Texas cottage food law: what you can sell from home

Texas allows "any foods" from your home kitchen except a short list. That is wider than many states, which only name approved items. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) explains the rule on its Texas Cottage Food Production page.

Foods that need time and temperature control for safety (TCS foods) are allowed if you register with DSHS and add the safe-handling statement to the label. TCS foods cannot be donated or sold wholesale.

• Baked goods such as breads, cakes, cookies and pastries
• Jams, candy, granola, dry mixes and similar shelf-stable items
• TCS foods, for registered operators only, with a production date and the safe-handling statement on the label
• Free samples, at any location

DSHS lists six categories that are out. If your product is close to one of them, you can ask DSHS for an official determination using its Request for Official Determination form.

• Meat, meat products, poultry or poultry products
• Seafood, fish and shellfish
• Ice or ice products, including ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, shaved ice and gelato
• Low-acid canned goods
• Products containing CBD or THC
• Raw milk and raw milk products

Texas does not issue a cottage food license. DSHS requires registration on its Online Licensing Registry only for operators who sell TCS foods. Cottage food vendors who buy from you at wholesale must register as well. Any other operator may register to put a registration number on the label instead of a home address.

DSHS lists no registration fee. Local health departments may not require a license, permit or fee to produce or sell directly to consumers or vendors. They may not regulate how you produce food, and they may not inspect you.

You must complete an accredited basic food safety course for food handlers. DSHS says a Food Manager Certification from an accredited program can stand in for it. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension runs a "Cooking Up A Cottage Food Business" course.

Direct sales to consumers are the core of the law. You can also sell non-TCS foods at wholesale to a registered cottage food vendor, who can resell at a farmers' market, farm stand, food service establishment or retail store.

Online sales have a condition. DSHS says the customer buys from you online and "the operator, an employee, or a household member personally delivers the food." Before you accept payment, the website must show the required label information. After payment, the label must show your address or registration number.

The DSHS page does not mention pickup of online orders, and it does not describe shipping. A courier or a delivery app is not on the list of people who may deliver. If you want customers to collect web orders from you, email DSHS at foodestablishments@dshs.texas.gov and keep the answer.

Every label must carry this disclosure: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION."

• Your name, and your address or DSHS registration number
• The common name of the product
• Major allergens, such as eggs, tree nuts, soy, peanuts, milk, wheat and sesame
• A unique batch number on pickled fruits or vegetables, fermented vegetables and plant-based acidified canned goods
• For TCS foods: the date made, and a safe-handling statement in at least 12-point type that begins "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen"

• Check that your product is not on the six-item exclusion list.
• Take an accredited food handler course and save the certificate.
• Decide whether you will sell TCS foods. If yes, register on the DSHS Online Licensing Registry.
• Write your label with the exact disclosure sentence, your name and address or ID number, and the allergens.
• Put the same label information on your website before the checkout step.
• Plan who delivers. It has to be you, an employee or a household member.
• Track your income so you stay under $150,000 a year.
• Ask your city about home-business or zoning rules. DSHS rules stop health departments from regulating production, not every local rule.

pickup.kitchen is the ordering and delivery side of your home business. You get your own site at yourname.pickup.kitchen, a menu with dish photos, checkout, and a kitchen screen that rings when an order lands. Payments go to your own Stripe account, so the sale is between you and your customer.

Texas wants the label information posted before payment. Paste your full label text into each dish description so it sits on the page before checkout. The "Free onboarding. Pay as you use." pricing means you can set this up before you pay anything.

For delivery, the delivery tools build and optimize your route and send it to a driver's phone, with a photo at the door. In Texas that driver has to be you, an employee or a household member. Do not route web orders through a courier. Time slots close when full, so a weekly drop never outgrows one oven.

Checked November 2026 against the official Texas sources linked below. Laws change, so open the official page before you print labels or take your first order.

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Check with your state and county before you sell.