Can I sell cheesecake from home in Texas?

Yes — since September 1, 2025. Cheesecake is a refrigerated (TCS) food, so register with DSHS (the law and DSHS’s registration steps show no fee), keep it at 41°F or below through delivery, and add the date-made and safe-handling statement to your label.

Can I sell my sourdough in Texas?

Yes — bread is a baked good with no special conditions. Take the two-hour food safety course, label it, sell it.

Do I need a permit from my city to sell homemade food in Texas?

No — and your city isn’t allowed to ask. Local governments may not require any license, permit, or fee to make, sell, or sample cottage food, and the 2025 law bars them from employing officials who knowingly demand a license or permit.

Will anyone inspect my kitchen?

No — health departments have no authority to inspect a cottage food operation. (Emergency powers for genuine health threats survive, as they should.)

Can a grocery store carry my cookies?

Not from you directly — but since 2025, a registered “cottage food vendor” can buy them from you at wholesale and sell them at farmers’ markets, farm stands, or any retail store. Shelf-stable foods only.

Can I sell ice cream or popsicles from home in Texas?

No — frozen treats are excluded as “ice products,” even dairy ones like ice cream, frozen custard, and gelato.

Can I sell pickles and salsa in Texas?

Pickled vegetables, fermented goods, and acidified canned goods like salsa: yes, with the recipe-or-pH-testing rule and a batch number on the label. Pickled cucumbers are exempt from the testing rule entirely. Fresh salsa needs refrigeration, which makes it a TCS food — that works too, with the DSHS registration. Low-acid canned goods are the one hard no.

Is there a limit on how much I can earn selling cottage food in Texas?

$150,000 a year in gross cottage food sales — and the law indexes the cap to inflation annually, so it will rise over time.

Do I charge sales tax on homemade food in Texas?

Texas doesn’t tax most plain baked goods sold to go — bread, cakes, cookies, and pies sold without utensils or heating are generally not taxable. Candy and soft drinks are taxable. The Comptroller hasn’t published cottage-specific guidance, so if you sell candy, drinks, or anything beyond plain baked goods, confirm with the Comptroller before your first market day.

Cottage food laws · Texas

Yes, you can sell what you bake in Texas.

Texas rewrote its cottage food law in September 2025, and it’s now one of the most generous in the country: no permit, no license, no inspection, no state fee — and your city isn’t allowed to ask for one either. Up to $150,000 a year, anywhere in Texas, and refrigerated treats are finally legal. Here’s the whole picture, in plain English.

Verified against Texas Health & Safety Code ch. 437 (as rewritten by SB 541) and DSHS’s program pages

Last checked June 11, 2026 — every section links its sources.

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. (Heads up: most guides you’ll find online still describe the pre-2025 law.)

Selling to neighbors?

Take a two-hour online food safety course, put the required label on what you make, and sell almost anything direct — your porch, a market, their doorstep, anywhere in Texas. No registration, no application, and your city can’t require one.

$0 to the stateNo permit or licenseNo inspection$150k a year

Cheesecake? Store shelves?

A quick online DSHS registration (no fee appears in the law or DSHS’s steps) unlocks refrigerated foods and lets you print a number instead of your home address. Store shelves run through a registered “cottage food vendor” — new in 2025.

No fee in the lawRefrigerated foods OKAddress off the labelShelves via a “vendor”

Kids’ stands?

Texas wrote the lemonade stand into law in 2019 — cities, counties, health authorities, and even HOAs can’t require a thing for an occasional kids’ drink stand. Bake sales ride the cottage path: no minimum age, no permit, no fee.

Lemonade written into lawNo city permitsHOAs can’t say no

Sound doable? Show me the steps ↓Meet the Texas porch bakers already doing it

Three ways to sell — pick your path

In shortPath A is a two-hour course and a label — no paperwork, no fee. Add a quick DSHS registration for refrigerated foods or address privacy. Store shelves run through a registered “cottage food vendor.”

Since September 1, 2025, Texas has one main path with two optional add-ons. Knowing which fits you is 80% of “is this legal?”

Path A · most porch shops start and stay hereNo paperwork at all

Cottage food operation

Make food in your own home kitchen, sell it directly to the people who’ll enjoy it, and stay under $150,000 a year — you don’t register with anyone, you don’t apply for anything, and nobody inspects your kitchen. The one requirement: an accredited basic food safety course, capped by law at two hours, online is fine. Label your food and you’re selling.

Pick this path if: you’re selling shelf-stable goods — breads, cookies, cakes, jams, candies — from your porch or a market table.

Path B · refrigerated foods or address privacyOnline · no fee in the law

Add the DSHS registration

A quick online registration with the Texas Department of State Health Services unlocks two things: refrigerated (“TCS”) foods — cheesecake, cream pies, fresh salsa — became legal in 2025 for registered operations that keep them cold (DSHS says 41°F or below) and add two label elements.

And registered shops may print their DSHS identification number on labels instead of their home address — a real privacy win.

Pick this path if: you sell anything refrigerated, or you’d rather not print your home address on every label.

Path C · the store-shelf routeNew in 2025

Through a “cottage food vendor”

A registered third party — the law names them “cottage food vendors” — can buy your shelf-stable cottage foods at wholesale and sell them at farmers’ markets, farm stands, food service establishments, or any retail store. It’s the first legal route for Texas cottage foods onto a store shelf. Refrigerated foods can’t travel this path, and selling straight to a store yourself is still not allowed — the “cottage food vendor” is the bridge.

Pick this path if: you want your goods sold in shops without leaving your kitchen — or you want to sell a neighbor’s cottage foods yourself.

(There’s a fourth, narrower route — beekeepers selling their own raw, pure honey and honeycomb have their own exemption, including a 2025 rule that extracting and bottling your own honey needs no manufacturing license.)

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.001 · §437.0194 · §437.01953 · §437.01965 · DSHS cottage food program

Where you can sell

In shortAnywhere in Texas, direct to the person buying — Texas struck its venue list back in 2019. Online orders work; shipping never does. Store shelves go through a “cottage food vendor.” Nothing crosses the state line.

Anywhere in Texas, direct to the person buying. There is no approved-locations list anymore — Texas struck it in 2019. Your porch, a farmers’ market, a fair, a roadside table, their doorstep: the law only asks that you sell direct and hand the food over at the point of sale or wherever the person buying designates.

Online orders work — shipping doesn’t. You can take orders from your shop’s website with two conditions: the food must be personally delivered — by you, an employee, or someone in your household — and before you accept payment, your website must show all the required label information. (Your home address or DSHS number can wait until after payment, but it must still appear on the label as normal.) No USPS, UPS, or any carrier — ever. “Mail order” left the statute in 2025.

Texas only. The “cottage food vendor” definition ends at the state line, and online sales are authorized only in this state with personal delivery. Crossing the line puts you in federal (FDA) territory.

Samples, anywhere — following the law’s sanitary standards: clean handling, gloves or handwashing, and keeping perishable samples cold (market sampling itself can be checked on-site). Donations: shelf-stable cottage foods can be donated — a charity bake sale is fine. Refrigerated foods can’t be.

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.001 · §437.0194 · 2019 SB 572 (struck the venue list) · §437.020 (samples)

What you can sell

In shortAlmost everything — the 2025 rewrite flipped the law from a non-perishables-only whitelist to six exclusions. Refrigerated foods are in (with the registration); meat, seafood, frozen treats, low-acid cans, CBD/THC, and raw milk are out.

Yes — almost everything

Breads & sourdough
Cakes & cookies
Pies (fruit kolaches too)
Jams & jellies
Candies & granola
Roasted coffee & dried herbs
Tortillas & meatless tamales
Cheesecake & cream pies*
Fresh salsa*
Pickled & fermented goods†

*Refrigerated (TCS) foods — new in 2025 — need the DSHS registration and cold storage. †Pickled fruits or vegetables, fermented vegetable products, and plant-based acidified canned goods have a recipe rule: use a recipe from a DSHS-approved source (the USDA home-canning guide, UGA’s So Easy to Preserve, or an approved Ball book), or one lab-confirmed or approved by a process authority — or pH-test every batch yourself with a calibrated meter (4.6 or less). Each batch gets a unique number on the label, and you keep records for 12 months. Pickled cucumbers are exempt from all of that.

The six exclusions — off the table on every path

Meat & poultry products
Seafood
Ice & frozen treats (incl. ice cream, popsicles, gelato)
Low-acid canned goods
Anything with CBD or THC
Raw milk & raw milk products

Yes, ice cream is excluded even though it’s dairy — the law files it under “ice products.” And beekeepers have their own separate exemption: raw, pure honey and honeycomb, with their own labeling rules, and since 2025 extracting and bottling your own honey is officially harvesting a raw agricultural commodity — no manufacturing license needed.

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.001(2-b) · §437.01951 (pickled/fermented) · §437.01991 (honey)

The rules that actually matter

In shortA $150k cap that rises with inflation, Texas-only hand delivery, your own home kitchen, six excluded foods — and a flat ban on your city adding anything on top.

$150,000 a year, and risingGross sales from your cottage foods. The law directs DSHS to adjust the cap annually for inflation; no adjusted figure has been published yet, so $150,000 is the operative number.
Texas only, hand-delivered onlyNo shipping, no out-of-state sales — personal delivery by you, an employee, or someone in your household.
Your home means your homeA primary residence with an ordinary residential kitchen. No commercial kitchens, no second properties. Refrigerated foods add conditions: DSHS registration, cold storage and delivery, two extra label elements.
Local governments can’t add limitsYour city or county may not regulate your production or require any license, permit, or fee — for making, selling, or sampling. The 2025 law added teeth: a local government can’t even keep employing an official who knowingly demands a license or permit. (What survives: genuine emergencies — DSHS and local health authorities keep their emergency-order and recall powers.)

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.001 · §437.0191 · §437.0192

Getting set up

In shortPath A is a two-hour course and your labels — no application exists. Path B is a quick online DSHS registration. Path C needs an agreement with the shop you’ll sell for.

Path A — cottage food operation

Take an accredited basic food safety courseThe law caps it at two hours, allergen awareness included, and online is fine. Pick any program on DSHS’s accredited lists — prices are set by the training providers, not the state, and many online options are modest. The certificate is good for two years unless yours shows a different expiration date. Only the person operating the shop needs it — household members can help with no card, and anyone else helping needs the course or your direct supervision.
Make your labelsCopy the samples in the next section.
Pickled or fermented goods?Line up your approved recipe or pH testing and start your batch log before you sell.

That’s it. There is no application for this path — the exemption is automatic when you follow its rules.

Path B — the DSHS registration

Register online through the DSHS portalA separate account from any other DSHS license, your home address (no P.O. boxes), and a list of what you make.
Approval is automaticYour registration number appears in your account when you finish. If it doesn’t appear within a few minutes, log out and back in to be sure — if it’s still missing, the application was incomplete and is not approved: withdraw it and reapply (a complete address with county is the usual culprit). No fee appears in the law or anywhere in DSHS’s step-by-step walkthrough — if anyone asks you for money to register, check with DSHS before paying.
Selling refrigerated foods? Keep them coldStore and deliver at 41°F or below (DSHS’s number), and add the two TCS label elements.

Path C — “cottage food vendor”

Put an agreement in placeWith the cottage food operation you’ll sell for — the law requires a contractual relationship (get it in writing anyway).
Buying their goods at wholesale? Register with DSHS first.
Display the required sign wherever you sellAnd make sure every label carries the date the food was made.

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.0195 · §437.01965 · ch. 438 (food safety course) · DSHS registration guide (PDF) · DSHS accredited course lists · DSHS food handler FAQ

Labels

In shortFour things on every label — including a new all-caps disclosure most older guides (and Texas’s own administrative rule) still get wrong. Refrigerated foods add a date and a safe-handling statement.

Every cottage food label — four things

The name and address of your operation — or your DSHS registration number instead of the address, if you registered
The exact statement: “THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION.”
The common or usual name of the product, written legibly
A declaration of the major food allergens (the federal “big 9”): eggs, milk, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish

Bluebonnet Lane Sourdough — Country Loaf
Bluebonnet Lane Bakery, 123 Bluebonnet Ln, Waco, TX 76701
THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION.
Contains: wheat.

Texas cottage food label — the whole requirement.

Refrigerated (TCS) foods — add two things

The date the food was made, on the label
This exact statement, on the label or an invoice/receipt at sale, in at least 12-point font: “SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption.”

Hill Country Cheesecake
DSHS Reg. No. 123456 · Made June 11, 2026
SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption.
Contains: milk, eggs, wheat.

TCS additions — date made + safe handling.

Packaging just has to prevent contamination — and something too large or bulky to package (a wedding cake, say) can go unpackaged, with the label information on an invoice or receipt instead. Pickled, fermented, or acidified goods add a unique batch number. Selling as a “cottage food vendor” adds two duties: display a prominent sign with the same all-caps statement, and make sure every label carries the date made.

One caution: older guides — and, as of this writing, Texas’s own administrative rule — still show the previous disclosure wording (“made in a home kitchen and is not inspected…”). The statute replaced it in 2025; use the all-caps wording above.

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code §437.0193 · SB 541 (2025, enrolled) · DSHS label guidance

Kid stands — Texas wrote the lemonade stand into law

Two protections since 2019: no city, county, or local health authority may prohibit or regulate — including by requiring a license, permit, or fee — the occasional sale of lemonade or other nonalcoholic drinks from a stand on private property or in a public park by anyone under 18. And property owners’ associations can’t enforce a rule against the same stands on subdivision property used with the owner’s permission — the law even shields the HOA from liability for those sales (except for wilful or wanton acts or gross negligence of the association), so they have no excuse to say no.

Honest boundaries: the lemonade law covers drinks only, sold occasionally, by kids under 18. Cookies and brownies aren’t drinks — but they don’t need to be: the cottage food path has no minimum age, no permit, and no fee. A kid running a bake stand needs the same two-hour food safety course as any operator, and family in the household can help bake with no card at all. Either way, there’s no city hall visit in your kid’s future.

Sources: Tex. Local Gov’t Code §250.009 · Tex. Property Code §202.020 · Health & Safety Code §437.0192

What changed recently

In shortSeptember 2025’s SB 541 was the biggest rewrite since the law began: the cap tripled, refrigerated foods became legal, store shelves opened, and home addresses can come off labels. Most guides online haven’t caught up.

The cap tripled$50,000 → $150,000 a year, now adjusted annually for inflation.
The allowed list flippedFrom a whitelist (19 named foods plus a catch-all for any other non-perishable food) to everything except six excluded categories — and refrigerated foods joined the list for the first time, with a DSHS registration and cold handling.
Store shelves openedVia the new registered “cottage food vendor” wholesale path (non-refrigerated foods only). Registered shops may also print a DSHS number instead of their home address, the disclosure wording changed to the all-caps statement, nonprofits can now run cottage operations, and sampling + donations were spelled out.
Local preemption got teethA local government may not employ an official who knowingly demands a license or permit from a cottage food operation.
And two neighbors of the lawHB 519 (also September 2025): extracting and bottling your own honey is harvesting a raw agricultural commodity — no manufacturing license. HB 2844 (coming July 1, 2026): a “small-scale food business” — the law’s term for one established by a farmer or food producer with under $1.5 million in annual gross revenue — that already holds its state permit can’t be made to buy duplicate local permits or pay local permitting fees. If your porch shop ever outgrows cottage status, the next rung just got cheaper.

The longer arc: Texas created the cottage food law in 2011, expanded it in 2013, struck the venue list and legalized online orders and pickled goods in 2019, and tripled it in 2025. Each session, the porch has gotten a little wider.

Sources: SB 541 (2025, enrolled) · 2019 SB 572 · DSHS SB 541 summary

Common questions

Can I sell cheesecake from home in Texas?: Yes — since September 1, 2025. Cheesecake is a refrigerated (TCS) food, so register with DSHS (the law and DSHS’s registration steps show no fee), keep it at 41°F or below through delivery, and add the date-made and safe-handling statement to your label.
Can I sell my sourdough in Texas?: Yes — bread is a baked good with no special conditions. Take the two-hour food safety course, label it, sell it.
Do I need a permit from my city to sell homemade food in Texas?: No — and your city isn’t allowed to ask. Local governments may not require any license, permit, or fee to make, sell, or sample cottage food, and the 2025 law bars them from employing officials who knowingly demand a license or permit.
Will anyone inspect my kitchen?: No — health departments have no authority to inspect a cottage food operation. (Emergency powers for genuine health threats survive, as they should.)
Can I ship my cookies?: No. Online orders are fine, but the food must be personally delivered by you, an employee, or someone in your household — no USPS, UPS, or couriers, and never across state lines.
Can a grocery store carry my cookies?: Not from you directly — but since 2025, a registered “cottage food vendor” can buy them from you at wholesale and sell them at farmers’ markets, farm stands, or any retail store. Shelf-stable foods only.
Can I sell ice cream or popsicles from home in Texas?: No — frozen treats are excluded as “ice products,” even dairy ones like ice cream, frozen custard, and gelato.
Can I sell pickles and salsa in Texas?: Pickled vegetables, fermented goods, and acidified canned goods like salsa: yes, with the recipe-or-pH-testing rule and a batch number on the label. Pickled cucumbers are exempt from the testing rule entirely. Fresh salsa needs refrigeration, which makes it a TCS food — that works too, with the DSHS registration. Low-acid canned goods are the one hard no.
Is there a limit on how much I can earn selling cottage food in Texas?: $150,000 a year in gross cottage food sales — and the law indexes the cap to inflation annually, so it will rise over time.
Do I charge sales tax on homemade food in Texas?: Texas doesn’t tax most plain baked goods sold to go — bread, cakes, cookies, and pies sold without utensils or heating are generally not taxable. Candy and soft drinks are taxable. The Comptroller hasn’t published cottage-specific guidance, so if you sell candy, drinks, or anything beyond plain baked goods, confirm with the Comptroller before your first market day.

Sources: Tex. Health & Safety Code ch. 437 · Comptroller Pub. 96-280 (sales tax)

You won’t be doing this alone

290 porch bakers are already selling across Texas 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.

See all 290 in the directory →List your porch shop — always free to list

This page is educational, not legal advice. It summarizes Texas state law and cites the official sources so you can read them yourself. Texas’s administrative rule hasn’t caught up to the 2025 statute yet — where they disagree, the statute controls, and this page follows the statute. When something here and the law disagree, the law wins; if you spot that happening, tell us and we’ll fix it.