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New Mexico 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 permit. The Homemade Food Act took effect on 1 July 2021 and allows "low risk foods prepared at a private farm, ranch, or residence to be sold directly to the consumer without a permit". Environmental Health "will no longer issue Homebased Food Processor permits" — the old permit regime is gone.

One thing is required before you make anything: a food handler card. "A food handler card must be obtained before producing homemade food." After that New Mexico is generous about channels — farmers' markets, festivals, the internet, roadside stands, pickup or delivery from your home, and mail delivery — and strict about the boundary: direct to the end consumer, inside New Mexico only.

No permit — but get the card first

The Act replaced a permit scheme rather than sitting alongside one. Environmental Health no longer issues Homebased Food Processor permits, and in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County you need no permit from NMED, the county or the city to sell under the Act.

What you do need is a food handler card, obtained from an approved vendor before you produce homemade food. It is the one gating requirement, it is cheap, and it is the thing people skip because the headline says "no permit".

That puts New Mexico with Oregon, Indiana, Alabama and Connecticut — all of which want training or a card before you sell — rather than with Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio or Kansas, which require nothing at all. City of Albuquerque Environmental Health

What you can make

The Act covers non-TCS food: food that does not need time or temperature control for safety, and so does not have to be kept hot or cold. Examples given, and the list "is not exhaustive":

Prohibited, because they are TCS: meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, cut melons, caramel apples, hummus, juices, cider, and some refrigerated pies and cakes.

Two prohibitions worth pointing at, because other states disagree.

Salsa is out in New Mexico, which will surprise anybody who has lived there. It is excluded as a TCS food, and so are acidified foods generally — where Arkansas and Iowa both let you in if you can prove a pH of 4.6 or below. New Mexico does not offer that route.

Kombucha is out too, named explicitly. Several states are silent on it and leave you guessing; New Mexico simply lists it.

Where you may sell

Homemade food "must be sold directly to the end consumer within the state of New Mexico". Within that boundary the channels are broad:

Annual limit
None mentioned.
Permit
None. A food handler card is required instead.
In person
Farmers' markets, festivals, roadside stands, and your home for pickup.
Online
Yes — the internet is a named channel.
Delivery and mail
Yes, including mail delivery, inside the state.
Restaurants, wholesalers, distributors
No.
Outside New Mexico
No.

So New Mexico sits in a useful middle: more open than Minnesota, which makes you hand human food over in person, and more closed than Arkansas, which lets you ship across state lines if you satisfy federal law. If your customers are in New Mexico, almost every way of reaching them is open to you.

What has to be on the label

Every product carries your name, home address, phone number and email; the common name of the food; the ingredients in descending order of predominance, including sub-ingredients; and this statement:

This product is home produced and is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens.

Two details that differ from neighboring states. The email address is required, which is unusual — most states stop at a phone number. And sub-ingredients must be listed, so "chocolate chips" is not enough if the chips themselves contain milk and soy.

New Mexico also offers no alternative to your home address. Maryland, South Carolina, Oregon, Oklahoma and Arkansas all let a state-issued number stand in its place; New Mexico does not, and that is worth knowing before you sell to strangers.

Your kitchen: keep the pets and the children out

There is no inspection and no permit, but the Act expects basic sanitation: keep the kitchen sanitary, protect it from pests, and keep pets and children out of the kitchen during production.

That pet rule is the third different answer in this guide, and the comparison is genuinely useful.

Three states, three defensible rules, one question. If you move, do not carry your assumptions with you.

Local rules

The Act settles a question that used to be a real obstacle in New Mexico: Albuquerque had previously barred home food sales, and under the Act no permit is needed from NMED, Bernalillo County or the City of Albuquerque.

That does not make every local rule disappear. A city may still have business licensing or zoning of its own, and a farmers market may set stricter rules than the state for its own stalls. Ask locally before your first market day rather than on it.

Gross receipts tax

No permit is not no tax. New Mexico runs a gross receipts tax rather than a conventional sales tax, which catches people arriving from other states, and whether and how it applies to you belongs to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department. We are not going to print a rate — the rate varies by location and changes.

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 permit to sell food from home in New Mexico?

No. The Homemade Food Act, in effect since 1 July 2021, allows low risk foods prepared at a private farm, ranch or residence to be sold directly to the consumer without a permit, and Environmental Health no longer issues Homebased Food Processor permits. You do need a food handler card before you produce anything.

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

No cap is mentioned in the sources we read. We are reporting an absence rather than a permission — if you are getting close to a scale where it would matter, ask the New Mexico Environment Department before assuming.

Do I really need a food handler card?

Yes, and it is the requirement people skip because the headline says no permit. A food handler card must be obtained before producing homemade food, from an approved vendor. It is the single gating step in New Mexico.

Can I sell online and post my products?

Yes, within New Mexico. The internet and mail delivery are both named channels, alongside farmers' markets, festivals, roadside stands and pickup or delivery from your home. The limit is the state line and the buyer: direct to the end consumer, inside New Mexico. Restaurants, wholesalers and distributors are out.

Can I sell salsa?

No. Salsa is excluded as a TCS food, and acidified foods are excluded generally. That surprises people, and it is a real difference from Arkansas and Iowa, which both let you sell acidified products if you can establish a pH of 4.6 or below. New Mexico does not offer that route. Kombucha is also named as prohibited.

Can I have pets at home?

Yes — you just have to keep them out of the kitchen during production, along with children. New Mexico is the most relaxed of the three approaches in this guide: North Carolina excludes a home kitchen entirely if a pet comes indoors at any time, and Oregon requires the label to declare that pets live in the dwelling and name the species.

What exactly goes on my label?

Your name, home address, phone number and email; the common name of the food; the ingredients in descending order of predominance, including sub-ingredients; and the statement "This product is home produced and is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens." The email requirement is unusual, and so is the sub-ingredient rule — "chocolate chips" is not enough if the chips contain milk and soy. There is no alternative to printing your home address.

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