Georgia lets residents make non-potentially-hazardous foods in their home kitchen and sell them directly to consumers. A cottage food operator produces only in their primary residence's kitchen for direct sale. Note: Clayton County zoning bars on-site retail sales from the home itself.
Georgia's Cottage Food Regulations (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-7-19) define a cottage food operator as a person who produces cottage food products only in the home kitchen of that person's primary domestic residence and only for sale directly to the consumer. Permitted items are non-potentially-hazardous foods (baked goods, jams, candies, dried mixes). Operators must complete accredited food-safety training and label products; recent state changes removed the state registration/license fee. Separately, Clayton County's home-occupation zoning (Sec. 6.10) prohibits on-site retail sales out of the house, so cottage foods should be sold at markets, events, or online rather than over the counter at home.
Selling potentially hazardous foods, mislabeling, or making on-site home retail sales violates state cottage-food rules or county zoning, exposing the operator to Department of Agriculture action or county code-enforcement citations.
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See how Clayton County's cottage food operations rules stack up against other locations.
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