The Texas Cottage Food Law Story
Passing the first cottage food law wasn't easy.
It all started in 2009...
In 2009, Kelley Masters, a home baker in Cedar Park, wrote to Texas State Representative Dan Gattis asking him to introduce a “cottage food bill” that would allow her and other home bakers to have legal home baking businesses. Representative Gattis agreed and filed the first cottage food bill, HB 3282. The filing of the bill was met with extreme reactions from health departments, city governments, and licensed food establishments. It was called an “extremely dangerous piece of legislation,” and one prominent Texas baker lamented that it would “kill cake”. The Director of the Montgomery County Health Department famously declared that passing the bill would be like returning to the days of the “common drinking cup.”
The testimony to the committee from opponents was so over-the-top that Representative Gattis closed the hearing by offering to introduce a bill to outlaw cooking in home kitchens altogether. “Obviously it is much too dangerous to cook anything in your home and actually consume it.”
Although HB 3282 was unanimously voted out of committee, it died on the General Calendar along with hundreds of other bills when it did not get a reading by a House deadline.
2011
In 2011, the cottage food bill was back with fresh momentum. Two bills were filed, one by the Chairwoman of the House Public Health Committee, then-Representative Lois Kolkhorst. Watch her explain to a Harris County health department official there against the bill why she filed the “let my people go” bill.
The 2011 bill did pass out of committee but died in the Local & Consent Calendar Committee, reportedly due to objections from the Harris County Health Department. However, Chairwoman Kolkhorst was determined to pass the bill, and attached the language as an amendment to another food-related bill. When Harris County found out, they forced her to accept an amendment that required labeling of the foods, prohibited internet sales, and struck the language allowing sales at a farmers market. This is the bill that ultimately passed in 2011.
Watch Chair Kolkhorst defend the bill to legislators who didn’t understand the issue.
Although it was extremely narrow in scope – only baked goods, jams and jellies, and dried herb mixes were allowed to be sold, and the only place they could be sold was at the home – this bill cleared the way for future expansions.
2013
In 2013, Representative Eddie Rodriguez filed HB 970, a major expansion to the cottage food law that expanded the types of foods allowed to be sold and the locations where they could be sold. At the beginning of the session, the powerful retailers lobby came out in force against the bill. Grassroots work was critical for the bill to move through the legislative process. Thanks to grassroots support, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, and the work of Representative Rodriguez and Chairwoman Kolkhorst, the bill passed nearly unanimously through both chambers.
2019
In 2019, now-Senator Lois Kolkhorst and Representative Eddie Rodriguez teamed up to pass SB 572, the most expansive cottage food law yet. The law now allows direct sale of any food that does not require time or temperature control for safety, anywhere in Texas.
