Florida Cottage Food Law Label Requirements: Six Steps

The text below follows Section 500.80 as published by the Florida Senate, which shows the same text in the 2025 and 2026 editions. Sources also include FDACS's Cottage Foods page and a University of Florida extension guide. All were read on 7 October 2026. Statutes change, so confirm with FDACS before you print.

Step 1: Check that your food is on Florida's approved list

FDACS says Florida law lets people use an unlicensed home kitchen to make certain low-risk foods for sale, and it lists the approved products. They include loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, cakes, pastries and cookies, candies, honey, jams and jellies, popcorn and more. A product that is not on the list is not a cottage food, and the label rules below do not change that.

The same page says gross sales must not exceed $250,000 a year. Spread over 52 weeks, that is about $4,808 of sales a week.

Step 2: Prepackage the food and affix the label

The statute says a cottage food operation may only sell products that are prepackaged with a label affixed. The University of Florida extension guide says the same: allowed products must be prepackaged and labeled.

Compare that with Michigan and Texas, whose agencies describe invoices for cakes that cannot take a label. Florida's statute names no invoice option, so a cake goes into a box and the label goes on the box.

Step 3: Fill in the seven items the statute lists

Section 500.80(3) lists the label contents. Here is each item in plain words.

The University of Florida guide asks for the physical address of the operation. For item (e), the FDA's list has nine major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame.

Step 4: Set the Florida statement in 10-point type or larger

The statute fixes the sentence: "Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations." It must be printed in at least 10-point type, in a color that provides a clear contrast to the background of the label.

The sentence has 90 characters. Copy it exactly, and do not swap in another state's wording.

Step 5: Add nutrition information only if you make a claim

Item (f) is conditional. The statute asks for nutritional information, in the form federal labeling requirements set out, only if any nutritional claim is made. A label that says nothing about nutrition does not need it. A label that says "low fat" or "sugar free" does.

The University of Florida guide does not list nutrition facts as a required item either. So the simple way to stay inside the rule is to make no nutritional claim.

Step 6: Keep your sales and storage inside the statute

Several non-label conditions sit in the same section. You may sell over the internet and by mail order, and deliver in person or by US Postal Service or a commercial carrier. Wholesale sales and wholesale delivery are not allowed. You may only sell products that you store on the premises of the cottage food operation.

FDACS adds that you can offer free samples if they are prepackaged. The statute also says the department may inspect only after receiving a complaint.

A cottage food label puts the maker's name on the food and tells the buyer what kind of kitchen it came from.

Florida cottage food law label requirements: what is not on the list

Florida's statute lists no date line, no registration number and no allergen "Contains" format. It does not say where on the label each item goes. It also names no invoice alternative. For an unusual situation, ask FDACS.

Where the Cottage Food Label workbook fits

The Cottage Food Label workbook has fields for the product, ingredients, allergens, net weight, your name and address and the statement, and a Label tab that prints from them. It supplies no legal wording and does not make a label compliant. You type the sentence the statute names.

The workbook prints one label layout at a time on a Letter page. It is the wrong choice if you want many labels on a sheet of sticker paper. The statement has to be at least 10-point type, so check the printed size yourself with a ruler. A word processor can lay out a Florida label for nothing, and the statute costs nothing. The workbook costs $5.99 and helps if you reprint often. Its How to use tab names no app menu, only the Details and Label tabs, so the steps read the same in Excel and in Google Sheets.