Last verified: October 23, 2026. I’m a Texas home baker, not a lawyer — laws change, so always confirm with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Food Safety Branch) before you sell.

KENTUCKY COTTAGE FOOD AT A GLANCE

Annual sales cap: $60,000 in gross income per year from your home-processed products. (Fun fact: the cap isn’t in the main statute — it’s written into the legal definition of a home-based processor, KRS 217.015(56).)

Registration: Required. Kentucky calls it being a Home-Based Processor: send form DFS-250 plus the registration fee to the Food Safety Branch of the Department for Public Health. Registration renews every year and always expires March 31 — put it on your calendar now.

Who runs it: The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Food Safety Branch) — not the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, no matter what the internet says. The Department of Agriculture registers farmers markets; your home kitchen registration lives with the health cabinet.

Kitchen inspection: No routine pre-opening inspection. Inspections happen on complaint, and the Cabinet can sample products and step in if something is misbranded, adulterated, or a health hazard.

Food handler course: Not required for home-based processors. (Training belongs to the separate microprocessor program — see the sidebar below.)

Shipping: Not permitted. You may take orders and payments online or by phone, but every product must change hands in person — pick-up or your own delivery, inside Kentucky only.

Wholesale: No. Direct to consumers only — no sales to stores, restaurants, or anyone else for resale.

TWO PROGRAMS, ONE BAKER’S LANE

Kentucky runs two home-based food programs side by side, and mixing them up is the number one source of bad information about this state.

The Home-Based Processor program is the baker’s lane. Any Kentucky resident can register to make and sell a defined list of shelf-stable foods — breads, cakes, cookies, fruit pies, jams, candies, and more — straight from a home kitchen. That’s this guide.

The Home-Based Microprocessor program is a farmers’ program with a different job: it lets a farmer who grows the main ingredient sell the higher-risk canned foods the processor program won’t touch — salsa, pickles, pepper jelly, low-sugar jams, pressure-canned vegetables. It requires a University of Kentucky workshop, state approval of every recipe, and certification, and its products may only be sold at the farm, registered farmers markets, and certified roadside stands. It’s summarized in a sidebar at the bottom of this page; if your dream is decorated cookies, you can safely stay in the processor lane.

WHAT YOU CAN (AND CAN’T) SELL

Everything in the processor program must be non-potentially hazardous — shelf-stable food that doesn’t need refrigeration to stay safe. The allowed list (KRS 217.015(56), detailed in 902 KAR 45:090) covers:

Allowed: Breads; cakes; cookies; fruit pies; pecan pies; jams and jellies; preserves; fruit butter; candy (with two conditions: no added alcohol, and no bare-hand contact while making it); dried herbs; spices; nuts; dried grains; granola; trail and snack mixes; whole fruits and vegetables; dried or freeze-dried whole fruits and vegetables; mixed greens; sweet sorghum syrup; maple syrup; and popcorn, plain or seasoned. One carve-out: jams and jellies that are low-acid, low-sugar, or savory have to go through the University of Kentucky microprocessing program for approval instead.

Freeze-dried — Kentucky actually says the words: The regulation expressly allows “dried or freeze dried whole fruits or vegetables” for home-based processors. That’s rarer than you’d think — most states never mention freeze-drying at all. One honest boundary: the rule names freeze-dried produce. Freeze-dried candy is not named the same way — candy is an allowed category, but if freeze-dried candy is your product, confirm it with the Food Safety Branch before you invest, rather than assuming the produce sentence covers it.

Buttercream — the honest answer: Kentucky’s rules never mention buttercream. Cakes and cookies are allowed products, and nothing bans frosting them. What the regulation does ban, by name, is the filling family: crème filled pies, custard, custard pies, pies with meringue topping, cheesecake, and cream, custard, or meringue pastries. So: buttercream on a cake — not addressed, and not prohibited by anything I can find in the official sources; a cream-filled pastry — expressly out. If your signature product lives near that line, a quick call to the Food Safety Branch is worth it before you print labels.

Not allowed in the processor lane: acid foods, acidified foods, formulated acid foods, and low-acid canned foods (the statute bars them outright — that’s microprocessor territory, with training and recipe approval); the prohibited list above; and anything potentially hazardous. Also note: vacuum packaging is prohibited except in a mason-type jar, and Kentucky residency is required — you must live in Kentucky to register.

Kitchen standards while you work (902 KAR 45:090): wash hands regularly; keep equipment clean and in good repair; wash, rinse, and sanitize food-contact surfaces before each use; keep children under 12 and pets out of the kitchen during processing; pause the domestic life — no family meal prep, dishwashing, or laundry in the kitchen while you’re processing; and never produce, package, or handle products while you’re sick with something contagious.

KENTUCKY LABELING REQUIREMENTS

Kentucky’s label list is statutory — KRS 217.136(3) — and a product that misses an element is legally “misbranded,” which is the one word you never want on your inspection report. Every label needs:

  1. The name and address of your home-based processing operation — the Food Safety Branch’s labeling guide specifies street address, city, state, and ZIP. Yes, your full home address; Kentucky offers no ID-number substitute.
  2. The common or usual name of the product — “Chocolate Chip Cookies,” not “Kathy’s Best.”
  3. Ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight.
  4. The net weight and volume by standard measure, or the numerical count (“Net wt 12 oz” or “12 cookies”).
  5. Allergen information meeting federal labeling law (21 U.S.C. 343(w)) — the Big 9: milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, sesame. You may identify allergens inside the ingredient list or in a “Contains” statement, and tree nuts must be named specifically (“almonds,” not just “nuts”). Kentucky’s regulation adds this element on top of the statute’s list.
  6. This exact statement, verbatim, in 10-point type: This product is homeproduced and processed
  7. The date the product was processed.

Two honest footnotes. First, the statement really is “homeproduced,” one word — the statute and the Cabinet’s own summary write it that way, although the Cabinet’s labeling guide PDF prints it with a hyphen (“home-produced”). Match the statute, and if you ever get inspected, that’s the version to be holding. Second, the Cabinet’s summary also describes the statement as printed in a color that clearly contrasts with the label background — a sensible practice worth following even though the statute itself only sets the 10-point size.

Only if you make a nutrition claim (“low sugar,” “high fiber,” and the like) do you also need nutrition labeling under federal rules. Otherwise, no Nutrition Facts panel is required.

WHERE YOU CAN SELL IN KENTUCKY

Directly to consumers, inside Kentucky only: from your home by pick-up or delivery, at flea markets, farmers markets, festivals, county fairs, craft fairs, and non-profit charity events, at a roadside stand, at community events — and online. That last word needs its Kentucky meaning: you may advertise, take orders, and accept payment through the internet or by phone, but the product itself must be handed over in person by pick-up or your own delivery. Shipping is not permitted — the Cabinet says so in plain words, and no, mailing a box to Louisville is not “delivery.”

Not permitted: wholesale or resale of any kind (no stores, no restaurants, no consignment), and any sale outside Kentucky. One more venue rule from the Cabinet: a market counts, but a permitted retail market doesn’t — your booth belongs at the farmers market, not inside a licensed retail store.

THE OTHER LANE: HOME-BASED MICROPROCESSORS (SIDEBAR)

If you farm — or ever want to sell salsa, pickles, pepper jelly, or low-sugar jam — this is your program (KRS 217.137–217.139). The shape of it: you must be a Kentucky farmer who grows the primary ingredient; attend the University of Kentucky’s home-based microprocessing workshop; have every recipe approved by the University of Kentucky processing authority before you use it; and apply for certification (form DFS-251) with the Food Safety Branch, including proof of the workshop, your approved recipes, draft labels (the Cabinet reviews them before you sell), and verification of an approved water source. Certification renews annually — again expiring March 31 — the Cabinet inspects microprocessors at least once every four years, and the same $60,000 gross income cap applies. Sales are limited to your farm, Kentucky registered farmers markets, and certified roadside stands — no online sales channel like the processor program has. Bakers who never can anything can skip this lane entirely.

YOUR 3 STEPS TO START

  1. Check your menu against the allowed list — honestly. Breads, cakes, cookies, fruit and pecan pies, jams and jellies, candy, dried and freeze-dried produce — in. Cream- or custard-filled anything, cheesecake, meringue — out (or microprocessor territory if it’s a canned product and you farm). Freeze-dried produce gets an express yes; freeze-dried candy gets a phone call to the Food Safety Branch first.
  2. Register before you sell — and diarize March 31. Send form DFS-250 with the registration fee to the Food Safety Branch, Department for Public Health: your name, the physical address where you’ll produce, and your product list. Registration runs a year at a time and always expires March 31; the Cabinet mails a renewal invoice, but the date is yours to remember.
  3. Build your seven-element label, then sell Kentucky-only, in person. Full name and address, product name, ingredients by weight, net weight or count, allergen information, the exact statement in 10-point type — This product is homeproduced and processed — and the date processed. Then sell from home, at markets and fairs, and online for pick-up or delivery — never shipped, never wholesale, never across the state line.

Keep exploring: see the Cottage Food Laws by State hub (https://cottagebakersupply.com/cottage-food-laws-by-state/) for every state’s rules, and the free tools page (https://cottagebakersupply.com/tools/) — the Cottage Label Generator and the Cottage Cost Calculator — built for home bakers.

OFFICIAL KENTUCKY SOURCES

This guide is for informational purposes only and isn’t legal advice. Cottage food laws change — I last verified this page on October 23, 2026. When in doubt, ask the Food Safety Branch.

Just add sprinkles!