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Selling food from home in Pennsylvania

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 Pennsylvania is one of the cheapest states to do it in, at $35 a year. But it is not a no-permit state, and your kitchen is inspected. What you register is a Limited Food Establishment — Pennsylvania’s own name for a registered home kitchen, defined as a residential-style kitchen used to make non-hazardous food, registered with the Department of Agriculture.

"Registration involves routine inspection of the food production site by PDA." An inspector visits after your plan is approved, and the registration renews annually. The upside is reach: the registration includes internet sales, which several states on this site do not allow at all.

What you can and cannot sell

"Non-hazardous foods that do not require refrigeration after preparation." PDA names baked goods, jams, jellies, candies and certain snack mixes.

You may not sell anything that needs refrigeration, or anything that has to be kept hot. PDA, Limited Food Establishment

One number that is not on the main page but is in the application packet: only products with a pH of 4.6 or below may be made in a limited food establishment. If you are planning sauces, salsas or anything pickled, that threshold decides whether your recipe qualifies before anything else does. PDA, Limited Food Establishment application packet

The registration: $35, every year

What you register
A Limited Food Establishment, with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture — "a residential-style kitchen" used for non-hazardous food.
Fee
$35 initial, $35 annual renewal. PDA is the place to ask how and when it is paid; sources disagree and we would rather you heard it from them than from us.
Renewal
Annually. PDA mails a notice about two months before your registration expires.
Inspection
Yes. Plan approval first, then an inspector visits the site. See below.

$35 a year is the lowest ongoing cost of any state on this site. What you are buying with it is not an exemption from oversight — it is oversight at a price a home kitchen can carry.

How much can you sell, and where

Annual limit
PDA’s page states none. This is a registration with inspection rather than a capped exemption, so there is no ceiling figure to print.
From the production site
Yes — "Registration includes sales direct from the production site including internet sales."
Markets and events
Farmers markets, community events and roadside stands.
Retail stores
Some retail stores may carry your products, if labeling requirements are met.
Out of state
Selling across state lines may also require FDA registration. Ask PDA, and ask the FDA, before you take an out-of-state order.

Internet sales being inside the registration is the thing worth noticing here. In New Jersey you may take the order online but never post the box; in Pennsylvania the registration itself covers selling online from your production site.

Labels

Labeling matters in Pennsylvania in a specific way: whether a retail store may carry your products depends on the labeling requirements being met.

We are not going to list the required label contents here. PDA’s Limited Food Establishment page requires correct labeling without enumerating it, and the honest thing to do with a gap like that is name it rather than fill it with another state’s list. Ask PDA for the label requirements with your application packet — it is one question, and getting it wrong is what stops a shop stocking you.

Food safety training

PDA’s page does not state a required training course for a Limited Food Establishment. What it does require is plan approval and a passed inspection.

Where other states substitute a certificate for a visit, Pennsylvania does the opposite: it sends someone to look. We would still take a food safety course — but we are not going to tell you a certificate is mandatory when the Department does not.

The inspection

This is the part people do not expect from a $35 registration. "Registration involves routine inspection of the food production site by PDA," and an inspector visits after your plan is approved.

Routine means ongoing, not once. Pennsylvania treats a home kitchen that sells food as a food establishment with a lighter set of rules — not as a kitchen outside the system. Plan for a visit, and plan for your kitchen to be in a state you would want one in. PDA

Sales tax

Registering with the Department of Agriculture says nothing about tax. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you need to register to collect it, is for the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

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

Does Pennsylvania have a cottage food law?

Not under that name. Pennsylvania registers your home kitchen as a Limited Food Establishment with the Department of Agriculture — a residential-style kitchen used to make non-hazardous food. It costs $35 initially and $35 to renew each year, and unlike a cottage food exemption it comes with a routine inspection.

How much does it cost to sell food from home in Pennsylvania?

$35 to register and $35 a year to renew, which is the lowest ongoing cost of any state on this site. PDA mails a renewal notice about two months before your registration expires. Ask PDA how and when the fee is collected — sources disagree, and we are not going to guess at it.

Will someone inspect my kitchen?

Yes. Registration involves routine inspection of the food production site by PDA, with an inspector visiting after your plan is approved. "Routine" means it is not a one-off, so plan on your kitchen being inspectable rather than on a single tidy afternoon.

Can I sell online in Pennsylvania?

Yes, and this is a real advantage. PDA states that registration includes sales direct from the production site including internet sales. That is a wider permission than New Jersey, where you may take an order online but may never post the food.

Can I ship to another state?

Possibly, but it is not just a PDA question — selling across state lines may also require FDA registration. Ask both before you accept an out-of-state order, because the federal half is the part people forget.

Can I make hot sauce, salsa or pickles?

Only if the pH works out. The Limited Food Establishment application packet states that only products with a pH of 4.6 or below may be made in a limited food establishment, so that threshold decides your recipe before anything else does. It is in the packet rather than on the main page, which is why many write-ups miss it.

Can a local shop stock my baked goods?

Some retail stores may carry the products, provided labeling requirements are met. PDA requires correct labeling without listing the contents on its Limited Food Establishment page, so ask them for the label requirements along with your application packet — that is the thing that decides whether a shop can stock you.

Other states

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