Mead Valley, CA Home Business: Cottage Food Operations (2026)

Ordinance 348, Section 18.53 establishes zoning standards for cottage food operations in the unincorporated County. Such operations are a permitted accessory use in all lawfully constructed and occupied one-family, multiple-family, factory-built, or manufactured dwelling units in any zone, but must remain incidental and secondary to the residential use. Standards include: the site must be the operator's principal residence; activities must be conducted entirely within the primary dwelling unit; no more than one full-time-equivalent cottage food employee may work on site at a time; no outside storage or outside activity is allowed; the residential character must not change; signage is limited to one unlighted two-square-foot sign on the dwelling or in a window; no more than two customers and one customer vehicle may be present at a time; and direct retail sales are limited to cottage food products prepared in the operation's kitchen. Operations may not be conducted in a second unit, guest quarter, accessory building, ADU, or junior ADU. Critically, Section 18.53 requires compliance with all permitting/licensing requirements of the County Department of Environmental Health and is subject to County Ordinance 916. The food-safety layer is set by California's Homemade Food Act (AB-1616, codified at HSC 113758 et seq.), which defines Class A (direct sales) and Class B (direct and indirect sales) cottage food operations with separate annual gross-sales caps and requires registration or a permit through the County's local enforcement agency (Environmental Health).