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Colorado cottage food law: selling food from home

General information, not legal advice. Rules change, and counties add their own. Check with your state and county before you start selling.

"Cottage food" is the term most states use for food made in a home kitchen and sold directly to customers. What it covers, and whether your state uses the phrase at all, differs by state.

The short answer

Yes, with no license — but Colorado has one of the tightest earnings caps on this site, and it is about to have one of the loosest. Right now the Cottage Foods Act limits you to $10,000 per product per year. Note the words: per product, not per business.

That changes on 1 January 2027. HB 26-1033 — the bill people call the Tamale Act — was signed by the Governor on 4 June 2026 as Chapter 375. From that date the cap becomes $150,000 a year, adjusted for inflation, you register annually with the state health department, and for the first time you may sell one kind of refrigerated food. This page covers both, because for the next two months the old rules are the ones that bind you.

The cap today — and why "per product" matters

Current law caps the Cottage Foods Act at $10,000 or less per year for each eligible food product sold. HB 26-1033 fiscal note

Per product is a genuinely different rule from per business, and it cuts both ways. If you sell one thing, $10,000 is your ceiling and it is a low one — the lowest on this site. If you sell five distinct products, each one has its own $10,000. Nobody should build a plan on a creative reading of what counts as a separate product, but it does mean a varied menu is treated more generously than a single bestseller.

Annual limit today
$10,000 per product per year.
Annual limit from 1 Jan 2027
$150,000 a year, inflation-adjusted.
License
None, under either version.
Registration
None today. Annual, with CDPHE, from 1 Jan 2027.

What changes on 1 January 2027

HB 26-1033 is law — the bill page records "Became Law." and the Governor's signature on 4 June 2026, enacted as Chapter 375. The Cottage Foods Act changes it makes take effect on 1 January 2027:

One thing we are not printing: a sunset date. An earlier draft was reported to carry one. The enacted version on the bill page contains no repeal or sunset of the Cottage Foods Act, and we are not going to print a deadline that is not in the signed law. HB 26-1033

What you can make

Until 1 January 2027 the Cottage Foods Act covers non-hazardous food that does not need refrigeration — baked goods, jams and jellies, candy, dried herbs and spices, nuts, honey, and the other shelf-stable categories the Act lists. Refrigerated and other potentially hazardous food is out.

From 1 January 2027 that opens up by exactly one door, and it is a narrow one: one type of TCS food with up to five variations, under the conditions in the section above. The nickname attached to the bill tells you what it was for — the point of the change was to let people sell food like tamales, which the old Act could not accommodate.

For the specific product list, go to CDPHE. We are pointing you at the department by name rather than linking it, because its site answers automated checks with an error and we do not ship links we could not confirm resolve.

License, registration and inspection

There is no license to sell cottage food in Colorado, and your kitchen is not inspected under the Act. That is true today and stays true in 2027.

What arrives in 2027 is registration, and the two are not the same thing. A license is permission to operate, granted after review. Registration is telling the state you exist and paying for the privilege of being on a list. From 1 January 2027 you do that annually with CDPHE, and the number they give you goes on every label — which is also how an inspector or a customer can tell a registered producer from an unregistered one.

What has to be on the label

The Cottage Foods Act requires a label identifying you and your product and stating plainly that the food was made in a home kitchen that the state does not license or inspect. From 1 January 2027 your CDPHE registration number joins it on every label.

We are not quoting the exact disclaimer sentence here, and that is deliberate. The wording is prescribed, and the place it is published — CDPHE — answers automated checks with an error, so we could not read it ourselves. Printing a sentence that has to be exact, from memory, is how a cook ends up with a non-compliant label and a page to blame. Get the current wording from CDPHE and copy it character for character.

Food safety training

The Cottage Foods Act requires a food safety course. From 1 January 2027, anyone selling TCS food needs a course that specifically covers TCS food — ordinary cottage food training will not cover that door.

How long a certificate stays valid we could not verify, and so we are not stating a number. Several states on this site set an explicit period — Maryland says within the past three years, Minnesota every three years for its upper tier — and Colorado may well do the same. Ask CDPHE rather than assuming it never expires.

Sales tax and local rules

No license is not no tax. Sales tax in Colorado is unusually layered — state, county, city and special districts can each apply — so this is a question for the Colorado Department of Revenue and your own municipality, and we are not going to print a rate.

Local rules are separate again. The Act removes the state licensing question; it does not touch your city's zoning or your HOA's rules about running a business from home.

Official sources

Last verified: 31 October 2026. Every number on this page is linked to the official page it comes from.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need a license to sell food from home in Colorado?

No. The Colorado Cottage Foods Act requires no license and no kitchen inspection. From 1 January 2027 it does require annual registration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, with your registration number on every label — but registration is being on a list, not being licensed to operate.

How much can I sell in a year in Colorado?

Today, $10,000 per year for each eligible food product you sell — per product, not per business. Only Wisconsin's $5,000 limit on home-canned foods is a lower figure, and that one is a total rather than a per-product allowance. From 1 January 2027 it becomes $150,000 a year, inflation-adjusted, as a single business-wide figure, under HB 26-1033.

Is the $10,000 limit per product or per business?

Per product. Current law caps regulation under the Act at $10,000 or less per year for each eligible food product sold, so a cook with five distinct products has five separate $10,000 allowances. It is worth understanding before you decide whether to narrow your menu — and it stops mattering on 1 January 2027, when the cap becomes a single annual $150,000.

Has the Tamale Act actually passed?

Yes. HB 26-1033 was signed by the Governor on 4 June 2026 and enacted as Chapter 375 — the bill page records "Became Law." The Cottage Foods Act changes it makes take effect on 1 January 2027, so until then the old $10,000 per-product cap is what binds you.

Can I sell tamales or other refrigerated food in Colorado?

Not until 1 January 2027. From that date you may sell one type of TCS food — food that needs time or temperature control for safety — with up to five variations of it, which means one dish in five flavors rather than five different dishes. You need a food safety course covering TCS food, any meat must be USDA-inspected, there is no cool-and-reheat, and the food travels in a single trip of two hours or less held at temperature. Three violations in twelve months ends that permission.

Does the new law expire?

Not in the version that was signed. The enacted bill page contains no repeal or sunset of the Cottage Foods Act. An earlier draft was reported to carry a sunset, and we are deliberately not printing a date that is not in the signed law — if you have seen one quoted, check it against the chapter text before planning around it.

What exactly goes on my label?

A label identifying you and the product and stating that the food was made in a home kitchen the state does not license or inspect, plus your CDPHE registration number from 1 January 2027. We are not quoting the prescribed sentence on this page, because CDPHE's site answers automated checks with an error and we could not read the wording ourselves. Get it from CDPHE and copy it exactly — that sentence is one where exact wording is the requirement.

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