Rules for Colorado · Last updated September 9, 2026

Colorado cottage food law (2026): what you can sell and label

Colorado caps you at $10,000 per product, not $10,000 total, which is stranger and more generous than it sounds. All of it changes on 1 January 2027.

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Key takeaways

$10,000 net per calendar year per eligible product, counted as a separate bucket for each one.
No licence or registration today. Annual CDPHE registration becomes mandatory in January 2027.
From 2027 the cap becomes $150,000 gross across the whole operation, inflation-adjusted.

What Colorado actually decides

The Colorado cap is per product, and CDPHE confirms it in its own FAQ. Ten thousand dollars of net revenue per calendar year from the sale of each eligible food product, as a separate bucket each time. Sell three products and you have three ceilings. It is an unusual design and it rewards a varied menu rather than a single hero item.

Right now there is no licence, permit or state registration. The statute switches off the licensing sections outright and allows only a voluntary registry. That ends on 1 January 2027, when annual CDPHE registration becomes mandatory before you sell, with a department-issued registration number and a public electronic registry updated monthly. Whether it carries a fee is not stated, because the bill funds the programme from a new cash fund instead.

The same date replaces the cap entirely: $150,000 gross across the whole operation, adjusted annually for inflation, and not per product any more. For a seller with one strong product that is a large increase. For a seller with six products each near $10,000, it is worth doing the arithmetic before celebrating.

The label changes on that date too. The registration number gets added, the county where the food was prepared replaces the address, and a new CDPHE website line lets a customer report illness and verify your registration. Anything you print in late 2026 will need redoing.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the permit or registration, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 9, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.

The short version

what the rule is calledCottage food producer

when an inspector comesOnly on a complaint

annual sales limit10,000 USD

What you can sell in Colorado

Straight from the official record. Read these as categories rather than a menu, because one recipe can cross the line on its own: a filling that needs refrigeration, a pH that needs testing, or a process that needs an authority to sign it off.

Pickled fruits and vegetables with a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below
Dry spices and dry teas
Dehydrated and freeze-dried produce
Nuts and seeds
Honey, jams, jellies, preserves and fruit butter
Flour, candies, fruit empanadas, tortillas and similar products that do not need refrigeration for safety
Baked goods such as muffins, fruit pies, cookies and cakes
Roasted coffee beans
Buttercream made with ghee or vegetable oil. Buttercream made with butter is not allowed
Candies such as cotton candy and fudge
Up to 250 dozen whole eggs per month
On the CDPHE checklist but not the web page: dry mixes, flavoured vinegar and bitters, syrups, dried pasta, canned fruits in syrup, and fermented vegetables such as kimchi and sauerkraut at pH 4.6 or below

What is outside the rule

If your product is on this list, the answer is not "ask nicely". It is a different licence, a different kitchen, or both.

Any meat product, including bacon, jerky, chicharron, poultry, fish and shellfish, as a product, an ingredient or a topping
Baked or fried goods with cream, custard or meringue fillings or toppings
Cakes or pastries with buttercream frosting unless it is made with ghee or vegetable oil
Sauces such as barbecue, hot sauce, pasta, pizza and salad dressing, and condiments such as ketchup and mustard
Beverages
Pumpkin, sweet potato and cream pies
Cut fresh fruits and vegetables, juices, concentrates and purees
Pepper jelly or jams made with fresh or home-dehydrated peppers, freeze-dried meals, and CBD or THC products

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, online orders, delivery, in-state shipping.

One channel being open does not open the rest. Shipping, delivery and wholesale each turn on the product and where it is going, so check the route you actually plan to use.

Up nextPaperwork, training and inspections

Paperwork, training and inspections

The researched record does not list a general permit for this tier. No licence, permit or state registration today: C.R.S. 25-4-1614(7) switches off the licensing sections and the statute only allows a voluntary registry. Annual CDPHE registration becomes mandatory on 1 January 2027, with a department-issued registration number and a public electronic registry. Whether that registration carries a fee is not stated: HB26-1033 funds the program from a new cottage foods cash fund and a $119,354 appropriation instead.

Training is required: Approved food safety course with basic food handling. The statute asks for a course comparable to, or given by, the Colorado State University extension service or a state, county or district public health agency, kept in good standing. CDPHE lists three ways to satisfy it and you need only one: the CSU Extension in-person course for cottage food producers (certificate good three years), a food handler card, or a local public health agency course.

Only on a complaint is what the record says about inspections. Confirm what that means for your product and your local authority, because the two can differ.

Kitchen rules people miss

None of these fit on a label, which is exactly why they get skipped. Read them before the first batch, not after.

You must be a Colorado resident, and either a sole proprietor or an LLC with two or fewer owners who are all residents.
Product is pre-packaged in food-grade material and handed over by you or by a designated representative who can answer questions about it.
Every point of sale, the internet included, displays a placard, sign or card carrying the point-of-sale disclaimer.
Samples are allowed only with no bare-hand contact: gloves, tissue, tongs or toothpicks. Handsink rules vary by county.
Pickled and fermented items finish at pH 4.6 or below, and keeping the pH test result is a CDPHE best practice.

What changed, and when

A dated change means an older checklist can be confidently wrong. Read the instrument itself at the official source before you trust anything written before these dates.

2027-01-01: Annual CDPHE registration becomes mandatory before you sell, with a department-issued registration number and a public registry updated monthly. The label changes with it: the registration number is added, the county where the food was prepared replaces the address, and a new CDPHE website line lets consumers report illness and verify a registration.
2027-01-01: The cap moves from $10,000 net revenue per eligible food product to $150,000 gross revenue per calendar year across everything you sell under the Act, adjusted annually for inflation on the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood CPI, with an anti-structuring clause. It is not $150,000 per product, whatever commercial summaries say.
2027-01-01: Packaged foods that need time and temperature control become sellable, tamales, burritos and tortas included: one type of such product with up to five variations at a time, extra food safety training, federally inspected or exempt meat, one transport of no more than two hours, and no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food. Raw milk, low-acid canned foods, fermented or acidified controlled foods, alcohol, cannabinoid products and foods preserved by smoking, reduced-oxygen packaging or curing are excluded outright.
2027-01-01: Enforcement arrives: fines up to $100 per violation plus recovery of investigation costs up to $1,000, corrective action plans and extra training after a complaint, and loss of controlled-food selling privileges after three misbranding or compliance failures in twelve months.

What belongs on a Colorado label

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, checked September 9, 2026

01Product name
02Ingredients by weight
03Name and street address
04Home kitchen statement, exact wording
05Date made
06Phone or email
No permit number. No state size rule; the federal 1/16 inch minimum applies.

Make a Colorado label

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In this order, so the label is the last thing you check and not the first thing you guess.

Count each product separately against $10,000 net. It is per product this year, not per business.
Do the 2027 arithmetic now. One product gains from the $150,000 gross cap, six near-cap products may not.
Do not print a year of labels in late 2026. The required label changes on 1 January 2027.
Take one of the three accepted food safety courses: CSU Extension, a food handler card, or a local public health course.
Put the point-of-sale disclaimer at every sales point, the internet included. It is a placard requirement, not just a label one.

Nearby places

Nearby guides

Neighboring states look similar until the one difference that matters. Worth a read if you sell across a border, or if someone in the next state over gave you advice.

Pairs well with

Keep going

ToolCottage food label makerTurn your recipe, allergens and required statement into a printable label.GuideCottage food business guideThe wider framework: product, kitchen, sales channel, label and local checks.GuideCottage food label requirementsEvery field a cottage food label needs, in the order to check them before you print.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Details were checked against public sources on September 9, 2026. Confirm current prices, policies, or provider instructions before relying on them.

Is this the whole Colorado rule?

No, and you should not treat it as one. This is the official source read carefully on September 9, 2026 and put in one place. Your city, your county, the market you sell at and your own product can each add a layer this page does not know about. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is the authority, not us.

Can I just use the label maker and skip this?

The label maker opens with the fields this jurisdiction requires, so it will get the sticker right. What it cannot do is tell you whether the recipe is allowed, whether your kitchen qualifies, or whether you can sell through the channel you had in mind. A correct label on a product you are not allowed to sell is still a problem.

Does the right label make me compliant?

No. The label is the last step and the most visible one, which is why it gets all the attention. The recipe, the kitchen, the training, the registration and the sales route all sit upstream of it, and any one of them can be the thing that is actually wrong.

More cottage food laws

Selling somewhere else too?

The rule changes with the kitchen, the product and the sales route. Pick another place to compare.

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