Hawaii Homemade Food Products Exemption Under the 2025 Food Code

What counts as a homemade food product is defined in HAR section 11-50-2, and the 2025 amendments replaced the older potentially hazardous food language with the federal term. Category one is food that is not time/temperature control for safety food, produced or packaged in a home kitchen, excluding dried meats or seafood. Category two is foods of plant origin that are pickled, fermented or acidified, produced or packaged in a home kitchen, with a pH equal to or less than 4.2 or a water activity value less than 0.88, excluding cantaloupes and other melons; a homemade food product containing cut tomatoes, such as salsa, must be kept refrigerated at or below forty-one degrees Fahrenheit. A home kitchen is defined as a kitchen designed and intended for use by the residents of a home.

The exemption is not total. Section 11-50-3(c) keeps the operator subject to inspection under section 11-50-8, to the embargo and detention power in section 11-50-10, to the foodborne disease transmission provisions in section 11-50-11, and to the penalties in section 11-50-14. It then attaches five conditions, and the rule says in terms that violating any of them is itself a violation of the chapter. The operator must obtain food safety certification under section 11-50-20(c), which requires the person in charge to complete a food safety course that is part of a Department food safety program or another program the Department approves. A handwashing sink with appropriate cleaning compound must be available at all times during food preparation and used to maintain cleanliness under section 11-50-22(b) and (c). All food must be labeled under section 11-50-35(c).

The label is prescriptive. Section 11-50-35(c)(4) requires a homemade food product to carry a statement reading Made in a home kitchen not routinely inspected by the Department of Health, the common name of the food or an adequately descriptive identity statement if there is none, a list of ingredients and subingredients in descending order of predominance by weight where the food is made from two or more ingredients, notification of the presence of major food allergens, and the name and contact information of the homemade food product producer.

Distribution is the other controlled element. Section 11-50-3(c)(4) allows a homemade food product to move directly to the consumer, in person or remotely including by telephone or the internet, or through an agent of the homemade food operator or a third-party vendor such as a food establishment, and to be delivered by the operator, an agent, a third-party vendor, by mail, or by shipping. Mail order and shipping are therefore expressly permitted, which is unusual and reflects the practical reality of selling across islands. Hand-pounded poi is treated separately in the same subsection: it may be distributed only directly to the consumer, matching the statutory exemption in HRS section 321-4.7, which frees a hand-pounded poi producer from the certified food-processing establishment and permit requirements if the producer sells directly to consumers, prepares adjacent to permanent or temporary handwashing facilities, and complies with the Department's rules.

The baseline is permit-driven. HAR section 11-50-3(a) says no person may operate a food establishment without a valid permit issued by the director, valid for one year, so a home producer who steps outside the homemade food product definition, for example by making dried meat, a low-acid canned good, or anything that is time/temperature control for safety food, is operating unpermitted. Section 11-50-14 subjects any person who violates the chapter or an order of the director to a fine as provided in HRS section 321-20, and states that each and every violation is a separate offense.

Section 321-20 lets the director serve a notice of violation and an order imposing an administrative penalty of up to $1,000 for each day of violation, requiring the violation to be corrected at the violator's expense, or ordering the person to appear. The order becomes final twenty days after service unless the alleged violator requests a hearing in writing within those twenty days, and where the director orders immediate action against an imminent and substantial danger the department must offer a hearing within twenty-four hours.

The director may also sue for injunctive relief. Separately, HRS section 321-18 makes violating any rule of the department a misdemeanor except where another penalty is provided. 5.