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

What Georgia actually decides

House Bill 398 took effect on 1 July 2025 and it was a genuine rewrite, not a tidy-up. The state cottage food licence is gone, along with its $100 fee and the inspection you used to pass before selling. Sales to retail stores and restaurants are now allowed, so is mail order, and most local regulation is barred unless a local government passes a specific opt-out ordinance.

There is no sales cap. There is no permit. The only paperwork is optional: if you would rather not print your home address on a label, you can ask the department in writing for an identification number to use instead. The cost of requesting one is not published anywhere we could find.

One thing is genuinely unsettled, and it is worth knowing before you rely on either answer. HB 398 imposes no training requirement and repealed the licensing scheme the old training rule hung off. The department’s own cottage food page still tells operators to complete ANSI-accredited food safety training. Those two positions conflict. Until the page is updated, the safe reading is to do the training, because it is inexpensive and it settles the question.

The old regulations, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. subject 40-7-19, are still on the books and are partly superseded while they wait to be amended. If you find guidance that quotes them, check the date on it first.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the permit or registration or the training requirement, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Georgia Department of Agriculture 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 Georgia

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.

• Baked goods such as loaf breads, rolls, biscuits and cakes
• Jams, jellies, and preserves
• Uncut fruits and vegetables
• Dried fruits
• Dry herbs, seasonings, and mixtures
• Cereals, trail mixes, and granola
• Coated and uncoated nuts
• Vinegars and flavored vinegars
• Dill pickles
• Confections and fudge
• Dry soup mixes, roasted coffee beans, dry pasta
• Popcorn, popcorn balls, and cotton candy

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.

• Alcoholic beverages
• Foods containing cannabis
• Raw milk
• Potentially hazardous foods requiring temperature control for safety
• Baked goods whose fillings require refrigeration or have high moisture content
• Fruit butters when commercial sterility may be affected by reduced sugar or pectin

Where you are allowed to sell it

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

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. Optional only. An operator who would rather not print a home address may ask the department in writing for an identification number to use on labels instead.

No training is recorded as universally required. Sources conflict. HB 398 imposes no training requirement and repealed the licensing scheme the training hung off, but agr.georgia.gov/cottage-food still tells operators to complete ANSI-accredited training.

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.

• Pets are not allowed in the production area at any time.
• Wash your hands and forearms with warm water, liquid soap and paper towels before you start.
• Avoid bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods. Use gloves, tongs, utensils or bakery papers.
• Wear a hair restraint and clean outer garments while handling food.
• Store your ingredients and finished products separately from the household's own food.

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.

• 2025-07-01: HB 398 created O.C.G.A. 26-2-470 et seq.: removed the state cottage food licence and its $100 fee, ended pre-licensing inspections, allowed sales to retail stores and restaurants and by mail order, replaced the required label statement, and barred most local regulation apart from an opt-out ordinance.

Start this weekend

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

• Throw out any Georgia checklist written before July 2025. The licence, the fee and the label wording all changed.
• Use the new statement wording exactly. The pre-HB 398 sentence is no longer the required one.
• Request an identification number in writing if you want your home address off the label.
• Do the ANSI-accredited training. The law and the department page disagree, and the training closes the gap cheaply.
• Check whether your local government passed an opt-out ordinance, which is the one place local rules can still bite.