Texas Cottage Food Law Summary
The basics of the law as of September 1,2025.
SB 541 has been signed into law and will be effective on September 1, 2025! Almost everything about the cottage food law has changed. Be sure to sign up for a seminar or webinar if you have questions.
- As of September 1, 2025 (the last update of the Texas Cottage Food Law) you may sell any homemade food items directly to consumers, EXCEPT:
- Meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products;
- Seafood, including seafood products, fish, fish products, shellfish, and shellfish products;
- Ice or ice products, including shaved ice, ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, and gelato;
- Products containing cannabidiol or tetrahydrocannabinol; or
- Raw milk and raw milk products.
- If you sell foods that require Time and Temperature Control for Safety (TCS foods, otherwise known as foods that require refrigeration) directly to consumers, there are some additional requirements:
- You must register with DSHS (process not yet available).
- The food must be additionally labeled with the date the food was produced.
- The food label, invoice, or receipt must include the following statement: “SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption.”
- You must store and deliver the item to your customer at an air temperature necessary to prevent the growth of bacteria that may cause human illness.
- These foods may not be sold wholesale through a cottage food vendor; they may only be sold directly to the consumer.
- Your gross annual income from the sales of cottage foods must be $150,000 or less. This number will be indexed for inflation beginning in 2025.
- No health department or local government authority can regulate your production, sale, or sampling of these items. “Regulate” means rules, permits, and fees. State law prohibits a local health department or government from requiring fees or permits for cottage food producers for the production, salle, or sampling of their food. If a local health department knowingly violates this section, they have to fire the employee responsible.
- There are new standardized simple rules for sampling. No fees or permits are required for sampling anywhere in the state. Click hear to learn more about sampling.
- If DSHS or your local health department has reason to believe your operation poses an immediate and serious threat to human life or health, they may take action, including getting a warrant to enter your home, and shutting down your operation.
- You may sell any foods except those excluded in item #1 directly to consumers anywhere in Texas. Local ordinances apply (you can’t set up a tent on the side of the road and sell from it if the city has an ordinance against it).
- Your food must be packaged in your home kitchen in a way that prevents the product from becoming contaminated. Items that are too large or bulky for conventional packaging, like wedding cakes or cupcake bouquets, are not required to be packaged.
- Your food must be labeled according to the labeling requirements. The label must be affixed to the package, except for items that are too large or bulky for packaging; in that case the label may be incorporated into the invoice.
- You can register with DSHS to get a unique identifier number to put on your labels instead of your home address. This is optional, you can still just use your home address if you don’t want to register. (process not yet available)
- You may sell your food on the internet, in Texas, as long as you, your employee, or a member of your household personally delivers the food to your customer. All the information on your labels, except your home address, must be provided to the customer BEFORE the customer pays for the food.
- You may sell food that does not require Time or Temperature Control for Safety (refrigeration) at wholesale through a “cottage foods vendor”. Click here to learn more about wholesaling cottage foods.
- You must complete a basic course in safe food handling prior to selling your food. If you have anyone assisting you in the preparation of your product, such as an employee, they must also complete the training if at any time they will be unsupervised by you. Members of your household are exempt from this requirement.
- No municipal zoning ordinance can prevent you from having a cottage food operation in your home. However, your neighbors can still take action against you if your business becomes a nuisance to them.
- Sales of homemade acidified canned foods, fermented foods, or pickled foods, are subject to certain other requirements.
- Cottage food producers can donate non-time and temperature control for safety food for sale or service at an event, including a religious or charitable organization’s bake sale, to the same extent an individual is allowed by law to donate food.
