Worknest Business

Washington DC 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 a registration rather than a license — you file a Cottage Food Registry Application with DC Health and receive a Registry Identification Number and Certificate.

And since 10 June 2025 there is a route that was closed before. D.C. Law 26-7 amended the Code to add wholesale to licensed food establishments. The sales language now reads "through direct, retail, wholesale to licensed food establishments, and online" — the phrase in bold is what the law inserted.

What Law 26-7 changed, and why you would never find it

The amendment is a single phrase, and the Code shows it plainly: Law 26-7 struck "through direct, retail, and online sales" and inserted "through direct, retail, wholesale to licensed food establishments, and online".

DC Health states the effect: cottage food businesses "may also sell wholesale to licensed food establishments, consistent with applicable District laws and regulations."

Here is the part worth knowing if you ever research this yourself. The Code titles D.C. Law 26-7 the "Certificate of Need Improvement Amendment Act of 2025" — a health-facilities bill. The cottage food change rides inside it. Search the Council's records for "cottage food" and you may not find the law that changed your rules. It is a good argument for checking a jurisdiction's enacted laws rather than only its subject-matter pages.

D.C. Law 26-7

Registering with DC Health

What you file
A Cottage Food Registry Application with DC Health.
What you get
A Cottage Food Business Registry Identification Number and Certificate.
Review fee
$50.
Regulations
Title 25-K of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations.

A registry number, not a license. The distinction matters in the same way it does in Colorado from 2027 or Minnesota today: you are telling the District you exist and being listed, not being granted permission after a review of your premises.

The approved list is DC Health's, not the statute's

The D.C. Code defines a cottage food product as a non-potentially hazardous food, "as specified in regulations adopted by the Department of Health".

So the list of what you may make does not live in the law — it lives in DC Health's regulations under Title 25-K, and DC Health can change it without the Council passing anything.

We are not reproducing that list here, deliberately. A product list copied onto a third-party page is a list that goes stale without anyone noticing, and this one is designed to be updatable. Get it from DC Health when you file your registry application — you are dealing with them anyway, and their answer is the one that counts.

Older DC Health guidance adds that foods not on the approved list may still be considered if you submit laboratory results for pH and water activity, which is the same mechanism Alabama and Arkansas use for borderline products. DC Health, Cottage Food Businesses

Where you may sell

Direct and retail
Yes.
Online
Yes, fulfilled inside the District.
Wholesale
Yes, since 10 June 2025 — to licensed food establishments. Not to anyone else.
Outside the District
No. Sales stay inside DC.
Annual limit
We are not printing one — see below.

The wholesale permission has a condition built into its wording: the buyer must be a licensed food establishment. That is narrower than "a shop". A licensed restaurant or grocery qualifies; a market stall or an unlicensed reseller does not.

And on the cap we are deliberately silent. A $25,000 figure circulates widely, but the DC Health document it traces to is dated April 2018, and sources covering the 2019–2025 amendments say the limit was removed. We could not confirm either position from a current official source. Ask DC Health when you register; it is one question on a form you are filling in anyway.

Labels

Labeling sits in the Title 25-K regulations alongside the approved product list, and your registry identification number is part of what identifies your business.

We are not quoting a required sentence. The statute delegates the detail to DC Health regulations, and the guidance we could read dates from 2018 — before two rounds of amendment. A label disclaimer is the one piece of text where out-of-date is the same as wrong.

DC Health reviews your application; that is the moment to get the current label requirements in writing.

Tax and the size of the District

A registry number is not a tax registration. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you need to register to collect, belongs to the DC Office of Tax and Revenue, and we are not going to print a rate.

One practical thought that applies to DC and almost nowhere else in this guide. The District is 68 square miles, and Maryland and Virginia start at the edge of it. A rule that "sales stay inside the District" is not an abstraction here the way "stay inside Texas" is — a customer a fifteen-minute walk away may be in another jurisdiction with its own cottage food law. Both of those neighbors have pages on this site, and their rules are quite different from these.

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 Washington DC?

You need a registration rather than a license. File a Cottage Food Registry Application with DC Health, pay the $50 review fee, and you receive a Cottage Food Business Registry Identification Number and Certificate. The program runs under Title 25-K of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations.

Can I sell wholesale to a restaurant or a shop?

Yes, since 10 June 2025, if the buyer is a licensed food establishment. D.C. Law 26-7 amended the Code to add wholesale to licensed food establishments to the list of permitted sales. Note the condition in the wording — a licensed restaurant or grocery qualifies, an unlicensed reseller does not.

How much can I sell in a year?

We are not printing a figure. A $25,000 cap circulates widely, but the DC Health document it traces to is dated April 2018 — before two rounds of amendment — and other sources say the limit was removed. We could not confirm either from a current official source. Ask DC Health when you register.

What foods can I make?

Non-potentially hazardous foods, as specified in regulations adopted by DC Health rather than in the statute. That means the list can change without the Council passing anything, which is exactly why we are not reproducing it here. Get it from DC Health with your registry application. Older guidance says foods off the list may still be considered if you submit laboratory pH and water activity results.

Can I sell online?

Yes, with fulfilment inside the District. Online sales were already in the Code before Law 26-7 — that law added the wholesale route, not the online one.

Why can I not find the law that changed the rules?

Because of its title. The Code calls D.C. Law 26-7 the "Certificate of Need Improvement Amendment Act of 2025", which is a health-facilities bill; the cottage food change rides inside it. Searching the Council's records for "cottage food" may not surface it. It is a good reason to check a jurisdiction's enacted laws rather than only its subject-matter pages.

Can I sell to a customer in Maryland or Virginia?

Not under the District's cottage food rules — sales stay inside DC. That matters more here than in most places, because the District is 68 square miles and both neighbors start at the edge of it. Maryland and Virginia each have their own cottage food law, and both have pages on this site.

Other states

Tools

More guides

Ready to take orders?

Once you are set up, take orders with your own Worknest page — your customers order from one link, you get notified, and you can take the money at pickup.

Get the app

No monthly fee. Your customers order in their browser — they never need an app.