Last verified: October 23, 2026. I’m a Texas home baker, not a lawyer — laws change, so always confirm with your local health authority before you sell.

NEVADA COTTAGE FOOD AT A GLANCE

The law: Cottage food operations, NRS 580.600. (If a website sends you to “NRS 446.866,” it’s quoting the old law — that section was repealed in 2025, and its $35,000 cap went with it.)

Registration: Required before your first sale — with the health authority for the area where you sell: Southern Nevada Health District (Clark County), Northern Nevada Public Health (Washoe County), Carson City Health and Human Services, Central Nevada Health District, or the Nevada Department of Agriculture Food Program for the remaining counties. Clark County’s registration is a one-time $220 (Fiscal Year 26/27); other districts set their own fees, capped by law at the actual cost of running the registry.

Annual sales cap: $100,000 in gross sales per calendar year — and starting with Fiscal Year 2026-27, that number is adjusted for inflation each year, with the adjusted figure published by the Department.

Kitchen inspection: None routinely. The health authority may inspect only to investigate a possibly adulterated food or a suspected illness outbreak — and you have to cooperate if they do.

Food handler course: Not required by the cottage food law.

Who can register: One person — a cottage food operation is a single natural person. No partners, no employees, and you must live and cook in Nevada.

Shipping and online sales: Not allowed. Every sale is an in-person transaction, direct to the consumer. No mail order, no shipping, no third-party delivery, no resale.

Coming July 1, 2027: The whole program moves to the Nevada Department of Agriculture under a new state license (NRS 585.700–770) — and every current registration expires June 30, 2027, no matter when you got it.

WHY NEVADA’S RULES ARE STRICTER — AND WHY THEY’RE MID-MAKEOVER

Nevada runs one of the tighter cottage food programs in the country: a closed list of allowed foods, registration before you sell a single cookie, registration again if you sell in a different health district, and face-to-face sales only. If you’ve read guides for other states and assumed you could take online orders and ship, Nevada will correct you quickly.

But Nevada is also mid-makeover, and the direction is friendly. The 2025 legislature (Assembly Bill 352) tripled the sales cap from $35,000 to $100,000, and on July 1, 2027 the program leaves the county health districts for the Nevada Department of Agriculture, with a single state license under NRS 585.700–770. The Department is writing the new regulations now. So this guide does two jobs: it gives you the rules that are in force today (that’s NRS 580.600), and it flags the reset date — June 30, 2027, when every current registration stops being valid — so it never catches you off guard.

One more protection worth knowing: state law flatly prohibits any city, county, or zoning board from banning cottage food operations by ordinance. Your local government can’t zone you out of existence — though ordinary business licensing still applies, so check that box separately.

WHAT YOU CAN (AND CAN’T) SELL

Nevada’s list is closed — if a food isn’t on it, it isn’t cottage food (NRS 580.600). The nine categories:

Allowed: Nuts and nut mixes; candies; jams, jellies, and preserves; vinegar and flavored vinegar; dry herbs and seasoning mixes; dried fruits; cereals, trail mixes, and granola; popcorn and popcorn balls; and baked goods that meet three tests — not potentially hazardous, no time/temperature control needed for safety, and no cream, uncooked egg, custard, meringue, or cream cheese frosting or garnishes.

Fine print from the Southern Nevada Health District (the registering authority for Clark County): Jams, jellies, and preserves must use standardized recipes (the fruits in the federal standards, 21 C.F.R. Part 150) — fruit butter is not allowed, and neither are sugar-free or no-sugar-added jams and jellies. Candies do not include cream-based chocolates like ganache and truffles. Flavored vinegar must be strained or filtered before bottling, with no herbs, fruit pieces, or rinds left floating in the bottle. Dried fruits must come from low-acid fruits, and fruits that need temperature control when cut — melons are the example — can’t be dried and sold. Baked goods must be cooked with dry heat (an oven or a hot skillet); frying and steaming don’t count. Additions inside or on top of a baked good have to keep it non-potentially hazardous: no fresh fruit toppings or garnishes, no soft cheeses.

The frosting rules — read these twice: The statute excludes any baked good containing cream, custard, meringue, or cream cheese frosting. SNHD’s list of what can’t go on a Nevada cottage baked good adds cream-based frostings, cream-based ganache, Chantilly-style frostings, and buttercream that contains egg — Swiss, Italian, and French buttercreams are out by name. What about plain American buttercream (butter and powdered sugar, no egg)? Neither the statute nor SNHD’s list addresses it expressly either way. Don’t guess with your business: ask your registering authority before you sell a buttercream-topped anything, and keep their answer.

Freeze-drying — one yes, one honest shrug: SNHD addresses freeze-drying in exactly one place: fruits that are high-acid / low-pH may be freeze-dried, under the dried fruits category. Freeze-dried candy is not expressly addressed anywhere in NRS 580.600 or SNHD’s guidance — candy is a listed category, but no official source we found names the freeze-dried version. Treat it as a confirm-with-your-health-authority item, not a given.

Not allowed: Anything potentially hazardous; anything outside the nine categories (salsa, pickles, and other acidified foods live under Nevada’s separate craft food program at the Department of Agriculture — a different registration entirely); and anything made outside your home kitchen — food must be prepared at home and prepackaged at home before it travels anywhere, samples included.

NEVADA LABELING REQUIREMENTS

Nevada doesn’t hand you a state label list — it imposes two conditions (NRS 580.600), and both are mandatory:

  1. This exact statement, printed prominently on the label: MADE IN A COTTAGE FOOD OPERATION THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENT FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION
  2. A label that complies with the federal labeling requirements the statute points to — 21 C.F.R. Part 101 and the allergen law at 21 U.S.C. § 343(w). In practice, that’s the standard federal package:
    • The name of the food (its common or usual name);
    • The net quantity of contents;
    • The ingredient list, in descending order by weight, including sub-ingredients;
    • The name and address of your operation as the manufacturer/packer; and
    • Allergen declaration for the major food allergens, as federal law requires.
    • Nutrition labeling follows the federal rules too — most very small sellers qualify for a federal small-business exemption, but that’s a federal determination, so check it rather than assuming it.

Getting the label right is the operator’s responsibility. If you sell in Clark County, SNHD offers a voluntary label review (a fee-for-service option) — worth considering before you print a big batch. And a word of caution about the internet: lists of “Nevada’s required label items” floating around blogs are paraphrases of the federal rules above, sometimes with the state’s statement garbled. Use the exact statement in item 1 — it’s the one sentence Nevada itself wrote.

WHERE YOU CAN SELL IN NEVADA

In person, to the person who will eat it. Every cottage food sale must happen on your own private property or at a place where you sell directly to the consumer — the statute names licensed farmers’ markets, flea markets, swap meets, church bazaars, garage sales, and craft fairs. The buyer must be a natural person buying for their own consumption: not for resale. That means no consignment, no wholesalers, and no selling to permitted food establishments — a restaurant or store can’t serve or resell your food; to them it’s food from an unapproved source.

The transaction itself must be in person. The statute is explicit that a qualifying sale “does not involve selling the food item by telephone or via the Internet.” Here’s the one nuance, straight from SNHD’s FAQ: they read the law to allow orders taken by phone or internet when you, the operator, deliver in person — what neither reading allows is fulfilling orders by mail or by a third-party delivery service. If you’re outside Clark County, confirm your own district’s reading before you rely on phone or internet orders. Either way: your website and social media are for information and advertising — SNHD is clear they may not offer a shipping option.

Register where you sell. A Clark County registration covers Clark County. To sell in Washoe County, you register with Northern Nevada Public Health; Carson City and the Central Nevada counties have their own authorities; and the Department of Agriculture’s Food Program covers the rest. Plan on a registration for each area on your market route.

And mark the calendar: on July 1, 2027, NRS 580.600 expires, the Department of Agriculture takes over under NRS 585.700-770, and all existing registrations become invalid. The new program comes with a state license and new regulations the Department is still drafting — when the details land, this guide gets a refresh, and Nevada sellers will need to re-register under the new system.

YOUR 3 STEPS TO START

  1. Register before you sell — and wait for the letter. Find your health authority (SNHD for Clark County, Northern Nevada Public Health for Washoe, Carson City Health and Human Services, Central Nevada Health District, or the Department of Agriculture Food Program for all other areas). In Clark County the flow is: email the registration application for pre-screening, complete the application in the online portal, pay the one-time $220 fee (Fiscal Year 26/27), and wait — you are not registered, and cannot operate, until the approval letter arrives. Keep your information current (a move or name change means contacting the district), and remember you need a new registration if you expand into a new food category, though not for new items inside a category you already have. Your state and local business licenses are separate errands — the cottage registration doesn’t cover them.
  2. Build the federal-plus-statement label. The all-caps statement, printed prominently, plus the federal package: product name, net quantity, ingredients with sub-ingredients, your operation’s name and address, and allergen declarations. In Clark County, consider SNHD’s voluntary label review before a big print run.
  3. Sell face to face, under the cap, with 2027 on your calendar. In-person sales only — no shipping, no delivery apps, no resale. Track your gross sales against the $100,000 annual cap (it’s gross — the full amount customers pay, before ingredient costs). And sometime in spring 2027, watch the Department of Agriculture for the new license process, so your business crosses over without a gap.

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 NEVADA 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 your local health authority.

Just add sprinkles!