Maryland cottage food: $50,000 cap, no licence, warning label

The $50,000 ceiling is a definition, not an operating rule, which is why it is easy to miss. Health-General § 21-301(b-1) defines a cottage food business as one that produces or packages cottage food products in a residential kitchen, sells them under § 21-330.1, and "Has annual revenues from the sale of cottage food products in an amount not exceeding $50,000." COMAR 10.15.03.02B(17-1)(b) repeats the same figure, so the statute and the regulation the Department adopted under it agree and there is no stale number to trip over. Cross the line and you are not a cottage food business at all, which means the § 21-330.1(b) licence exemption evaporates and you need a food service facility or food processing plant licence for the same kitchen.

What you may make is a closed list in COMAR 10.15.03.27B, and it is narrower than the phrase "non-potentially hazardous" suggests. It covers non-potentially hazardous baked goods, non-potentially hazardous candy, and hot-filled canned acid fruit jellies, jams, preserves and butters that are unadulterated, packaged to maintain food safety and integrity, and labelled under COMAR 10.15.03.12. Fruit butters are limited to apples, apricots, grapes, peaches, plums, prunes, quince, or another fruit or fruit mixture that will produce an acid canned food. Jams, preserves and jellies add oranges, nectarines, tangerines, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, cranberries, strawberries and red currants to that list. The last two items are not home production at all: food manufactured on a farm by a licensed food processor under COMAR 10.15.04.19, and all other non-potentially hazardous foods produced by a licensed entity.

The two official lists of selling venues are not identical, and you need both. COMAR 10.15.03.27A(2) allows sale at a retail food store subject to the pre-clearance in §C(6) and (7), or directly to a consumer at a farmer’s market, at a bake sale, at a public event, by personal delivery, or by mail order. The statutory definition at Health-General § 21-301(b-2)(1) instead lists sale directly to a consumer from a residence, at a farmer’s market, at a public event, by personal delivery or by mail delivery, and (b-2)(2) adds a retail food store including a grocery store or a food cooperative. So the residence doorstep sale appears in the statute and the bake sale appears in the regulation. Both instruments agree on the outer boundary: COMAR 10.15.03.27A(2) says offered or sold only in the State, § 21-330.1(c)(1) requires the product to be stored on the premises of the business, and COMAR 10.15.03.02B(17-2)(b) defines a cottage food product as one that is not offered for sale through interstate commerce. Shipping to an out-of-state customer takes you outside the scheme.

Labelling is the heart of the Maryland rule. Every package needs the business name and address, or the name, phone number and a Department-issued identification number in its place; the product name; the ingredients in descending order by weight; the net weight or net volume; allergen information to federal standards; and federal nutrition information if any nutritional claim is made. Then comes the sentence that has to appear in 10 point or larger type in a colour that contrasts clearly with the label background: "Made by a cottage food business that is not subject to Maryland’s food safety regulations." Products destined for a retail food store carry two more items, the phone number and e-mail address and the date the product was made, and COMAR 10.15.03.27C(8) and (9) put service levels on those: the phone number must let the Department reach the business within 24 hours and the e-mail address within 48 hours. The identification number is available on request under § 21-330.1(d), which is the practical answer for anyone who does not want a home address printed on a jar.

Selling to a shop is a separate, gated step. Before the first sale to a retail food store the owner must submit to the Department the label to be affixed and documentation of a food safety course completed in the past 3 years that is approved by both the Department and the American National Standards Institute and covers basic food safety, cleaning and sanitizing, personal hygiene, pest control and prevention, and receiving, storing, preparing and serving food. COMAR 10.15.03.27C(7) then forbids any sale or offer for sale to a retail food store until the Department notifies the owner in writing that those requirements are satisfactorily met. Direct sales to consumers require no course and no submission.

Two layers still sit above you. Health-General § 21-330.1(e) and COMAR 10.15.03.27C(3) require compliance with all applicable county and municipal laws and ordinances regulating the preparation, processing, storage and sale of cottage food products, and § 21-304(b) bars a political subdivision from setting a standard less stringent than the State regulations, so a county may tighten but not loosen. Zoning, well and septic rules and county home occupation permits are unaffected by the State licence exemption. Health-General § 21-330.1(a)(2) also states plainly that the section does not exempt a cottage food business from any applicable State or federal tax laws.

Maryland does not inspect cottage food kitchens on a schedule; enforcement is complaint-driven. 27C(4) adds an outbreak of illness as a second trigger and allows samples of the product or its ingredients. 1(f)(3). 27D(1) sends the Department to Health-General §§ 21-211, 21-253 and 21-254 for detention, destruction or an order making the food unusable, and D(2) gives the sharpest sanction available: the Department may determine that food produced in that private home kitchen may not be offered for sale as a cottage food at all.

The criminal exposure is unusually light, and deliberately so. 1 from the misdemeanor penalties in § 21-1214(a)(1), which otherwise reach $1,000 and 90 days for a first offence and $2,500 and a year for a second. 2(e)(3).