Illinois 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.

What you can and cannot sell

Illinois works from a prohibited list, so anything not on it is allowed. The door is wide: breads, cakes, cookies, candy, jams, granola, dried goods, and — with a food safety plan — pickles and other acidified and fermented products.

You may not sell:

• Meat, poultry, fish, seafood, shellfish
• Dairy and eggs, except as ingredients in non-hazardous items
• Pumpkin, sweet potato, cheesecake, custard and creme pies
• Pastries with potentially hazardous fillings or toppings
• Garlic in oil, unless acidified
• Low-acid canned foods
• Sprouts
• Cut leafy greens, unless dehydrated, acidified, or blanched and frozen
• Cut or pureed fresh tomato or melon; dehydrated tomato or melon; frozen cut melon
• Wild-harvested mushrooms
• Alcoholic beverages
• Kombucha

Dairy as an ingredient is fine — the Act names buttercream frosting specifically. Public Act 102-0633, §4(b)(1.5)

Acidified and fermented products are allowed, with a written food safety plan for each product category submitted annually, and a pH test on a representative product every three years. Canned ones are processed in a boiling water bath in a Mason-style jar or a glass container with a tight-fitting lid; uncanned ones go in a new, clean container that seals properly, and are stored, transported and sold at or below 41°F.

One to know about if you bake with cheese: a local health department may require you to send the recipe to a commercial laboratory, at your own expense, to confirm it is non-hazardous.

Registration: local, annual, and capped at $50

You register with the local health department for the area you live in — not with the state. Having done so, you may sell outside that area: "A cottage food operation must register with the local health department for the unit of local government in which it is located, but may sell products outside of the unit of local government where the cottage food operation is located."

Who you register with

Your local health department. IDPH, Cottage Food

How often

Annually.

Fee

"Registration shall be completed annually, and the local health department may impose a fee not to exceed $50." §4(c)

Certification

"A person preparing or packaging a product as part of a cottage food operation must be a Department-approved certified food protection manager." This is the manager certificate, a longer course than a food handler card.

Private well

A local health department may require water testing for E. coli and coliform, at your expense.

Local government cannot add its own regime on top: "A home rule unit may not regulate cottage food operations in a manner inconsistent with the regulation by the State." In a municipality of a million or more — which means Chicago — a home-based-business ordinance that applies equally to every home business still applies to you. Check your city and your zoning before you start.

How much can you sell, and where

Annual limit

None. The Act sets no limit on gross receipts — unusual, and one of the real advantages of operating in Illinois.

Direct to customers

Yes. Farmers’ markets, fairs, festivals, public events, pickup from your home or farm, delivery to the customer, and pickup from third-party private property with the owner’s consent.

Online

Yes, explicitly. The Act lists selling "at or through" fairs, festivals, public events, or online. §4(b)(11)

Shipping

Allowed inside Illinois only, for non-hazardous foods: "A cottage food product shall not be shipped out of State." Each shipped product must be sealed so tampering shows. §4(b)(12)

Resale

Direct to the consumer only — not for resale.

Labels — and the notice you must show at checkout

Products are sold prepackaged, with a prominent label carrying:

• your operation’s name and the unit of local government it is in;
• your registration number, and the municipality or county you registered with;
• the common name of the product;
• all ingredients, in descending order of predominance by weight;
• the date it was processed;
• federal allergen labeling;
• and this phrase, in prominent lettering:

This product was produced in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department that may also process common food allergens. If you have safety concerns, contact your local health department.

Then there is a second notice, and this is the one most people miss. Illinois requires a shorter disclosure where the sale happens, not just on the package:

This product was produced in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department that may also process common food allergens.

At a stall or a table that notice is a placard. Selling online, the Act is specific: it "shall be a message on the cottage food operation’s online sales interface at the point of sale." §4(b)(10) So an Illinois order page needs that line visible to the customer as they order — not only printed on the box they collect.

Food safety training

Required, and it is a step up from most states. Whoever prepares or packages the food must be a Department-approved certified food protection manager — the manager-level certification, not the short food handler card that Texas or Florida accept.

If you share the work with family, the person actually preparing and packaging is the one who needs it.

Can the health department inspect your kitchen?

Not as part of registering. But Illinois keeps a door open that a no-inspection state does not: the Department or your local health department may inspect on a consumer complaint, during a foodborne illness outbreak, or where there is reason to believe an imminent health hazard exists. They may charge a reasonable fee for that inspection, and they may revoke your registration. §4(d)

In practice: no routine visit, and a real one if someone complains.

Sales tax

Registration with a health department says nothing about tax. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you need to register to collect, is for the Illinois Department of Revenue. We are not going to print a rate or a threshold here that we cannot link to the official page for — ask them, or ask an accountant.

Official sources

• Public Act 102-0633 (Home-to-Market Act) — full textIllinois General Assembly
• Cottage FoodIllinois Department of Public Health
• Cottage Food — regulation questionsUniversity of Illinois Extension
• Illinois Department of RevenueState of Illinois

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

Questions people actually ask

Other states

• GeorgiaNo state license since July 2025 · no revenue cap
• TexasNo permit · $150,000 cap · you must deliver online orders yourself
• CaliforniaCounty registration · $88,878 or $177,756 in 2026
• FloridaNo permit · $250,000 cap · mail order allowed by statute
• New YorkFree exemption, up to 16 weeks to be reviewed · no revenue cap · in-state only
• North CarolinaHome Processor program · kitchen inspected before you sell · an indoor pet disqualifies the kitchen
• New Jersey$100 permit for 2 years · $50,000 cap · NJ residents only, nothing in the post
• PennsylvaniaLimited Food Establishment · $35 a year · inspected · internet sales included
• ArizonaNo sales cap · refrigerated foods allowed · Arizona only, and TCS goes hand to hand

Tools

• Pricing calculator for home bakersWhat to charge, with your own numbers
• Price list templateFill it in, print it, hand it over — free, nothing saved

More guides

• How to start a home bakeryThe practical order: rules, product, price, photos, packaging, orders, first customers