Cottage food laws · Kentucky
Selling homemade food in Kentucky
Kentucky gives home cooks two doors, and which one you walk through depends on a single thing: are you canning, and did you grow it? Door one — a home-based processor — costs $50 a year, no inspection up front, and covers shelf-stable baking and preserving: cookies, breads, cakes, fruit pies, jams, candy, granola. Door two — a home-based microprocessor — is for farmers who want to can what they grow (salsas, pickles, low-acid canned goods): also $50 a year, but it adds a food-processing school, recipe-by-recipe approval, and a kitchen inspection. Both paths cap out at $60,000 a year, both are Kentucky-only, and neither one allows anything that needs refrigeration — cheesecake is out on both. Here’s the whole picture, in plain English.
Verified against the Kentucky Revised Statutes, 902 KAR 45:090 and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services
Last checked June 12, 2026 — every section links its sources.
A friendly guide, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers. Always confirm the details with your own city and state before you sell.
The 2-minute version
Three cards, the whole story. Everything below is detail — with the actual laws linked, so you never have to take our word for it.
Baking shelf-stable goods?
That’s a home-based processor — open to anyone in Kentucky, no farming required. Register once a year with form DFS-250, label correctly, and sell cookies, breads, cakes, fruit pies, jams, candy, or granola — including online, to Kentucky buyers.
A farmer wanting to can what you grow?
That takes a home-based microprocessor — for Kentucky farmers canning the salsas, pickles, and low-acid goods the processor path forbids. Same $50, but it adds the UK Extension Food Processing School, per-recipe approval, label pre-review, and an inspection at least once every four years.
Kids’ stands?
A young baker selling shelf-stable cookies, breads, or candy runs under the same home-based processor path an adult does — there’s no special kid-stand exemption, but the path is light and the foods kids sell are squarely on the list.
Two ways to sell in Kentucky — pick your path
In shortThe two paths split on one question: are you canning acidified or low-acid foods, and did you grow the main ingredient? Shelf-stable baking → the $50 home-based processor. Canning what you grew → the $50 home-based microprocessor (school + recipe approval).
Kentucky’s two home-food paths split on one question: are you canning acidified or low-acid foods (salsa, pickles, canned vegetables), and did you grow the main ingredient yourself? The cleanest way to see the difference: a jar of salsa can’t legally come out of a home-based processor’s kitchen — it’s a low-acid/acidified canned food — but a farmer who grew the tomatoes and peppers can sell it as a home-based microprocessor, after the food-processing school and recipe approval. Same jar, two answers.
Home-Based Processor (HBP)
For anyone in Kentucky making shelf-stable, non-perishable food in their home kitchen — no farming required, you don’t have to grow a thing. You register once a year, label correctly, and sell. This is the path for bakers and preservers: cookies, breads, cakes, fruit pies, high-acid jams and jellies, candy, granola, dried herbs.
The hard line: no canned/acidified foods, and no online or out-of-state wholesale — direct to Kentuckians only.
Pick this path if: you bake or make shelf-stable goods and you don’t need to sell canned salsa, pickles, or low-acid canned vegetables.
Home-Based Microprocessor (HBM)
For a Kentucky farmer who grows the primary ingredient and wants to can it — acid foods, acidified foods, formulated acid foods, or low-acid canned foods (salsas, pickles, low-sugar jams, canned vegetables), the very categories the HBP path forbids.
The price of entry is real: you complete the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Food Processing School, get a processing authority to approve each recipe, submit your labels to the Cabinet for pre-market review, verify your water source, and your premises are inspected at least once every four years. The certification is tied to you and your premises and can’t be transferred.
Pick this path if: you’re a grower who wants to can what you grow. If you don’t grow the main ingredient, this path is closed to you — you’re not a “farmer” under the law.
Neither path covers anything that needs refrigeration. Cheesecake, custard, custard pies, crème-filled pies, meringue pastries, raw seed sprouts, and garlic-in-oil are banned by name on both paths — those need a fully permitted food-manufacturing establishment, not a home kitchen.
Sources: KRS 217.015 · KRS 217.136 · KRS 217.137 · 902 KAR 45:090
Where you can sell
In shortA home-based processor sells direct to Kentuckians — home pickup/delivery, markets, roadside stands, events, and online/phone. A home-based microprocessor is much narrower: farmers markets, certified roadside stands, or the farm — and no online.
Home-based processor — direct to Kentuckians, including online. Direct from your home, by pick-up or delivery; flea markets, farmers markets, festivals, county fairs, craft fairs, and non-profit charity events, or a roadside stand. The regulation is explicit that a home-based processor “may advertise and accept orders and payments in person, electronically, or via the internet or phone,” and the statute lists “online” among the allowed channels.
The hard boundaries: every sale runs directly to the consumer (no wholesale, no selling through stores or restaurants for resale), and only “within this state” — Kentucky buyers only. Whether “delivery” stretches to common-carrier shipping (USPS/UPS) inside Kentucky isn’t spelled out — see “Common questions.”
Home-based microprocessor — a much narrower list: farmers markets, certified roadside stands, or on the processor’s own farm — and nothing else. No online-sales authorization, no community events, no home pickup/delivery language; the canned-foods path is deliberately tighter than the baking path.
Sources: KRS 217.136 · KRS 217.137 · 902 KAR 45:090
What you can sell
In shortThe home-based processor list is a closed list of shelf-stable goods. The microprocessor adds the acid/acidified/low-acid canned categories the processor path bans — but only for a farmer who grew the main ingredient. Cheesecake and anything refrigerated is out on both.
Home-based processor — the allowed list
The rule behind both lists: home food here is non-potentially-hazardous — shelf stable, nothing that needs refrigeration to stay safe.
- Breads, fruit pies, cakes, cookies
- Jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butter
- Candy (no added alcohol; no bare-hand contact)
- Dried herbs, spices, nuts, dried grains, mixed greens
- Whole fruit & vegetables; dried or freeze-dried
- Sweet sorghum syrup & maple syrup
- Pecan pies
- Granola; trail or snack mix
- Popcorn (plain or seasoned)
CHFS treats this as a closed list in practice: the DFS-250 instructions warn, “ONLY LIST FOODS THAT ARE IDENTIFIED IN THE REGULATION… ANY FOOD OUTSIDE OF THE FOOD LIST… WILL RESULT IN YOUR APPLICATION BEING REJECTED.” Two packaging rules ride along: jams/jellies processed in under ten minutes must go into a sterilized jar, and vacuum-packaged food must be in a mason-type glass jar. The hard line: KRS 217.136(2) forbids a home-based processor from producing acid foods, acidified food products, formulated acid food products, or low-acid canned foods — that’s the line that sends canning to the microprocessor path.
Home-based microprocessor — the canning categories
- Acid foods
- Acidified food products
- Formulated acid food products
- Low-acid canned foods
- …only if the farmer grew the primary ingredient
Per KRS 217.015(57): acid foods, formulated acid food products, acidified food products, or low-acid canned foods — provided the farmer grew the primary ingredient. The regulation doesn’t enumerate a separate microprocessor list; 902 KAR 45:090 §2(2) just points back to the statutory definition. (Vacuum-packaged foods still have to be in mason-type glass jars.)
Banned on BOTH paths — the cheesecake test fails
- Cheesecake
- Crème-filled pies
- Custard & custard pies
- Meringue-topped pies & pastries
- Raw seed sprouts
- Garlic-in-oil
- Pureed baby foods
902 KAR 45:090 §2(3): these “shall not be processed or offered for sale by a home-based processor or home-based microprocessor.” Anything that needs refrigeration is out, on both paths — those need a fully permitted food-manufacturing establishment, not a home kitchen.
Sources: KRS 217.015 · KRS 217.136 · 902 KAR 45:090
The rules that actually matter
In shortEach path caps at $60,000 a year — separately, not combined. Both are Kentucky-only, direct-to-consumer, and nothing refrigerated, ever. The processor is inspected on complaint; the microprocessor at least once every four years. No state food-handler permit appears in the program.
- $60,000 a year — on each path, separatelyThe cap is written separately into each definition: a home-based processor has “a gross income of no more than sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) annually,” and a home-based microprocessor carries the identical $60,000 cap. The statute does not say the two combine into one shared $60,000 for someone operating under both — secondary sites claim a “combined” cap, but no statute or regulation says that.
- Kentucky only, direct to consumerBoth paths are in-state and direct-to-consumer; neither authorizes out-of-state or wholesale sales. And no canned/acidified foods on the processor path — that’s the microprocessor’s territory, and only if you grew it.
- Nothing refrigerated, everThe §2(3) prohibition binds both paths — cheesecake, custard, crème-filled and meringue pastries, garlic-in-oil are all out.
- Inspection differs by path; no food-handler permit appearsA home-based processor’s facility is inspected on complaint (the statute adds it “may be inspected annually by the cabinet”) — there is no inspection-before-approval. A home-based microprocessor is inspected at least once every four years. Your kitchen has to count as a “home”: a primary residence with no more than two ranges/ovens and three refrigerators, all home-grade equipment. We found no state food-handler permit anywhere in the program (a claim of absence — see “Common questions”).
Sources: KRS 217.015 · KRS 217.136 · KRS 217.137 · 902 KAR 45:090
Getting set up
In shortPath A is a $50 DFS-250 registration with no pre-approval inspection. Path B requires you to be a farmer who grows the ingredient, complete the UK Extension Food Processing School, get each recipe approved, and submit DFS-251 with the $50 fee and document package.
Both forms go to the same place: Kentucky Food Safety Branch, 275 East Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601. The branch’s contact phone and email are printed on the forms and the CHFS Food Safety Branch page — use the contact details on the current form or that page.
Path A — Home-Based Processor ($50/year, register and go)
- Check your foods against the 902 KAR 45:090 list and confirm your kitchen meets the “home” definitionPrimary residence, ≤2 ranges/ovens, ≤3 refrigerators, home-grade equipment.
- Submit form DFS-250 with the $50 registration feeYour info, processing address, and product list go to the Food Safety Branch in Frankfort. The check or money order goes to the “Kentucky State Treasurer”; online payment is available for renewals through the Kentucky Online Gateway.
- Registration runs one year and expires March 31Renew with another DFS-250 and another $50. CHFS says turnaround is “typically… two weeks,” and renewal notices go out in February.
That’s it — no pre-approval inspection. Your facility is inspected only on a complaint, and you’re subject to sampling if a product is found misbranded or adulterated. No food-handler course appears anywhere in the program.
Path B — Home-Based Microprocessor ($50/year, plus training + approvals)
- Be a “farmer” who grows the primary ingredientA Kentucky resident who owns or rents agricultural/horticultural land, or who has grown the primary horticultural and agronomic ingredients of the product.
- Complete the UK Cooperative Extension Food Processing SchoolOr an equivalent school under 21 C.F.R. 114.10. Attendance is required every three years, or whenever you change or add a product.
- Get a processing authority to approve each recipeEvery food item needs a written “scheduled process,” and any recipe change is a new review.
- Submit form DFS-251 with the $50 fee plus the document packageWater-source verification (a public-water bill or Division of Water approval), processing-authority documentation per recipe, proof you finished the school, and draft labels for every product.
- The Cabinet reviews your labels before you market themCertification expires March 31 each year and renews with another $50. Your premises are inspected at least once every four years, and the certification is premises-specific and nontransferable.
Sources: KRS 217.015 · KRS 217.138 · 902 KAR 45:090 · CHFS Home-Based Processing
Labels
In shortBoth paths require the SAME label — seven elements and the same ten-point “This product is home-produced and processed” statement (no trailing period, per statute). The only difference: a microprocessor submits draft labels to the Cabinet for review before printing.
Home-based processor label
- The name and address of the home-based processing operation (street address, city, state, zip)
- The common or usual name of the food product
- Ingredients, in descending order of predominance by weight
- Net weight and volume by standard measure, or numerical count
- The required statement, in ten-point type: “This product is home-produced and processed” (the statute’s exact text carries no closing period — the CHFS guide prints a period variant)
- The date the product was processed
- Allergen identification — the nine major allergens (milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish); name the specific tree nut
Home-based microprocessor label
- The same seven elements as the processor label
- The same ten-point statement: “This product is home-produced and processed” (no trailing period)
- The one extra step: draft copies of all labels must be submitted to the Cabinet for review before labeling and marketing (902 KAR 45:090 §4(4))
A product not labeled per the statute is “deemed misbranded.” Nutrition Facts panels are generally not required unless you make a nutrient or health claim. The microprocessor’s label isn’t different in content — it’s pre-approved by the Cabinet before you print it.
Sources: KRS 217.136 · 902 KAR 45:090 · CHFS Labeling Guide
What changed recently
In shortNothing in the law — the operative text dates to 2019, and the 2026 recertification of 902 KAR 45:090 is a routine continuation, not an amendment. A coffee-roasting expansion keeps being filed and stalling; coffee is still off the list.
- Nothing in the law — operative text dates to March 26, 2019The statutory text dates to 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 181 (the “HB 468” amendments that added the registration system, online sales, and the current food list); the regulation 902 KAR 45:090 was last amended effective Sept. 9, 2019. The statute, the regulation, and the CHFS forms all agree.
- 902 KAR 45:090 was recertified — eff. May 14, 2026A routine continuation under Kentucky’s regulation-review process (next 7-year expiration May 14, 2033) — not an amendment. No rule changed.
- A coffee-roasting expansion keeps being filed and stallingBills to add roasted coffee beans to the home-based-processor food list have been introduced three sessions running — 2023 HB 61 (coffee + tea), 2025 HB 89 (coffee), and 2026 HB 678 (coffee) — and each was introduced, referred to committee, and saw no further action; none became law. As of June 2026, coffee and tea remain off the home-based-processor list.
Sources: 902 KAR 45:090 · 2026 HB 678
Common questions
- What’s the difference between a home-based processor and a microprocessor?
- The processor path ($50/year) is for shelf-stable baking and preserving by anyone — no farming required, no inspection up front. The microprocessor path ($50/year plus a food-processing school, recipe approval, and label pre-review) is for a farmer canning what they grew — salsas, pickles, low-acid canned goods.
- Can I sell cheesecake from home in Kentucky?
- No — cheesecake is banned by name on both paths, because it needs refrigeration. So are custard, custard pies, crème-filled and meringue pastries, and garlic-in-oil. Those need a fully permitted food establishment, not a home kitchen.
- Do I need a license, and what does it cost?
- You register, you don’t get “licensed,” and it’s $50 a year on either path, expiring March 31. The microprocessor path also costs you the food-processing school and per-recipe approval (the school’s fee isn’t published in the statute).
- Can I sell online in Kentucky?
- As a home-based processor, yes — the regulation lets you advertise and accept orders and payments via the internet or phone, and the statute lists “online” as an allowed channel. But sales stay direct to consumers within Kentucky — Kentucky buyers only. The microprocessor path has no online authorization — it’s farmers markets, certified roadside stands, or your farm.
- Can I ship to a buyer in another state?
- No. Both paths are in-state, direct-to-consumer only. And whether “delivery” even covers common-carrier shipping (USPS/UPS) inside Kentucky isn’t spelled out — if mailing within the state matters to your porch shop, ask the CHFS Food Safety Branch before you build on it.
- Can a grocery store or restaurant carry my cookies?
- No — both paths are direct to the consumer, with no wholesale option. The statute does say these products “may be used in preparing and serving food,” but it doesn’t open a wholesale or retail-resale channel, so don’t build a wholesale plan on it.
- What’s the most I can earn?
- $60,000 a year in gross income, written separately into each path’s definition. Past that, you’re outside the home-food exemption. (There’s no “combined” cap for someone on both paths — no statute or regulation says that.)
- Does anyone inspect my kitchen?
- As a home-based processor, only on a complaint (no pre-approval visit); the statute also allows the cabinet to inspect the facility annually. As a microprocessor, your premises are inspected at least once every four years.
- Do I need a food-handler card?
- We found no state food-handler-permit requirement in the home-food statutes, the regulation, or the CHFS forms — phrase it as “no state food-handler permit appears in the program,” not an absolute, and confirm with the branch if it matters to you.
Sources: KRS 217.136 (label, prohibition, online, inspection) · KRS 217.137 (microprocessor venues) · 902 KAR 45:090 (prohibited foods, fees, inspection)
You won’t be doing this alone
21 porch bakers are already selling across Kentucky under these exact laws. Browse their pages and learn from people two steps ahead of you — what they sell, how they price, how they talk about their bread. Cottage bakers are famously generous with what they’ve learned, and most are a DM away on Instagram.
This page is educational, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers, just neighbors who read Kentucky’s official sources and wrote down what they say (every claim above links to its source). Kentucky’s two home-food paths carry different rules — make sure you know which one you’re on (most porch bakers are home-based processors; the microprocessor path is for farmers canning what they grow). The University of Kentucky Extension food-processing-school fee and per-recipe approval cost aren’t published in the statute — ask Extension for current figures. Local city and county business-license and zoning rules are separate and set locally — check yours. Always double-check the details with your own city and state before you sell. When something here and the law disagree, the law wins; if you spot that happening, tell us and we’ll fix it.