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Nevada 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, and today you register with your local health authority — in Clark County that is the Southern Nevada Health District, which confirms it remains the current registering authority. There is no state license yet, and your kitchen is not routinely inspected.

That whole arrangement changes on 1 July 2027. Assembly Bill 352, passed in the 2025 session and chaptered on 9 June 2025, moves cottage food to the Nevada Department of Agriculture, replaces registration with a license, sets the cap at $100,000, and — the part most people will care about — lets you fulfil an order by mail or through a food delivery service platform.

The cap: what we will and will not tell you

We are not printing a current sales cap for Nevada, on purpose.

Here is the honest position. Every secondary source gives $35,000. The enacted text of AB 352 confirms $35,000 as the figure it is raising — but for a craft food operation, the separate acidified-foods scheme, not for cottage food. And the Nevada Revised Statutes site now shows NRS 446.866 as repealed, pointing readers to the 2025 session laws, so the provision in force today is not where it used to be.

A cap is the one number a cook plans her year around. Getting it nearly right is worse than saying plainly that we could not confirm it. Ask your local health authority — the same office you register with — and get the figure from them.

What we can tell you with confidence is the figure that arrives on 1 July 2027, because it is in the enacted text.

Cap today
Confirm with your health authority. We could not verify it from a primary source.
Cap from 1 July 2027
$100,000 per calendar year.
Registration today
With your local health authority.
From 1 July 2027
A license from the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

Today: register with your health authority

Nevada's current scheme sits under NRS 446 and is run locally. You register as a cottage food operation with the health authority for your county, and the operation is exempt from routine inspection.

UNR Extension describes the shape of it: approved home kitchens may sell non-hazardous baked goods directly to consumers once registered, and products must be properly labeled. University of Nevada, Reno Extension

Who your health authority is depends on where you live. Clark County is the Southern Nevada Health District; other counties have their own. That also means the fee and the forms are local, and we are not going to print a number that varies by district.

One thing worth asking about while you are there: whether your district permits craft food operations at all. Acidified foods — canned, pickled — run on a separate track in Nevada, and not every health authority allows it.

What changes on 1 July 2027

AB 352 was chaptered on 9 June 2025. Its substantive provisions "become effective … On July 1, 2027, for all other purposes" — before that date it is effective only so the Department can write regulations and do preparatory work. Here is what arrives:

Assembly Bill 352, enacted text

Selling, before and after

The difference the 2027 change makes is worth stating plainly, because it is the difference between two kinds of business.

Today, Nevada is a hand-over state: you register locally and sell direct. That puts it with Minnesota, where the order may be remote but the food is handed over in person.

From 1 July 2027, Nevada becomes a shipping state: telephone and Internet orders fulfilled by mail or through a delivery platform. That puts it with Oklahoma and Arkansas instead — and it is a change you can plan for now, because the date is fixed in the statute.

One caution that does not change: a cottage food exemption is state law. Crossing a state line brings federal rules and the other state's law into play, whatever the fulfilment method.

Labels

Products must be properly labeled. We are not printing a label sentence for Nevada, for the same reason we are not printing a cap: the provision in force today has moved out of NRS 446.866, and we could not read the current wording from a primary source.

Your health authority registers you and will give you the current label requirements — that is the right moment to ask, and the label is the thing most worth getting exactly right, because it is the part a customer reads.

Sales tax

Registration is not tax registration. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you need to register to collect, belongs to the Nevada Department of Taxation, and we are not going to print a rate.

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 Nevada?

Not today — you register with your local health authority instead, and the operation is exempt from routine inspection. From 1 July 2027 that changes: Assembly Bill 352 requires a person who wishes to conduct a cottage food operation to apply to the Nevada Department of Agriculture for a license.

How much can I sell in a year in Nevada?

We could not verify the current figure from a primary source, so we are not printing one — ask your local health authority, the same office you register with. From 1 July 2027 the cap is $100,000 per calendar year, which is verified from the enacted text of AB 352. Secondary sources give $35,000 for today, but the statute that carried it is shown as repealed and we would rather you had the number from the office that enforces it.

Can I ship my products?

Not under the current scheme, which is built around registering locally and selling direct. From 1 July 2027 you may sell by telephone or Internet and fulfil the transaction in person, by mail, or through a food delivery service platform. If shipping is central to your plan, that date is the one to work towards.

What happens on 1 July 2027?

Assembly Bill 352 takes full effect. Cottage food moves from local health authorities to the Nevada Department of Agriculture, registration becomes a license, the cap becomes $100,000 a year, mail and delivery-platform fulfilment become legal, and NRS 446.866 is repealed. The bill was chaptered on 9 June 2025, so this is settled law with a delayed start rather than a proposal.

Who do I register with right now?

The health authority for your county. In Clark County that is the Southern Nevada Health District, which confirms it remains the current registering authority for cottage foods made or sold there. Fees and forms are set locally, which is why we are not printing a figure.

Can I sell canned or pickled foods?

Those are a craft food operation in Nevada, which is a separate track from cottage food, and not every health authority permits one. Ask your district before you plan around it. From 1 July 2027 the craft food cap also rises to $100,000 — but note that a craft food sale must still be fulfilled in person, so the mail permission arriving in 2027 is for cottage food, not for acidified food.

Can my city ban me from cooking to sell?

From 1 July 2027, no. AB 352 prohibits entities from adopting an ordinance that prohibits a person from preparing food in a cottage food operation. They may still regulate time, place or manner, provided those regulations do not unreasonably restrict or prohibit the operation.

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