Texas Cottage Food Law: What You Can Sell, How to Register, and What the Rules Require (2026 Guide)

Texas already had a wide-open cottage food law, and on September 1, 2025 it got much wider. A home producer can now make and sell almost any food that is not on a short excluded list, gross up to $150,000 a year, sell refrigerated items after registering with the state, and move non-refrigerated products through a registered "cottage food vendor" at a retail store. There is still no permit or fee, and no routine inspection. What you do have is a set of obligations in Health and Safety Code Chapter 437, and this guide walks through them with the statute open.

Who the law covers, and the short version

Chapter 437 defines a "cottage food production operation" as an individual working out of their own home, or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working from the home of one of its directors or officers, who produces food outside the excluded categories, sells it directly to consumers or to a cottage food vendor, and delivers it at the point of sale or wherever the buyer designates. Meet that definition and you are, in the statute's words, "not a food service establishment."

The price of that freedom is a short list of duties: complete a food handler course, package and label everything a specific way, stay under the income cap, and, for a few product types, register with DSHS and keep records. Cities and counties cannot add to that list. The business side is covered in our guide on how to start a cottage food business.

What changed on September 1, 2025

Senate Bill 541, signed May 30, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025, is the biggest rewrite since the law was created in 2011.

Earlier updates still apply. The 2011 law covered three things: baked goods, canned jams and jellies, and dried herbs. House Bill 970 (2013) grew that to roughly twenty categories, pickles among them, and added the food handler requirement. Senate Bill 572 (2019) added fermented vegetable products, plant-based acidified canned goods, frozen raw produce, the catch-all for other non-TCS foods, the batch-record rules for pickled and acidified goods, and internet orders with personal delivery.

What can you sell?

The 2025 law flipped the approach from an allowed list to an excluded list. Under Sec. 437.001(2-b), a cottage food operation may produce any food other than:

• meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products;
• seafood, including fish and shellfish and their products;
• ice or ice products, including shaved ice, ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, and gelato;
• low-acid canned goods;
• products containing cannabidiol (CBD) or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); and
• raw milk and raw milk products.

Everything the old list named (baked goods, candy, jams, pies, dried produce, popcorn, dry mixes, vinegar, coffee, herbs) is still fine. What actually changed is narrower than it sounds. Since 2019 the old list ended with a catch-all for "any other food that is not a time and temperature control for safety food," so shelf-stable items it never named (flour tortillas, crackers) were already legal. The real expansion is refrigerated food. Cheesecakes, cream pies, and anything else that needs a fridge went from prohibited to allowed with registration, under the TCS rules below. Acid-preserved foods still fall under the pH rules. For how states in general draw these lines, see what counts as cottage food.

Refrigerated foods (TCS)

A "time and temperature control for safety food" needs refrigeration or hot-holding to keep bacteria in check; the statute's own examples include cream or custard pies and cakes, dairy products, and raw seed sprouts. Sec. 437.01953 lets you sell TCS foods to consumers if you register with DSHS, store and deliver the food at the air temperature needed to prevent bacterial growth, and label it with the date made and a safe-handling statement. DSHS gives the working temperatures as 41°F or below for cold foods and 135°F or above for hot foods. TCS foods cannot be wholesaled to a vendor or donated.

Pickles, ferments, and acidified foods

Sec. 437.01951, added in 2019, still applies. For pickled fruit or vegetables, fermented vegetables, or plant-based acidified canned goods, you must use a recipe that DSHS has approved, a certified lab has tested, or a qualified process authority has signed off on, or else test each batch with a calibrated pH meter. Either way the finished product must reach an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or less. Label each batch with a unique number and keep records (batch number, recipe, testing or source documentation, and preparation date) for at least 12 months. Pickled cucumbers are exempt. DSHS lists the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (2015 revision), the University of Georgia's So Easy to Preserve (6th edition), and specific recent editions of the Ball preserving guides as approved recipe sources. A recipe from anywhere else goes through its Request for Official Determination form first.

Where and how can you sell?

Direct to consumers, anywhere in Texas

The statute's only limit on where you sell is that the sale be direct to a consumer, or to a cottage food vendor. Your front porch, a farmers market, a festival, and a customer's office all qualify. Sec. 437.01955 also lets you hand out samples "at any location in this state" under the sanitary standards in Sec. 437.020(c), and lets you donate non-refrigerated food to bake sales and similar events.

DSHS's farmers market page confirms cottage foods can be sold at markets, and that at markets under DSHS jurisdiction no temporary food establishment permit is needed for prepackaged foods that do not require refrigeration. A market in a city or county that runs its own health jurisdiction can read that differently, so ask the market manager who inspects the site. Samples need potable water on hand; cut produce and other potentially hazardous foods stay at 41°F or below and are discarded within two hours of cutting or preparation. Market operators set their own vendor rules; our farmers market vendor guide covers that process.

Online orders, delivery, and shipping

Sec. 437.0194(b) allows internet sales on two conditions: the operator, an employee, or a household member "personally delivers the food to the consumer," and the required label information is posted on your website before you take payment. Your address (or DSHS ID number) can wait for the label after payment. That is the only online pathway in the statute. Mail order was struck from the section in 2025, and nothing in Chapter 437 authorizes shipping by post, parcel carrier, or a third-party courier or delivery app. An online pickup order that you hand over yourself, the model our sister marketplace Local Cottage Foods runs on, sits inside this rule as long as the label information is posted before checkout.

Wholesale through a cottage food vendor

New in 2025: a "cottage food vendor" is a person in Texas who has a contract with your operation and sells your non-TCS products (nothing that needs refrigeration) directly to consumers on your behalf at a farmers market, a farm stand, a food service establishment, or any retail store. Every such vendor must post a sign carrying the state disclosure in a prominent place near where the food is offered for sale, and your label must carry the date the food was made. A vendor who buys from you at wholesale also has to register with DSHS. Any other wholesale, and any wholesale of TCS foods, remains prohibited. An operation that wholesales this way is exempt from DSHS manufacturer licensing under Chapter 431 (Sec. 437.0191(c)).

Do you need a permit, a registration, or a course?

Permits and fees: none

Sec. 437.0192 says a local government authority, including a local health department, may not regulate production at a cottage food operation and may not require "any type of license or permit" or "any fee" to produce, sell directly, or sample cottage food. The 2025 amendment added teeth: a local authority may not employ a person who knowingly demands a permit in violation of the section. DSHS issues no cottage food permit either.

Food handler training: required

Under Sec. 437.0195, the individual who operates the business must have completed a basic food safety course for food handlers accredited under Chapter 438, Subchapter D. Anyone else who prepares or packages your food must have the same training, work under your direct supervision, or be a member of your household. DSHS notes that a food manager certification also satisfies the requirement. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's DSHS-accredited online food handler course costs $15, takes under two hours, and issues a card valid for two years. Its separate "Cooking Up a Cottage Food Business" course ($10, about an hour) describes itself as covering the current Texas law; it is not a handler card.

DSHS registration: only in three situations

Most Texas cottage producers never register with anyone. You register on the DSHS Online Licensing Registry only if you sell TCS foods, want a DSHS-issued unique identification number on your labels instead of your home address, or act as a cottage food vendor buying at wholesale.

DSHS's registration guide walks through the screens: create an account on the licensing portal, choose "Retail Food Program" and then "New Cottage Food Registration," enter a street address, list the products you make (the guide's own example is "Cookies, TCS Cheesecake, Frozen Cut Veggies, Flour Tortillas"), tick the attributes that apply (CFVD for vendor, NPAR for the ID number in place of a physical address, TCSP for TCS producer), and sign an attestation. Applications sit at "Open" until DSHS approves them, and the number then shows up as a "Cottage Food Registry" license in your account. Neither the guide nor the DSHS page lists a fee for it.

What has to be on the label?

Sec. 437.0193 requires that every food be packaged to prevent contamination (unless it is too large or bulky to package) and labeled. DSHS's page lists what the label must contain:

• the name of the cottage food operation;
• its address, or the DSHS unique identification number if you registered for one;
• the common or usual name of the product;
• the major food allergens it contains (DSHS gives eggs, tree nuts, soy, peanuts, milk, wheat, and sesame as examples, and the older administrative rule also names fish and shellfish, so treat the full federal list of nine as the safe default);
• for pickled, fermented, or acidified foods, the batch number; and
• this disclosure, verbatim: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION." (Health and Safety Code Sec. 437.0193(b))

TCS foods add two items: the date the food was made, and, in at least 12-point type on the label or on an invoice or receipt handed over with the food, "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption." Food sold through a cottage food vendor must also carry the date made.

The disclosure wording changed in 2025, so labels printed with the old "not inspected" statement no longer match the statute, even though 25 TAC 229.661, the DSHS rule last amended in 2022, still shows the old wording. Follow the statute and the DSHS page. For food too large or bulky to package (a tiered cake, a bulk tray), DSHS says the label information goes on the invoice or receipt. For layout and a printable checklist, see our cottage food labeling guide.

Is there a sales limit?

Yes: $150,000 or less in annual gross income from cottage food sales, per Sec. 437.001(2-b)(B). The statute directs DSHS to adjust that figure annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. As of our review date, DSHS's page states the cap as $150,000 and we found no published adjusted figure, so use $150,000 and check DSHS each year. The cap is gross sales, not profit, and it applies to the whole operation. How other states count that number varies a lot, which we cover in cottage food sales limits explained.

Inspections, complaints, and enforcement

There are no routine inspections, and local health departments may not regulate production. The law keeps a safety valve: Sec. 437.0191(b) preserves the power of DSHS and local health authorities to issue emergency orders and recall orders against an immediate and serious threat to human life or health, and Sec. 437.0192(b) requires every local health department and DSHS to keep a record of each complaint filed against a cottage food operation. Good process records and a steady routine, like the one in our food safety fundamentals guide, are your defense.

City, county, HOA, and market rules

State law preempts local food-safety regulation of cottage food, and after 2025 it also preempts local permits and fees for direct sales and sampling. It says nothing about zoning, home-occupation ordinances, deed restrictions, or homeowners association covenants, and we found no DSHS guidance on those. A city could still have a general rule about signage or customer traffic at a residence, so ask your city planning office before advertising pickup at your door, and read your HOA documents. Farmers markets, festivals, and retail stores are private operators and can require liability insurance, a booth fee, or a copy of your food handler card. Those are contracts, not regulations.

Caveats and things still in motion

• The rule lags the statute. 25 TAC 229.661 was last amended effective October 9, 2022 and still reflects the $50,000 cap, the old food list, and the old label statement. DSHS's page says it "will adopt rules to include implementation of the new requirements." Until then, the statute and DSHS's web guidance control.
• The inflation adjustment has not been published. Watch DSHS's page for an updated cap.
• Extension materials predate the change. Texas A&M AgriLife's 2022 "Selling Foods Made at Home" factsheet describes the old law; its "Cooking Up a Cottage Food Business" course says it covers the current law.
• Sales tax and business filings are separate. Nothing in Chapter 437 exempts you from Texas Comptroller sales tax rules or from filing an assumed name.

Where to get official help

• DSHS Retail Food Program: foodestablishments@dshs.texas.gov or 512-834-6753. The cottage food page links the registration portal and guide, a Request for Official Determination form for recipe questions, and lists of accredited laboratories and process authorities for recipe testing.
• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: the accredited food handler course and the cottage food business course.
• Texas Legislature Online: the enrolled SB 541 text and Chapter 437.

Before your first sale, the short list: take the $15 handler course, print labels with the new disclosure wording, and register on the DSHS portal first if anything you plan to sell needs a refrigerator. If you are comparing states, our state-by-state guides show how differently these laws read across a border.