Confita
What Florida actually decides
Florida made a deliberate choice to keep this simple. Section 500.80 exempts a cottage food operation from the permit requirement that applies to other food businesses, sets the ceiling at $250,000 of annual gross sales, and stops local governments from banning you or regulating your products. There is no training requirement written anywhere, though the department never says so in as many words.
The limit that catches people is not the cap. Cottage food in Florida is a direct-to-consumer rule, and s. 500.80(2) bans wholesale outright. You can sell at the market, take orders online, deliver, and ship by USPS or a commercial carrier, including across state lines. You cannot sell to a shop that resells your product. The moment that becomes the plan, you need a real FDACS food permit and a different kind of kitchen.
The product test is the usual one, phrased as a prohibition: nothing time or temperature controlled, nothing potentially hazardous, nothing that needs refrigeration. Everything must be prepackaged and labelled before it is sold, and it has to be stored at your residence. That last one quietly rules out renting storage space as you grow.
FDACS can ask you in writing to document the sales figure, so keep the records as though someone will eventually read them. Start with the FDACS page below, then check s. 559.955 for the home-based business conditions, which are separate and still apply.
One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the prohibited-food list or the training requirement, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services 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 you can sell in Florida
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.
- Loaf breads, rolls, biscuits
- Cakes, pastries, cookies
- Candies and confections
- Honey
- Jams, jellies and preserves
- Fruit pies and dried fruits
- Dry herbs, seasonings and mixtures
- Homemade pasta
- Cereals, trail mixes and granola
- Coated and uncoated nuts
- Vinegar and flavoured vinegars
- Popcorn and popcorn balls
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 food that is time or temperature controlled for safety.
- Any potentially hazardous food as defined by department rule.
- Anything requiring refrigeration, which needs a full FDACS food permit instead
- Products sold at wholesale, which s. 500.80(2) bans outright
