State and county rules read (foods allowed, cap, delivery, label wording)
• Registration or permit done where required; training completed
• Recipes costed and priced
• EIN, sales tax checked, home business rules checked
• Labels with the home-kitchen statement and allergens
• Ordering page with pickup and delivery that match your state's rules
• Sales records kept against your cap

Related guides

Planning a full sit-down or counter-service restaurant? Read our step-by-step guide on how to open a restaurant, with a 6-month timeline. You may also want to read how to start a bakery business and how to start a meal prep business.