How We Verify Every Page

Every load-bearing fact on this site traces to a primary source: the state's own statute or the agency that enforces its cottage food law. This page explains exactly how each page gets made and checked, what "last verified" means and how you can flag an error.

Two independent passes on every state

We research each state twice, in separate passes. The first pass reads the statute and the enforcing agency's guidance and writes the facts: the license position, the sales cap, the training and inspection rules, the allowed and prohibited foods, the label wording and the sales channels. A second pass then re-derives the load-bearing facts from scratch, without leaning on the first pass. Any disagreement gets resolved against the primary source with a third look. The disclosure sentence, which several states mandate word for word, is only published when we can read it verbatim in an official source. If we cannot, the page says so rather than paraphrasing.

What the second pass catches

The independent check is not a formality. On this build it caught and corrected real errors before they published. A few examples from the current sweep:

• South Carolina: a first-pass reading had retail-store sales allowed. The statute actually bars them and restricts sales to direct-to-consumer. Corrected against the statute, with the agency and disclosure text fixed too.
• North Dakota: the direction of the poultry rule was reversed. North Dakota opened interstate sales but specifically kept uninspected poultry out of interstate commerce. Corrected against the enrolled bill text.
• Kansas: a wrong statute citation pointed at a dairy-definitions section. Corrected to the right subsection.
• Washington: online and out-of-state retail sales were confirmed barred, not allowed. Washington is direct-to-consumer only.

When a source will not load

Some state pages block automated reading or return errors. When a primary page would not load, we say so on the state page and mark the affected fact as unconfirmed rather than filling the gap with a guess. California is an example: the state health department's site returned a certificate error during research, so the current-year inflation-adjusted cap figure is flagged as needing a final check even though the statutory base is confirmed.

Verified, partial and in transition

Each state page carries one of three honesty levels. A verified page had its load-bearing facts confirmed against a primary source on both passes. A partial page has one or more facts we could not fully confirm; those are flagged in a note on the page and listed as unconfirmed. A page marked in transition covers a state whose law is mid-change, where the rules were not settled when we checked. West Virginia is in transition: a 2026 law added a new permit path whose detailed rules the state was still drafting.

What "last verified" means and how often we re-check

The date on each page is the day we last read that page's rules against the source. Cottage food laws change by legislative session, so we re-check on a set schedule and whenever we learn of a change, then update the page and log it in the law-updates changelog. The changelog only marks a change as in effect once its effective date has actually arrived and we have confirmed it against a primary source.

Tell us if we are wrong

If a rule on any page looks out of date or does not match what your state told you, we want to fix it fast. Report an error here and point us at the source. Getting these pages right is the whole point of the project.

An independent reference project, not a state agency or law firm. Educational information, not legal advice. Confirm the current rules with your state before you sell.