Ohio cottage food: no licence, one oven, twenty products

Ohio's definition of the kitchen is stricter than its definition of the business. R.C. 3715.01(A)(19) says a cottage food production operation is a person who, in the person's home, produces food items that are not potentially hazardous foods. Division (A)(17) then defines "home" as the primary residence occupied by the residence's owner, on the condition that the residence contains only one stove or oven used for cooking, which may be a double oven, designed for common residence usage and not for commercial usage, operated in an ordinary kitchen within the residence. Three consequences catch people out: a tenant cannot run one, because the residence must be occupied by its owner; a house with a second oven, a range in a finished basement or an outbuilding kitchen falls outside the definition; and a commercial-grade range installed in a private house takes the kitchen out even though the house is still a home.

There is genuinely nothing to file. R.C. 3717.22(B)(6) exempts a cottage food production operation from retail food establishment licensing on the condition that it offers its products directly to the consumer from the site where they are produced, and R.C. 3717.42(A)(2) carries that exemption across to food service operation licensing. R.C. 3715.021(A)(1), as amended by House Bill 96 with an effective date of September 30, 2025, expressly states that a food processing establishment does not include a cottage food production operation, which keeps the Department of Agriculture's good manufacturing practice rules off the operation. The Department's own cottage food page puts it plainly: the operation is exempt from being licensed and inspected. No fee, no application form, no annual renewal, and no revenue cap of the kind California and Texas impose.

The trade for that freedom is a closed product list. Ohio Admin. Code 901:3-20-04(A) approves exactly twenty categories: non-potentially hazardous bakery products; jams; jellies; candy, not including fresh fruit dipped, covered or otherwise incorporated with candy; flavored honey produced by an exempt beekeeper; fruit chutneys; fruit butters; granola, granola bars and granola bars dipped in candy, with any fruit commercially dried; maple sugar produced by an exempt maple syrup producer; popcorn, flavored popcorn, kettle corn, popcorn balls and caramel corn, but not popping corn; unfilled baked donuts; waffle cones and waffle cones dipped in candy; pizzelles; dry cereal and nut snack mixes with seasonings; roasted coffee, whole beans or ground; dry baking mixes in a jar; dry herbs and herb blends; dry soup mixes containing commercially dried vegetables, beans, grains and seasonings; dry seasoning blends; and dry tea blends. Rule 901:3-20-05(E) then prohibits producing any food item not expressly on that list, so the categories are a ceiling rather than examples.

Four hard prohibitions sit on top of the list. R.C. 3715.025(A) bars a cottage food production operation from processing acidified foods, low acid canned foods, or potentially hazardous foods, which rules out pickles, salsas, canned vegetables, cheesecakes, cream and custard and pumpkin pies, and garlic in oil. Division (B) forbids the director of agriculture from ever adopting a rule that would let a cottage food operation make a potentially hazardous food, so the list cannot expand in that direction. Rule 901:3-20-04(B) bans reduced oxygen packaging, meaning no vacuum sealing and no modified atmosphere packaging. And rule 901:3-20-05(F) forbids selling cottage food products outside the state of Ohio, which takes mail order across state lines off the table.

Every package carries five items under R.C. 3715.023(A): the name and address of the business, the name of the food product, the ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, the net weight and volume, and the statement "This product is home produced." in ten-point type. Ohio Admin. Code 901:3-20-02(A) adds the federal food labeling requirements of 21 CFR Part 101 on top, which is where the major food allergen declaration comes from. Getting the label wrong is not a paperwork slip: an incorrectly labeled product is misbranded, and misbranding is what the enforcement sections reach.

Where the products may be sold is set by a series of separate exemptions rather than one clause. R.C. 3715.023(B) makes a properly labeled cottage food product an acceptable product that a licensed retail food establishment or food service operation may offer for sale or use in preparing and serving food, which is what lets Ohio grocery stores and restaurants carry it. R.C. 3717.22 then exempts the seller at a farmers market under division (B)(2)(b), at a farm product auction registered under R.C. 3717.221 under division (B)(11)(c), at a registered farm market under division (B)(16)(b), and at a festival or celebration organized by a political subdivision that lasts no longer than seven consecutive days under division (B)(15)(b). Selling from the home itself is covered by division (B)(6). If the twenty categories are too narrow, the other Ohio home route is a registered home bakery under R.C. 911.02, which costs ten dollars a year rather than the two hundred a bakery otherwise pays.

Because there is no licence, there is no licence to lose, and enforcement runs through the pure food law instead. C. 022 and Ohio Admin. Code 901:3-20-03 subject all cottage food products to sampling by the director of agriculture or an authorized representative to determine whether a product is misbranded or adulterated, and rule 901:3-20-05(D) makes refusing the taking of samples a violation in its own right. C. C. C. C. 28 means up to thirty days and two hundred fifty dollars the first time and ninety days and seven hundred fifty dollars after.

Making an item that is not on the rule 901:3-20-04 list, vacuum sealing a product, or shipping to another state puts the operation outside the exemption, at which point Chapter 3717 licensing applies to it.