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

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.

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.

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.

Start this weekend

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.