New Hampshire homestead 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 there is no sales cap anywhere in the statute. New Hampshire calls it a homestead food operation and runs two tiers. If you sell from your home, your own farm stand, a farmers market or a retail food store, you are exempt from licensure and departmental inspection.

The licensed tier is about channels, not volume. Selling to restaurants or other retail food establishments, over the internet, by mail order, or to wholesalers, brokers or distributors who will resell your product means you must be licensed. So in New Hampshire a shop shelf is free and a website is not — which is the reverse of most states in this guide.

The two tiers, and which one you are in

The law is RSA 143-A:12, and it was amended four separate times in 2025 — chapters 18, 28, 46 and 193, the last taking effect on 12 November 2025. If you are reading a guide written before late 2025, assume it is out of date.

The exempt tier. Homestead food operations selling food, excluding potentially hazardous food, from the homestead residence, at the owner's own farm stand, at farmers' markets, or at retail food stores are exempt from licensure and departmental inspection. The one carve-out: the department may inspect when it has reason to suspect an imminent health hazard.

The licensed tier. You must be licensed under RSA 143-A:13 if you want to sell:

To restaurants or other retail food establishments;
Over the internet;
By mail order;
To wholesalers, brokers or other food distributors who will resell your product.

Sales cap: None in chapter 143-A.
Exempt tier license: None required.
Selling at a retail food store: In the exempt tier.
Selling online or by mail: License required.
Freeze-dried food: License required under RSA 143-A:4 — see below.

On the license fee we are not printing a number. Guides report $150 for the Class H homestead food license. RSA 143-A:13 V leaves fees to be set by rule, and we did not confirm the figure, so ask DHHS. Homestead food licensing, NH DHHS

RSA 143-A:12, Homestead Food License Required · RSA chapter 143-A, Food Service Licensure

The $20,000 cap is gone

If you have seen a $20,000 ceiling for New Hampshire, it is historical. We read the whole of chapter 143-A looking for a sales threshold. There is no cap.

For what it is worth, the only dollar figures in the entire chapter are a $300,000 restricted-revenue budget line, administrative fines of up to $2,000 and $1,000, and license fees of $75, $75 and $30 — and those last three are for wild mushroom identifiers, harvesters and distributors, which is a different subdivision entirely.

So the answer to "how much can I sell" in New Hampshire is: the statute does not say, because the statute does not limit it. What limits you is which tier you are in.

What you may make, and where you may make it

Homestead food products means all food except potentially hazardous food, plus whatever the DHHS commissioner defines by rule. Potentially hazardous food is food requiring temperature control for safety because it can support rapid growth of pathogenic or toxigenic microorganisms or toxin production of clostridium botulinum — and it also includes low acid canned foods. That last clause is easy to miss and it rules out a lot of home canning.

Freeze-dried foods are carved out separately. If you process and sell freeze-dried fruits, vegetables or commercially prepared dairy products — even from your home, your farm stand, a farmers' market or a retail food store — you must be licensed under RSA 143-A:4. The freeze-dryer boom is recent enough that many guides have not caught up with this.

Where you make it is defined in unusual detail. A homestead food operation produces only in the home kitchen of your primary residence in New Hampshire, or in a food production area in your primary residence that has:

Handwashing — a hand cleaning station with hot and cold running potable water, soap, and sanitary hand drying provisions;
Equipment and food storage — an area allowing food, equipment and utensils to be stored so as to prevent contamination;
Food contact surfaces — all of them able to be cleaned and sanitized;
General sanitation — clean and sanitary, free from pests and environmental contaminants, with floors, walls and ceiling surfaces that are durable, smooth and easily cleanable;
Pet exclusion — an area that allows pets to be excluded during food production.

And commercial kitchen equipment is explicitly allowed, so long as it can be cleaned and sanitized in the processing area. The statute even defines the term: specialized tools and appliances used in professional kitchens to prepare, cook and store food, that can withstand heavy use and high-volume cooking. Several states in this guide forbid exactly this.

The label, and the QR code option nobody else has

New Hampshire is the only state in this guide that lets a QR code stand in for the printed ingredient list — but only on one side of the business, and only with a condition. Alabama is the explicit opposite: there, a QR code cannot replace the contact information or the ingredient list.

Packages sold from your home or farm stand may carry either:

Your name, physical or e-mail address, and phone number; the product name; the ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight; and allergy information. Or:
Your name, physical or e-mail address, and phone number; the product name; allergy information as established in rules; and a QR code or website where the ingredients are listed in descending order by weight — which must be accompanied by a physical sign at the display location listing those same ingredients.

Read the second option's last clause carefully. The QR code does not remove the need to show ingredients where the food is sold; it moves them from the package to a sign on your table. If you skip the sign, you have not met the requirement.

Packages sold at farmers' markets, or into any of the licensed channels — restaurants, other retail food establishments, internet, mail order, wholesalers, brokers, distributors — must carry the full printed list. No QR code option there.

On top of whichever option you use, one of two sentences is required:

Exempt operations:

This product is exempt from New Hampshire licensing and inspection.

Non-exempt (licensed) operations:

This product is made in a residential food production area licensed by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

Tax, rules and who writes them

New Hampshire has no general sales tax, which removes a step most states in this guide require. It does tax meals and prepared food, so whether your product falls on that side is a real question for the Department of Revenue Administration and your accountant.

The detail of what you may make and what the label looks like is set by rule, not only by statute. Under RSA 143-A:13 the DHHS commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, adopts rules on which foods may be made, which potentially hazardous foods may not, the content and format of all labeling requirements, the licensing requirements for the non-exempt tier, the forms, and the fees. The homestead rules sit in He-P 2300.

So for anything this page does not answer, the rules are the next place to look, and DHHS is the office that writes them.

Official sources

RSA 143-A:12, Homestead Food License Required — as amended four times in 2025New Hampshire General Court
RSA chapter 143-A, Food Service Licensure — full chapter table of contentsNew Hampshire General Court
Homestead food licensing — Environmental HealthNew Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Last verified: 1 November 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 New Hampshire?

It depends on where you sell. Selling food that is not potentially hazardous from your homestead residence, your own farm stand, a farmers' market or a retail food store is exempt from licensure and departmental inspection. Selling to restaurants or other retail food establishments, over the internet, by mail order, or to wholesalers, brokers or distributors who resell requires a license under RSA 143-A:13.

How much can I sell in a year in New Hampshire?

There is no sales cap. We read all of chapter 143-A looking for one. The $20,000 figure you may have seen is historical. The only dollar amounts in the chapter are a $300,000 budget line, administrative fines of up to $2,000 and $1,000, and wild mushroom license fees of $75, $75 and $30 — a different subdivision entirely.

Can a shop sell my food without me getting a license?

Yes, and that is unusual. Retail food stores are inside the exempt tier in New Hampshire, alongside your home, your farm stand and farmers' markets. Most states in this guide put shop sales on the licensed side or forbid them outright.

Can I sell online in New Hampshire?

Not in the exempt tier. Selling over the internet or by mail order puts you in the licensed tier under RSA 143-A:13, the same as selling to restaurants or wholesalers. So in New Hampshire a shop shelf is free and a website is not, which is the reverse of most states.

Can I really use a QR code instead of printing the ingredients?

On packages sold from your home or farm stand, yes — with a condition. The QR code or website listing the ingredients must be accompanied by a physical sign at the display location listing those same ingredients in descending order by weight. Skip the sign and you have not met the requirement. Packages sold at farmers' markets or into any licensed channel need the full printed list.

What exactly does my label say?

If you are exempt: "This product is exempt from New Hampshire licensing and inspection." If you are licensed: "This product is made in a residential food production area licensed by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services." Plus your name, physical or e-mail address and phone number, the product name, allergy information, and the ingredients — printed, or by QR code plus a sign if you are selling from home or a farm stand.

What about freeze-dried fruit?

That needs a license, even direct from home. Homestead food operations processing and selling freeze-dried foods — meaning fruits, vegetables and commercially prepared dairy products — from the homestead residence, a farm stand, a farmers' market or a retail food store must be licensed under RSA 143-A:4. It is a separate carve-out from the main two tiers, and many guides have not caught up with it.

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