New Hampshire Homestead Food Has No Sales Cap

The definition sets the boundary of the whole scheme. Under RSA 143-A:12, I(a) a homestead food operation is a person who produces homestead food products, excluding potentially hazardous food, only in the home kitchen of that person's primary residence in New Hampshire, or in a food production area in that primary residence that has handwashing, equipment and food storage, food contact surfaces, general sanitation, and pet exclusion areas. Each of those five terms is defined in the statute itself. Handwashing means access to a hand cleaning station with hot and cold running potable water, soap and sanitary hand drying provisions. General sanitation means an area kept clean and sanitary, free from pests and environmental contaminants, with floors, walls and ceiling surfaces that are durable, smooth and easily cleanable. Pet exclusion means the area allows pets to be excluded during food production. A 2025 amendment added subparagraph I(a)(2), which lets a homestead food operation use commercial kitchen equipment provided the equipment can be cleaned and sanitized in the processing area.

What may not be made is fixed by RSA 143-A:12, I(b): potentially hazardous food, meaning foods requiring temperature control for safety because they can support the rapid growth of pathogenic or toxigenic microorganisms and the growth and toxin production of clostridium botulinum, and expressly including low acid canned foods. Everything else is a homestead food product under I(c), subject to whatever the commissioner of Health and Human Services defines by rule under RSA 143-A:13, I.

The three-way split of sales channels is the operative rule. Paragraph II exempts sales from the homestead residence, the owner's own farm stand, farmers' markets and retail food stores from licensure and departmental inspection, with one reservation: the department may inspect where it has reason to suspect an imminent health hazard, defined in RSA 143-A:3, IV-b as a significant threat or danger to health where the evidence shows a situation requiring immediate correction or cessation of operation to prevent injury or illness. Paragraph III sends the wholesale, online, mail order and restaurant channels into licensure under RSA 143-A:13. Paragraph IV, added in 2025, carves freeze dried foods out of the exemption entirely: an operation processing and selling freeze dried foods, even from its own residence or farm stand, must be licensed under RSA 143-A:4, and the paragraph defines freeze dried foods for this purpose as fruits, vegetables and commercially prepared dairy products. The same exemption is repeated at chapter level in RSA 143-A:5, VII, so the two provisions agree.

Labelling under RSA 143-A:12, V is where New Hampshire has recently become unusual. For packages sold from the home or farm stand the operator may choose between two label formats. The first is conventional: name, physical or e-mail address and phone number of the operation, the product name, the ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, and allergy information. The second replaces the printed ingredient list with a QR code or website carrying the ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, and it only works if a physical sign listing those ingredients also stands at the display location. Packages sold at farmers' markets, or into any of the licensed channels, get no QR option and must carry the full printed ingredient list. On top of that, paragraph V(c) requires a status statement: exempt operations label products "This product is exempt from New Hampshire licensing and inspection." and non-exempt operations label them "This product is made in a residential food production area licensed by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services."

On the licensed side, the Department of Health and Human Services rules classify a non-exempt homestead food operation as licence Category H-1 under He-P 2304, in Class H, whose annual licence fee is $150 under He-P 2304.05(a)(8). He-P 2311.03 keeps the product limit in place for licensed operators too: a non-exempt homestead food operation shall not produce or sell potentially hazardous foods, including any food requiring refrigeration or processed acidified and low acid canned foods. He-P 2311.04 adds two label items the statute does not name, the net weight, volume or numerical count in both US customary and metric units, and the name of each major food allergen unless it already appears in the common name of the ingredient.

RSA 143-A:10 grades offences by repetition rather than by amount: a first offence under chapter 143-A, or a failure to comply with the lawful orders and requirements of the commissioner, is a violation; a second offence is a misdemeanour; and a third offence is a misdemeanour if committed by a natural person and a felony if committed by any other person, which reaches an incorporated home food business. Separately, RSA 143-A:10-a lets the department impose administrative fines under a schedule the commissioner adopts by rule under RSA 143-A:9, IV-b, with notice and hearing procedures adopted under RSA 143-A:9, IV-c.

Exemption from licensure is not exemption from oversight: both RSA 143-A:12, II and RSA 143-A:5 preserve the department's power to inspect an exempt homestead food operation whenever it has reason to suspect an imminent health hazard as defined in RSA 143-A:3, IV-b. " is a statutory condition in RSA 143-A:12, V(c)(1), not a recommendation.