Do I need a license to sell baked goods from home in Ohio?

Not for non-perishable foods such as cookies, breads and jams sold under the cottage food rules. You do need a home bakery license from the Ohio Department of Agriculture for baked goods that need refrigeration, such as cheesecake or cream pie.

Is there a limit on how much I can earn under Ohio cottage food law?

No. Ohio sets no yearly sales cap for cottage food production operations.

Can I sell cottage foods to a store in Ohio?

Yes. Ohio public health guidance lists licensed retail food establishments, such as grocery stores, and licensed restaurants as places that can sell or use properly labeled cottage foods. Check with the Ohio Department of Agriculture before selling through a wholesaler.

Is this legal advice?

No. This page summarizes public sources checked on the date shown. Rules change, so confirm the details with the Ohio Department of Agriculture Division of Food Safety and your local health department.

State law

Ohio cottage food law for home bakers

Under Ohio cottage food law you can bake non-perishable foods such as breads, cookies, jams and candy in your home kitchen and sell them without a state license, inspection or yearly sales cap, as long as every package carries a correct label with the statement "This Product is Home Produced". Anything that needs refrigeration, like cheesecake or cream pie, falls outside the cottage food rules and needs a home bakery license from the Ohio Department of Agriculture instead. This page sums up the rules, the label, and how to price what you sell so the business actually pays.

Ohio cottage food law: key facts
Topic	Rule
Sales cap	None
Allowed foods	Non-potentially hazardous foods: baked goods without cream fillings, jams, jellies, fruit butters, candy, popcorn, dry mixes
Perishable baked goods	Need a home bakery license from the ODA (annual fee listed as 10 dollars; confirm with the ODA)
Where to sell	Direct to consumers, farmers markets, events (a local temporary license may apply), licensed retail food establishments such as grocery stores, and licensed restaurants
Online and shipping	Within Ohio only; some county health departments say no internet sales, so check with the ODA before selling online, shipping or mailing orders
Permit and fee	No license, registration, fee or routine inspection for cottage food
Labeling	Name, net quantity, ingredients, allergens, business name and address, and "This Product is Home Produced" in 10-point type or larger
Training	Not required
Sales tax	Check with the Ohio Department of Taxation

Last verified October 11, 2026

This page is general information, not legal advice. Rules change: check them with your state or local authority before you sell.

What Ohio cottage food law allows

Ohio calls a home baker selling under these rules a cottage food production operation. The law sits in Chapter 3715 of the Ohio Revised Code, and the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Division of Food Safety oversees it. The food has to be made in your own home.

You do not register, pay a fee or get inspected to start. The ODA can still sample any product to check its label, and a product with a wrong or missing label is treated as misbranded. In practice the label is the one thing the state actually checks, so get it right before your first sale.

Foods you can sell, and foods you cannot

The cottage food rules cover foods that are not potentially hazardous, meaning they stay safe at room temperature. If a food needs time and temperature control to stop bacteria growing, it is out of scope.

Allowed examples from Ohio public health guidance include the following. Check the ODA list for the full set before you add a new product.

Bakery products such as breads, cookies, brownies, cakes without cream fillings, and fruit pies
Jams, jellies and fruit butters
Candy, including no-bake cookies
Popcorn and similar snacks
Dry bakery mixes
Not allowed under cottage food: cheesecake, cream or custard pies, cream cheese frostings and fillings that need refrigeration, and cooked meat or other animal products

The home bakery license for perishable bakes

If you want to sell potentially hazardous baked goods, such as cream pies, cheesecakes or cakes with fillings that must stay cold, Ohio has a separate path: the home bakery license from the ODA. Ohio sources describe it as a home kitchen with one oven of ordinary household design, an inspection of your home kitchen and an annual fee that Ohio sources list as 10 dollars, renewed each year. Confirm the current fee, the application and any water testing requirement with the ODA Division of Food Safety before you apply.

Where you can sell

You can sell directly to customers from home, at farmers markets, festivals and other events, and by taking orders that you deliver yourself. Ohio public health guidance also lists licensed retail food establishments such as grocery stores, and licensed restaurants, so a local shop or cafe can stock your properly labeled cookies. Selling at a craft fair, festival or other event may need a temporary or mobile license from your local health department, so ask before you book a stall. Before selling through a wholesaler, check with the ODA.

The cottage food rules cover sales within Ohio only. Some county health departments, such as Hamilton County Public Health, say cottage foods may not be sold on the internet, so check with the ODA before you take orders online, and before you ship or mail orders inside Ohio.

Ohio cottage food label requirements

Every package needs a label, whether you sell at a market, to a store or from your front door. Ohio State University Extension lists these elements:

The product name
Net quantity (weight or count)
Ingredients in descending order of weight
Allergens named: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame
Your business name and address
The statement "This Product is Home Produced" in at least 10-point type

Pricing under Ohio cottage food law: a worked example

No license fee and no sales cap make it easy to start, and just as easy to underprice. Here is an example with made-up but realistic numbers for a dozen chocolate chip cookies sold at a farmers market.

Ingredients cost 4.10 dollars per dozen. The bag, sticker and printed label add 0.60 dollars. Baking and packing takes about 15 minutes, and at 15 dollars an hour that is 3.75 dollars of your time. Oven energy and a share of your market stall fee add about 0.90 dollars. The true cost is 9.35 dollars a dozen.

If you charge 12 dollars, you keep 2.65 dollars, a margin of about 22 percent. To reach a 40 percent margin you would need about 15.60 dollars. Many bakers only count the 4.10 dollars of ingredients and think 12 dollars is a big markup, which is why it pays to cost every recipe properly.

Farinu does this math for you. Enter your ingredients, packaging, labour, machines and overhead once, and it shows the full cost of each recipe, a suggested price from the markup you set over cost (a 40 percent margin is about a 67 percent markup), and an alert when an ingredient price rise pushes a product below your target. The free plan covers costing for up to 10 recipes.

Running the business side

Ohio does not require training for cottage food, but food safety basics still matter: clean surfaces, no pets in the kitchen while you bake, and allergen care, since one wrong label is the most common way a home baker gets into trouble.

Sales tax is separate from food safety rules. Ohio generally exempts food sold for eating off the premises, but how that applies to your products and whether you need a vendor's license is a question for the Ohio Department of Taxation.

Once orders pick up, Farinu keeps custom orders with deposits and balance payments and customers with their WhatsApp numbers for balance reminders, and on Team a sales log and a monthly profit and loss, in one place, so you can see whether the market stall or the coffee shop account earns more.

Sources

Questions

Do I need a license to sell baked goods from home in Ohio?: Not for non-perishable foods such as cookies, breads and jams sold under the cottage food rules. You do need a home bakery license from the Ohio Department of Agriculture for baked goods that need refrigeration, such as cheesecake or cream pie.
Is there a limit on how much I can earn under Ohio cottage food law?: No. Ohio sets no yearly sales cap for cottage food production operations.
Can I sell cottage foods to a store in Ohio?: Yes. Ohio public health guidance lists licensed retail food establishments, such as grocery stores, and licensed restaurants as places that can sell or use properly labeled cottage foods. Check with the Ohio Department of Agriculture before selling through a wholesaler.
Can I ship cottage foods to another state?: No. Ohio cottage food rules cover sales within Ohio only. Some county health departments say cottage foods may not be sold on the internet, so check with the Ohio Department of Agriculture before selling online or shipping orders inside Ohio.
Is this legal advice?: No. This page summarizes public sources checked on the date shown. Rules change, so confirm the details with the Ohio Department of Agriculture Division of Food Safety and your local health department.

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