Yes, it's legal to have a home food business in Texas.
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
1. Read the rules so you know what you can sell and where you can sell it.
2. Take your required food handler’s training.
3. Create your required food labels.
Texas makes it easy
There are no permits, licenses, or inspections required to start a cottage food business.
Pickling, Canning, and Fermenting
Everything you need to know about selling homemade pickled, canned, or fermented foods in Texas.
F.A.Q.
You've got questions about the cottage food law - lots and lots of questions. We've got answers! Our F.A.Q. answers just about every question that has ever been asked.
We've come a long way
The first
Texas cottage food law only allowed baked goods, jams, jellies, and dried herb mixes, to be sold only from your home.
Click to see how the law has changed since 2011.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Many cottage food producers wonder if they can sell items with cream cheese frosting.
The short answer is yes; with a caveat. As long as your frosting doesn’t require time or temperature control for safety (TCS) you can use it on your baked goods! The problem is, it’s practically impossible to know if a frosting is TCS without expensive testing.
In our inexpensive e-books we’ve tested over 50 recipes and made the results available to you for a tiny fraction of the cost of testing each recipe. You’ll find recipes for cream cheese frosting, lemon curd, Swiss meringue buttercream, American buttercream, German chocolate cake filling, and more. You can bake and sell with confidence knowing your products are legally allowed under the cottage food law.
What cottage food producers say about their home businesses
Benefits of Cottage Food Production
A 2013 study by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic found that:
- increasing the number of locally made products available for purchase at farmers markets and similar locations has the direct economic benefit of increasing the amount of money that stays in the local economy;
- home food production can serve as a business incubator by reducing some of the start-up barriers for fledgling entrepreneurs;
- communities benefit from cottage food production because it provides residents greater access to locally produced foods, and;
- cottage food laws encourage more people to grow food because the growers know they have an outlet to create value-added products from any excess fresh fruits and vegetables they produce.