New Mexico's Homemade Food Act lets Las Cruces residents make and sell low-risk foods like baked goods, jams, and candy directly to consumers with no state permit, no inspection, and no annual sales cap. Selling from home still requires a city home occupation business registration under the zoning code.
Cottage food is governed by state law, not a special Las Cruces ordinance. The Homemade Food Act (NMSA 1978, §§ 25-12-1 to 25-12-5, enacted 2021) lets producers prepare non-potentially-hazardous foods, such as breads, cookies, jams, jellies, dried herbs, and certain candies, in a home kitchen and sell them direct-to-consumer without a food-establishment permit, inspection, or registration, and with no cap on annual sales. Foods must be properly labeled as home-produced. Potentially hazardous items requiring refrigeration remain outside the exemption. At the city level, running this from your residence is a home occupation, so a home occupation business registration under Land Development Code Section 38-52 is required, and the general limits on size, signage, and traffic apply.
Making cottage foods themselves needs no permit under state law. But selling from home without the required home occupation business registration, or producing hazardous foods outside the Homemade Food Act, can draw code enforcement or a state health action.
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See how Las Cruces's cottage food operations rules stack up against other locations.
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