Last verified: October 23, 2026. I’m a Texas home baker, not a lawyer — laws change, so always confirm with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) before you sell.

WASHINGTON COTTAGE FOOD AT A GLANCE

Annual sales cap: $35,000 gross sales per year

Permit: Required BEFORE you sell — a Cottage Food Permit from WSDA. You may not sell a single cookie until it’s issued

Permit cost and term: $355 total for a two-year permit (a $75 public health review, $30 processing, and $125 for each annual inspection)

Kitchen inspection: Yes — WSDA inspects your kitchen before the permit is issued, and again each year

Also required: A Food Worker Card for everyone who works in the operation (from your county health department), and a state Master Business License. Check your local zoning, too — a city can ban home food production in areas not zoned for it

Product limit: 50 master products maximum, and every product, recipe, and label is reviewed and approved by WSDA before you can sell it

Shipping: Not allowed — no mail, no courier. Sales must be person-to-person

Wholesale: Not permitted — direct to the end consumer only

WHY WASHINGTON RUNS THE STRICTEST COTTAGE KITCHEN IN THE COUNTRY

Washington wrote its cottage food law in 2011 and built it like a mini food-plant license. You apply before you sell. WSDA reviews every recipe and every label. An inspector walks your kitchen — including your storage areas and bathroom — before your permit issues, and comes back every year. Your permit names your exact products (up to 50), your exact home, and you: it’s not transferable, and moving house means starting over. Even the sale itself has to happen face-to-face.

Why would a baker sign up for all that? Because inside the guardrails, Washington allows a real business: celebration and wedding cakes are welcome, shelf-stable buttercream passes under a clear written formula, freeze-drying approved products is legal, and $35,000 a year is enough room to learn whether baking is a hobby or a livelihood. Just go in knowing this state grades your homework — and do the homework first.

WHAT YOU CAN (AND CAN’T) SELL

Everything on your permit must be a low-risk food that doesn’t need refrigeration, cooked in an oven, on a stovetop, or in an electric cooking appliance.

Allowed: Breads, rolls, biscuits, quick breads, and muffins; cakes, including birthday, anniversary, and wedding cakes (fresh fruit or vegetables are fine baked into the batter — just never as a fresh garnish); pastries and scones; cookies and bars; crackers; cereals, trail mixes, and granola; pies, except custard-style pies, unbaked fresh-fruit pies, and pies that need refrigeration; nuts and nut mixes; snack mixes; donuts, tortillas, pizzelles, and krumkake; candies cooked on a stovetop or in a microwave — fudge, caramels, nut brittles, taffy, molded chocolates, and candy-coated products; jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butters made to the FDA’s standards of identity; dry herbs, seasoning blends, teas, bread mixes, soup mixes, and dip mixes; dry bread and instant mixes; small-batch roasted coffee beans (countertop roaster, not commercial size); vanilla extract that meets the FDA standard; and freeze-dried versions of products on this allowed list.

Prohibited: Meat and poultry in any form, including jerky; canned fruits, vegetables, salsas, and pickled products; fish and shellfish; anything made with meat, poultry, or fish; raw seed sprouts; any bakery goods that need refrigeration — cream, custard, or meringue pies, cakes or pastries with cream or cream-cheese fillings, fresh fruit fillings or garnishes, and low-sugar, cream, or uncooked-egg frostings and glazes; milk and dairy products, including every kind of cheese and yogurt; cut fresh fruits or vegetables; juices and all other beverages (yes, even apple cider); garlic-in-oil; ice; barbecue sauces, ketchups, and mustards; focaccia-style breads with vegetables or cheese; drink syrups; low-sugar jams (only full-standard jams and jellies qualify); products made with raw milk, raw cream, or raw butter; and anything for pets — the permit covers human food only.

The two rules bakers ask about most: Frostings and glazes must either have a cook step or be shelf-stable at room temperature — WSDA’s test is a 3-to-1 ratio of non-perishable ingredients (like sugar) to perishable ones (like butter, eggs, cream, or milk) by weight, so a classic American buttercream can pass and a cream-cheese frosting cannot. And freeze-drying is allowed for products already on the approved list — but freeze-drying fresh fruits and vegetables is not allowed.

WASHINGTON LABELING REQUIREMENTS

Washington law (WAC 16-149-110) requires six things on every cottage food label, printed in English:

  1. The name of your cottage food operation business and your permit number
  2. The name of the product — as approved on your permit
  3. Ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight — including the sub-ingredients of anything you use (not just “flour,” but what the flour is made of)
  4. Net weight or net volume — metric units are not required
  5. Allergen information, following federal labeling rules — name tree nuts specifically (“almonds,” not just “nuts”)
  6. This exact statement, verbatim, in at least 11-point type in a color that clearly contrasts with the label background: Made in a Home Kitchen that has not been subject to standard inspection criteria.

Your home address does not go on the label — your business name and permit number take its place. No Nutrition Facts panel is required unless you make a nutritional claim. Hand-printed labels are fine if they’re legible, written in permanent ink, and big enough to equal the 11-point requirement. Large cakes and bulk containers that can’t take a label travel with a label sheet carrying all six items instead. And remember: WSDA reviews and approves your labels as part of your application (write “Permit #: _____” as a placeholder until yours is issued), so the labels you submit are the labels you use.

WHERE YOU CAN SELL IN WASHINGTON

Straight from your home, at farmers markets, craft fairs, and other public venues — always person-to-person, handing the product to the end consumer yourself, with your permit posted where customers can see it.

What you can’t do: sell wholesale or on consignment, let a store, restaurant, or anyone else sell your products, sell out of state, or ship — no mail and no courier services, at all. You are allowed to advertise online and take orders online, but the sale itself has to close in person. If your plans outgrow face-to-face sales, the next step up is a WSDA Food Processor’s License, not a bigger cottage permit.

KEEP EXPLORING

Comparing states, or working out what to charge? See how all 50 states stack up in the Cottage Food Laws by State hub: https://cottagebakersupply.com/cottage-food-laws-by-state/ — and price your bakes with the free tools on the Tools page: https://cottagebakersupply.com/tools/

YOUR 3 STEPS TO START

  1. Line up the prerequisites. Get a Food Worker Card for yourself and everyone who will work in the operation (through your county health department — not a third-party website), apply for your state Master Business License, and confirm your city or county zoning allows a home food business. Decide on your products now — you’re capped at 50, and each one needs a recipe, processing steps, and a finished label.
  2. Apply to WSDA and pass inspection. Send the complete application packet — premises diagram, recipes with processing and packaging steps, label examples, your proposed sale locations, water test results if you’re on a well (a passing bacterial test within 60 days), food worker cards, and pet or child control plans if they apply — with the $355 fee, at least six weeks before you hope to open. WSDA reviews your recipes and labels, then schedules your kitchen inspection. Most applications take six to eight weeks start to finish. One honest wrinkle: WSDA’s website warns that application information is public record — including recipes — while its rule lists recipes as a required part of the packet. Ask WSDA directly (cottagefoods@agr.wa.gov) what to send before you mail anything you consider secret.
  3. Sell only what’s on your permit, and track your dollars. Once the permit issues, post it at every point of sale, sell only your approved products under their approved names, and watch the $35,000 annual cap. Adding a product later means a $105 amendment (or wait and add it free at renewal), and your permit renews every two years with an inspection each year.

OFFICIAL WASHINGTON 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 WSDA.

Just add sprinkles!