TL;DR
Georgia's cottage food law changed dramatically under House Bill 398, effective July 1, 2025: there's no longer a sales cap at all, no license or health inspection is required, and you can now sell wholesale to retail stores and restaurants — not just direct to consumers. The one real requirement is a basic ANSI-accredited food safety course (about $10, 2 hours). It's one of the most permissive cottage food laws in the country right now.
⚠️ Important disclaimer
This article is informational and is not legal or tax advice. Cottage food rules can change, and county health departments or local ordinances may add restrictions the state law doesn't. Always confirm current requirements with the Georgia Department of Agriculture's Cottage Food program before making business decisions. Last reviewed: July 2026.
i was on the phone with a georgia baker in june who'd been sitting on a wholesale offer from a local coffee shop for three months because she was sure cottage food operators couldn't legally sell to a retail business — she'd read that rule two years ago and never checked it again. i pulled up the current law while we were talking and had to tell her twice before she believed me: georgia rewrote the whole thing in 2025, and the wholesale restriction she was worried about doesn't exist anymore.
that's the risk with cottage food law in a state that just went through a major rewrite — the old rules live on in facebook groups and old blog posts long after the state moved on. here's what's actually true in georgia right now, not what was true in 2023.
What is Georgia's cottage food law?
Georgia's cottage food law allows home cooks to prepare and sell certain non-potentially-hazardous foods — baked goods, candies, jams, dried goods, and similar shelf-stable items — directly from a home kitchen without a food service license or health department inspection, provided the operator completes a basic food safety course and labels products correctly. The law was substantially rewritten by House Bill 398, effective July 1, 2025. ## The big change: there is no sales cap anymore
This is the headline, and it's a genuinely unusual position for a state to take. Most states cap cottage food revenue somewhere between $25,000 and $250,000 a year. Georgia's old rule had a cap too. HB 398 removed it entirely — there is currently no dollar limit on how much you can sell as a Georgia cottage food operator. That doesn't mean there's no oversight at all — you're still restricted to non-potentially-hazardous foods, you still need the food safety course, and local health departments can still act on complaints. But the specific mechanism that limits how big your kitchen business can get before you're forced into a commercial facility — the sales cap — simply isn't part of Georgia law right now.
What you can — and can't — sell
Georgia's approved cottage food list covers most of what a home bakery already makes:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Breads & baked goods | loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, cakes (including wedding cakes), cupcakes, cookies, brownies, donuts, muffins, scones |
| Candies & confections | brittles, fudge, truffles, chocolate, buttercream frosting, cotton candy |
| Preserves | jams, jellies, marmalades |
| Dry goods | dried fruit, herbs, spices, cereals, trail mix, granola, nuts, pasta |
| Snacks | popcorn, kettle corn, crackers, pretzels |
| Other | vinegar and flavored vinegar |
Sourdough bread is allowed, since it's shelf-stable and non-potentially-hazardous once fully baked and cooled.
What's not allowed: anything that needs refrigeration (cheesecake, cream pies, custards), fruit butters, low-acid canned goods, and meat jerkies. The underlying test is whether a food is "potentially hazardous" — generally, anything that needs to stay cold to be safe falls outside the exemption. ## What you actually need to do to start
Here's the full requirement list, and it's short:
| Requirement | Georgia cottage food |
|---|---|
| State license | Not required |
| Kitchen inspection | Not required |
| Food safety training | Required — ANSI-accredited food handler course (e.g. Learn2Serve, ~$10, 2 hours) |
| Registration | Not required, but optional identification number available |
| Private well testing | Required annually if you use a private water source |
The food safety course is the one non-negotiable item, and honestly it's not much of a hurdle — a couple hours online for about the price of a large pizza. Compare that to states requiring a formal license application, a home kitchen inspection, and an annual renewal fee, and Georgia's bar is low.
Where you can sell now: direct, retail, restaurants, even other states
This is the part that trips up bakers who learned the old rules. Under HB 398, Georgia cottage food operators can sell:
- Direct to consumers — home, farmers markets, events, online
- Wholesale to retail stores and restaurants (new under HB 398)
- Via delivery and mail order
- Across state lines — Georgia is one of the only states that explicitly allows interstate sales of cottage food products
If a retail store or restaurant sells your products, the law requires them to display cottage food items separately from their commercially-produced inventory, and to label that section clearly as products made in an exempt residential kitchen. That's the store's obligation, not yours, but it's worth confirming with any retail partner that they know the rule before you sign an agreement.
Labeling requirements
Every product needs a label with:
- Business name
- Business address (or your optional state-issued ID number instead)
- Phone number
- The required disclosure statement, in at least 10-point type: "This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state inspection. This product may contain allergens."
If you don't want your home address on packaging that leaves your house, you can request an identification number from the Department of Agriculture and use that instead. Where the label information goes depends on how you sell: on the package itself for packaged goods, on a placard at the point of sale for unpackaged items, on the container for bulk sales, and on the webpage for online orders. If you're taking a custom or phone order, you're required to verbally disclose the same information and provide it in writing if the customer asks.
The contrarian take: "no cap" isn't the same as "no ceiling"
Every headline about Georgia's 2025 update leads with the removed sales cap, and it's genuinely a big deal — but i think bakers read too much into it. No state-imposed dollar limit doesn't mean unlimited practical capacity. A home kitchen still only has so many oven hours in a day, and once you're doing wholesale volume for multiple retail accounts on top of direct orders, you'll hit a production ceiling that has nothing to do with what the law allows and everything to do with your equipment, your time, and your own health department's tolerance for complaint-driven scrutiny if your kitchen suddenly looks like a commercial operation. The removed cap opens the door. It doesn't answer whether your kitchen can actually walk through it at scale.
Tracking growth without a cap to watch
Ironically, not having a sales cap to track doesn't mean compliance gets simpler — it shifts to tracking your own production capacity, ingredient costs at wholesale volume, and whether your margins hold up once a retail partner wants a wholesale discount. That's a different kind of tracking than watching a dollar ceiling, but it's just as easy to lose track of by hand once you're juggling direct orders and a wholesale account at the same time. The CrumbCoach compliance dashboard tracks your state's specific requirements and your recipe costing shows you real margins at both retail and wholesale pricing, so growth doesn't quietly turn into a loss. It's built into the app on iOS and Android.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a sales cap for cottage food in Georgia?
No. House Bill 398, effective July 1, 2025, removed Georgia's cottage food sales cap entirely. There is currently no dollar limit on how much you can sell as a cottage food operator, though you're still restricted to non-potentially-hazardous foods.
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from home in Georgia?
No. Georgia doesn't require a state license or health department inspection for cottage food sales. You do need to complete an ANSI-accredited food safety training course, such as a Food Handler course, which typically costs around $10 and takes about 2 hours.
Can I sell my baked goods to a retail store or restaurant in Georgia?
Yes, as of HB 398. Wholesale sales to retail stores and restaurants are now allowed, as long as the retailer displays your cottage food products separately from commercially-produced items and labels that section as exempt from state inspection.
Can I sell sourdough bread under Georgia's cottage food law?
Yes. Fully baked, shelf-stable sourdough bread qualifies as a non-potentially-hazardous food under Georgia's cottage food rules, the same as other breads and baked goods.
Can I sell my Georgia cottage food products to customers in other states?
Yes. Georgia is one of the few states that explicitly permits interstate sales of cottage food products, which is unusual — most states restrict cottage food sales to in-state customers only.
crumb coach was built for cottage bakers running real businesses — the app tracks your state's compliance requirements, generates compliant labels, and shows you real margins whether you're selling direct or wholesale. it's on iOS and Android.