Oregon Cottage Food Law (2026): Rules, Limits and How to Start
Do you need a license to sell homemade food in Oregon?
Oregon's Cottage Food Exemption lets you sell non-perishable homemade food without a license as long as you stay under a gross sales cap that adjusts yearly for inflation, $52,700 for 2026. Everyone handling the food needs a food handler card and every label needs the exact state disclosure sentence. Farmers and anyone wanting a higher cap have two other legal paths.
In Oregon the path depends on what you make and how you sell it. Many home producers of foods like breads, cookies and cakes without cream fillings and candies need no state license at all, while some foods or channels trigger a registration. The rules below sort out which one is yours.
Oregon caps annual cottage food sales at $52,700 gross annual sales for 2026. Set at a $50,000 base by SB 643 effective January 1, 2024 and indexed to inflation every year under ORS 616.723(2)(d) and OAR 603-025-0320: $51,200 for 2025, raised to $52,700 for 2026 based on a 2.9 percent West-region CPI-U increase.
The parts new Oregon sellers most often get wrong are the exact label disclosure wording and the food safety course. Each one has its own row below, with the official source beside it.
How much can you sell? The Oregon sales cap
The annual sales limit for an Oregon cottage food operation.
| Item | Oregon rule |
|---|---|
| Annual sales cap | $52,700 gross annual sales for 2026 (Cottage Food Exemption path) |
| How it works | Set at a $50,000 base by SB 643 effective January 1, 2024 and indexed to inflation every year under ORS 616.723(2)(d) and OAR 603-025-0320: $51,200 for 2025, raised to $52,700 for 2026 based on a 2.9 percent West-region CPI-U increase. Two other paths carry different caps: the Farm Direct Marketing Law caps processed-value sales at $50,000 for qualifying farmers. The optional Domestic Kitchen License has no sales cap at all. |
What foods can you sell in Oregon?
Allowed and prohibited categories under current Oregon law.
| Allowed (examples) | Prohibited |
|---|---|
| Breads, cookies and cakes without cream fillings; Candies; Dry mixes, granola, nut mixes and popcorn; Dried herbs and spices; Jams and jellies; Roasted coffee; Honey; Acidified foods and lacto-fermented products (Farm Direct Marketing Law only, farmers growing the principal ingredient); Repackaged freeze-dried, dried and dehydrated foods from commercial food and powdered drink mixes from commercial food; Syrups and fruit butters made only with fruit that has a natural pH below 4.60. | Time/temperature-control-for-safety (TCS) foods generally; Meat, poultry and seafood; Dairy products; Low-acid canned goods (all pathways); Acidified foods and ferments under the basic Cottage Food Exemption (reserved for the Farm Direct Marketing Law). |
Oregon cottage food label requirements
Every package you sell needs a label with the elements below in legible print.
- Producer name (the food establishment business name)
- Establishment address: full street address with city, state and zip, or a city directory reference, or an ODA-issued Unique Identification Number in place of the street address (OAR 603-025-0335)
- A telephone number for the food establishment
- Product name
- Ingredients in descending order by weight
- Allergen disclosures
- Net quantity
- Where pets inhabit the residential dwelling, a declaration that pets were present, identifying the species by common name (for example cat, dog, rabbit)
- The disclosure statement (verbatim above) in minimum 10-point type with a contrasting color
Oregon requires this disclosure statement, word for word:
This product is homemade, is not prepared in an inspected food establishment and must be stored and displayed separately if merchandised by a retailer.
Reproduced from Oregon's cottage food labeling requirements. Confirm the current wording with Oregon Department of Agriculture before you print a run of labels.
From the team behind this library
The Cottage Food Launch Kit
Want the whole path in one place? The kit turns everything on this page into one ordered walkthrough for Oregon: your state requirement sheet, a fill-in label template with the exact required wording, the allowed-foods checker, the ordered checklist and your first-market plan. Follow it in an evening.
Where can you sell in Oregon?
The venues and channels Oregon cottage food operators may use.
| Channel | Allowed in Oregon? |
|---|---|
| Direct to consumer from home | Yes |
| Farmers markets and community events | Yes |
| In-state online orders and in-state mail delivery | Yes |
| Retail stores | With conditions. Requires a separate display section and the disclaimer |
| Out-of-state shipping | With conditions. ODA does not prohibit it and does not route it through the Domestic Kitchen License. It defers to the destination state: "We do not have jurisdictional authority in other states to make that determination. Please reach out to the state(s) where you are going to sell your cottage food for any laws or rules that may apply." Nothing in OAR 603-025-0320 or ORS 616.723 confines cottage food sales to in-state buyers and ODA warns that the destination jurisdiction's labeling requirements apply |
| Catering | No. Reported as prohibited under all three pathways; single-source, not independently confirmed |
Oregon Department of Agriculture has not settled every channel in one published place. Confirm your specific channel, for example online or out-of-state shipping, with Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Registration, training and inspection
Registration and permits. No registration for the Cottage Food Exemption or Farm Direct Marketing Law paths. The optional Domestic Kitchen License is a paid license (~$208/year) for those who want to exceed the exemption cap or sell items outside the allowed list.
Food safety training. Everyone who handles the food must hold a food handler card from the Oregon Health Authority or a local health department, obtained within 30 days of starting sales, valid for three years.
Kitchen inspection. No home kitchen inspection is required under the Cottage Food Exemption or Farm Direct Marketing Law.
The fees an Oregon cottage food seller can expect.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Cottage Food Exemption | No state fee |
| Farm Direct Marketing Law | No state fee |
| Domestic Kitchen License (optional alternate path, no sales cap) | $179 a year for a Domestic Kitchen Bakery, or $191 a year for a Domestic Kitchen Processor, at $0 to $50,000 gross annual sales. The fee is tiered by sales volume rather than flat: the bakery tier rises to $253 at $50,001 to $500,000 and the processor tier to $317 |
| Food handler card | maximum $10, valid 3 years |
Confirm the exact course or certificate Oregon Department of Agriculture accepts before you enroll.
Wondering how Oregon compares? See what a cottage food license costs in every state, from the no-fee states to the priciest permits.
