Indiana Home Kitchen Food Sales: No MEHKO Permit, Two License Free Routes Instead

The distinction that matters is between a permit and an exemption. States with a microenterprise home kitchen operation program issue a permit, cap annual meals and revenue, inspect the kitchen and allow cooking to order for pickup or delivery. Indiana issues nothing. It instead removes home producers from the food establishment regime altogether, which means the compliance burden sits in labeling, handling and sales channel rules rather than in an application.

The older route is IC 16-42-5.3, added by P.L.49-2022. IC 16-42-5.3-3 exempts a home based vendor's production and sale of food products from the requirements of Title 16 that apply to food establishments. IC 16-42-5.3-4 then confines the exemption: the product must be made, grown or raised by an individual at the individual's primary residence, including any permanent structure on the same property; it must not be a time temperature control for safety food; it must be prepared with proper hand washing, sanitized packaging, safe storage, a preparation or packaging area with no animals present, and cleaned and sanitized contact surfaces; it may not be resold; it may be sold in person, by telephone or over the internet; and it may be delivered in person, by mail or by a third party carrier. The time temperature control exclusion is what keeps this chapter a cottage food law: a hot meal, a cream filled pastry and a cut melon all fall outside it.

The labeling under that chapter is prescriptive. IC 16-42-5.3-5 requires a label on packaged food or a sign on unpackaged food carrying the producer's name and address, the common or usual name of the product, the ingredients in descending order by predominance by weight, the net weight or volume by standard measure or numerical count, the date the product was processed, and in at least 10 point type the sentence: This product is home produced and processed and the production area has not been inspected by the Indiana Department of Health. NOT FOR RESALE. The vendor must also post the label of each product on the vendor's website. IC 16-42-5.3-6 bars shipping or delivering to an end consumer outside Indiana, requires a sealed package that lets the consumer see whether it has been tampered with, and requires the vendor to keep every shipping or delivery address for at least one year and hand the records to the state department on request. IC 16-42-5.3-7 requires a food handler certificate from a certificate issuer accredited by the American National Standards Institute, a copy filed with the local health department in the county where the residence sits, and a copy given to the state department or to an end consumer on request.

The 2026 chapter changes the picture. IC 16-42-5.4, added by P.L.163-2026, defines a homestead vendor as a person who prepares and sells food products or meat products from property or at a farmers market and who receives not more than one million five hundred thousand dollars in gross sales from food or meat products in a single year, and defines property as land the vendor owns or leases that is the vendor's primary residence or agricultural property. A small farm is land used primarily for growing crops or raising livestock, from which the person prepares and sells food products, subject to the same $1,500,000 ceiling. IC 16-42-5.4-6 lets either sell directly to an end consumer, at the property or at a farmers market, meat products raised at the individual's property and slaughtered, processed and labeled in compliance with IC 15-17-5, along with prepared foods including baked goods, candy, produce, natural sweeteners and fruit spreads. There is no time temperature control exclusion in this chapter, and IC 16-42-5.4-9 assumes refrigerated product by requiring meat to be kept refrigerated in a manner consistent with best food handling practices and requiring handling, refrigeration, transport and storage that prevent contamination or adulteration.

The preemption in the 2026 chapter is unusually strong. IC 16-42-5.4-5(a) says the state department, a local unit of government as defined in IC 14-22-31.5-1, the corporation and a local health department may not impose any rules, regulations, certifications or licensing requirements on a homestead vendor or a small farm owner that are not required under federal law. Subsection (b) leaves them one power: investigating complaints about a foodborne illness derived from the vendor's food product. The older chapter carries its own version at IC 16-42-5.3-12, which bars a local unit from requiring licensure, certification or inspection of a home based vendor's foods by ordinance or resolution, and IC 16-42-5.3-13 makes local health officers food environmental health specialists subordinate to the state department who may not enforce the department's home based vendor rules more strictly than the department's own guidelines. A county health department that demands a permit for a home kitchen operation in Indiana is acting outside its authority.

Two practical limits close the gap between this and a true home restaurant. First, sales under IC 16-42-5.4-6 must run directly to an end consumer at the property or a farmers market, which does not authorize wholesale, resale, or supply to a retailer, and neither chapter says anything about seating, occupancy or serving customers on the premises. Second, shipping is conditional: IC 16-42-5.4-8 lets a homestead vendor ship or deliver in a sealed package only if the vendor holds an ANSI accredited food handler's certificate, forbids shipping without one, and bars delivery to an end consumer outside Indiana entirely. The chapter also does not define prepared foods, so the outer edge of what may be cooked to order is untested.

Labeling under the 2026 chapter differs from the 2022 one and both must be followed on their own terms. IC 16-42-5.4-7 requires the producer's name and address, ingredients in descending order by predominance by weight, a description of the product, a description of allergens that might have come in contact with it, and in at least 10 point type: This product was produced by a homestead vendor or the owner of a small farm that is exempt from government licensing and inspection. Note the allergen disclosure, which the 2022 chapter does not require, and the absence of a processing date, which the 2022 chapter does.

Neither exemption is a shield against adulteration and misbranding law. 3-8 a home based vendor becomes subject to food sampling and inspection once the state department determines the product is misbranded under IC 16-42-2-3 or adulterated, or once a consumer complaint reaches the department. If the department has reason to believe an imminent health hazard exists, it may order production and sale of the product to cease until it determines the hazard has been addressed. The state health commissioner and authorized representatives may take samples for analysis and conduct examinations and investigations, entering a home based vendor's facilities at reasonable times to inspect food products and all pertinent equipment, materials, containers and labeling.

5-3-8. IC 16-42-1-34 makes a reckless violation of that chapter a Class B misdemeanor, with each day a separate offense. 4-5(b) leaves the state department, local units and local health departments only the power to investigate complaints regarding a foodborne illness derived from the vendor's product.