DC Cottage Food: No Revenue Cap, Retail and Online Sales Allowed

Two instruments govern, and they no longer agree, so read them in the right order. The statute is Subchapter III of Chapter 7A of Title 7, D.C. Code §§ 7-742.01 to 7-742.03. The implementing rules are Subtitle K of Title 25 DCMR, adopted by Final Rulemaking published at 64 DCR 13555 on December 29, 2017. The statute has been amended four times since 2014, most recently on June 10, 2025. Every section of Subtitle K still carries its December 29, 2017 version. Where they conflict, the statute governs.

Under the current § 7-742.01(a)(2) a cottage food business is one that produces or packages cottage food products in a residential kitchen and holds a home occupancy permit issued under 11 DCMR § 203, which the statute still attributes to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Subparagraph (C), the annual revenue ceiling, is gone. The long title of D.C. Law 23-61 states its purpose in terms: to remove the annual revenue cap on cottage food businesses, to revise preoperational inspection requirements, and to allow all direct sales of cottage food products. Anyone still working from a $25,000 figure is working from law repealed more than six years ago.

The sales-channel question has moved twice. Section 7-742.01(3) originally defined a cottage food product by where it was sold, at a farmer's market or public event. D.C. Law 23-61 struck that phrase. D.C. Law 26-7, the Certificate of Need Improvement Amendment Act of 2025, then struck "through direct, retail, and online sales," and inserted "through direct, retail, wholesale to licensed food establishments, and online sales," so that a District cottage food operator may now supply a licensed restaurant or shop as a wholesaler. That amendment sits in section 3(b) of the act, and section 4(a) of the act subjects only sections 2 and 3(a) to inclusion of their fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan, so the cottage food change took effect with the act itself and is not one of the District's dormant subject-to-appropriations provisions. The geographic limit survives all of this: sales must be within the District of Columbia.

Here is the live conflict. Section 101.2 of Subtitle K still says cottage food products shall only be sold at farmers' markets and public events, and cites the pre-2020 version of § 7-742.01(3) by its 2016 supplement pagination. Section 105.1(k) still forbids selling approved products outside the District, which remains consistent with the statute's within-the-District wording. The venue restriction in § 101.2 does not survive the statutory amendment that expressly deleted it, and the 2017 rule is narrower than the law it implements.

Registration is still mandatory and still procedural. Section 7-742.02(b)(1) requires a cottage food business to register with the Cottage Food Business Registry before beginning operation. Section 7-742.02(b)(3), as rewritten in 2020, requires DC Health to issue a cottage food business identification number and certificate to each registered business, and provides that on receipt the business is authorised to produce, package and sell the food products on the approved list at 25-K DCMR § 103.5, and may not produce, package or sell products the Department does not allow or use processes the Department does not allow. Section 7-742.02(b)(2) now says the Department may perform an inspection before sales begin, where before D.C. Law 23-61 it said shall. Section 102.6 of Subtitle K still directs a pre-operational inspection within fourteen business days of approval, which is the other place the 2017 rules run ahead of the amended statute.

The application requirements in § 102.2 remain the practical checklist: the original home occupancy permit, proof of calibrated scales for anything sold by weight, proof of passing a nationally accredited Certified Food Protection Manager course, a District-issued Certified Food Protection Manager certificate valid three years from the exam date, a list of intended products, the packaging labels, and a fifty dollar registration fee for a certificate valid two years. Additional certificates are five dollars each under § 102.3, and § 102.5 gives DC Health thirty business days to approve or deny.

What you may make is a closed list. Section 103.5 approves eighteen groups including baked goods without cream, custard, cheese or meat fillings, unfilled baked donuts, waffle cones, pizzelles, roasted coffee, cakes including wedding cakes, cereals and granola, candies, pastries and cookies and tortillas, caramel corn and nuts and dried fruits, fruit pies and empanadas and tamales, jams and jellies and syrups, honey and honeycomb, dried pasta, dry herb and seasoning blends, dry tea blends, dry baking mixes, and vinegars. Honey requires proof of registration with the Department of Energy and Environment under the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Apiculture Act of 2012. Anything off the list needs pH and water activity confirmation from a state accredited laboratory under § 103.3. Section 105.1 bars canning, hermetic sealing in jars, reduced oxygen packaging, smoking or curing, juice pressing and pasteurizing, and § 106.1 lists twenty prohibited foods from jerkies and cream pies to garlic in oil, sugar-free preserves and pet treats.

DC Health enforces through the registry rather than a fine schedule. 02(d) lets the Department investigate any complaint, enter and inspect the premises at a reasonable time, and sample a product to determine whether it is misbranded or adulterated, and it makes refusing access or interfering with an inspection a breach in itself. 7 provides that missing that window may result in summary suspension of the Registry Identification Number. 10 allows a Summary Suspension Order after an inspection where there is a suspected foodborne outbreak or other public health emergency, unsanitary operation, or non-compliance with a Cease and Desist Order or Department Directive.

12 requires a notice of reinstatement. 13 is the hardest outcome: an owner who will not comply is removed from the Registry and must file an entirely new application. Two statutory limits sit alongside. 02(a)(2) makes clear that registration exempts nobody from District or federal tax law. 03(a) separately bars food prepared or stored in a private home from being used or offered for human consumption in a food establishment, except as provided in 25-A DCMR § 3806 or when prepared by a cottage food business.