Nevada Cottage Food: a $100,000 Cap, Registration Only, and No Internet Sales

The first thing to know is that the citation changed. Chapter 512, Statutes of Nevada 2025 repealed all of NRS chapter 446, and the food establishment law, including cottage food, was re-enacted as NRS chapter 580 in Title 51. Guidance and forms still circulating that cite NRS 446.866 are pointing at a repealed section. The operative provision is NRS 580.600, printed with the note that it is effective through June 30, 2027.

The cap is $100,000 in gross sales of food items per calendar year, set in NRS 580.600(7)(a). It is not a fixed number. Subsection 6 requires the State Department of Agriculture, beginning with Fiscal Year 2026-2027, to adjust the figure each fiscal year by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (All Items) from July 2025 to the July preceding that fiscal year, and to publish the adjusted amount on the Department's website on or before September 30 of each year. So the statutory $100,000 is the floor, and the number that actually binds you in a given year is whatever the Department has posted.

The product list is closed and it is all shelf-stable. NRS 580.600(7)(b) allows nuts and nut mixes, candies, jams, jellies and preserves, vinegar and flavored vinegar, dry herbs and seasoning mixes, dried fruits, cereals, trail mixes and granola, popcorn and popcorn balls, and baked goods that are not potentially hazardous foods, do not contain cream, uncooked egg, custard, meringue or cream cheese frosting or garnishes, and do not require time or temperature controls for food safety. Anything requiring refrigeration, and any cooked meal, is outside the exemption entirely.

The sales channel is the tightest part of the current Nevada rule. Paragraph (a) of subsection 1 requires each item to be sold on your own private property or at a place where you sell directly to a consumer, and it names farmers' markets licensed under chapter 244 or 268 of NRS, flea markets, swap meets, church bazaars, garage sales and craft fairs. It then requires the sale to be an in-person transaction that does not involve selling the food item by telephone or via the Internet. Paragraph (b) requires the sale to be to a natural person for that person's own consumption and not for resale, which rules out wholesaling to a shop or restaurant. Paragraph (e) requires prepackaging that protects the item from contamination during transport, display, sale and acquisition. Paragraph (f) requires the food to be prepared in the kitchen of your own private home, or, if the food safety authority allows it, in the kitchen of a fraternal or social clubhouse, a school, or a religious, charitable or other nonprofit organization.

Labeling has two layers. Paragraph (c) requires a label that complies with the federal requirements in 21 U.S.C. section 343(w), 9 C.F.R. Part 317 and 21 C.F.R. Part 101, which is where allergen declaration and ingredient listing come from. Paragraph (d) adds the Nevada disclosure that must be printed prominently on the label: MADE IN A COTTAGE FOOD OPERATION THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENT FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION.

Registration is with the food safety authority, which NRS 580.080 defines as the officers and agents of the State Department of Agriculture or the officers and agents of the local boards of health, so in Clark and Washoe counties the registration is handled locally while the rest of the state runs through the Department. Subsection 3 requires you to register before selling any food item and to give your name, address and contact information, plus the trade name if you sell under something other than your own name. Subsection 4 caps the registration fee at the actual cost to the authority of establishing and maintaining a registry of cottage food operations. Subsection 5 limits inspection sharply: the food safety authority may inspect a cottage food operation only to investigate a food item that may be adulterated under NRS 585.300 to 585.360, or an outbreak or suspected outbreak of illness believed to be caused by a contaminated food item. If that investigation shows you produced an adulterated item or were the source of an outbreak, the authority may charge you a fee up to its actual investigation cost.

One change is already on the books. NRS 580.600 is repealed effective July 1, 2027 by chapter 420, Statutes of Nevada 2025, and cottage food moves to NRS 585.700 to 585.770 in the Nevada Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Under that future scheme the same $100,000 CPI-adjusted cap applies, but you will need a license from the State Department of Agriculture rather than a registration with a local health authority, the Department will maintain a public registry of licensees, telephone and Internet sales become lawful and orders may be fulfilled in person, by mail or through a food delivery service platform, and the licence becomes subject to the child support suspension provisions in NRS 585.740 and 585.750. The product list shifts too: teas and dried vegetables are added and vinegar and flavored vinegar are dropped. None of that is in force yet.

Cottage food is not Nevada's only home exemption. A craft food operation under NRS 587.6945 covers acidified foods, meaning home canning, and runs on a separate registration through the Department that requires an approved food safety and acidified-food canning course, a passed examination, a pH meter meeting Department standards, approved canning recipes, and a five-year log of every batch under NRS 587.695 and NRS 587.696.

The exemption is self-executing and so is losing it. 600(1) only keeps you outside the definition of food establishment if every one of the conditions in paragraphs (a) through (f) is met for each food item. Cross the sales cap, take an order over the Internet, ship instead of handing the item over, sell to a shop for resale, or bake something with a cream cheese frosting, and that item was made and sold by an unpermitted food establishment. 990 makes a violation of the chapter a misdemeanor, with each day on which a violation occurs constituting a separate violation.

980, and the food safety authority can also seek an injunction. Failing to register before your first sale is itself a violation of subsection 3. Where an outbreak or adulteration investigation is opened, subsection 5 lets the authority bill you for its actual investigation cost. Local government has almost no role: subsection 2 forbids any local zoning board, planning commission, or governing body of an unincorporated town, incorporated city or county from adopting an ordinance or regulation that prohibits a person from preparing food in a cottage food operation, so a city may not zone the activity out of a residential neighborhood, though a general business licence may still be required.