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Rules for Indiana · Last updated September 9, 2026

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

Indiana bars local government from licensing, certifying or inspecting you, and a farmers market cannot demand a food licence either. The one thing you do need is a food handler certificate.

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Key takeaways
  • No licence, permit or registration exists, and local ordinances cannot create one.
  • An ANSI-accredited food handler certificate is required, filed with your county health department.
  • A second tier opened in July 2026 for meat, prepared foods and produce under IC 16-42-5.4.

What Indiana actually decides

Indiana wrote the preemption in explicitly. IC 16-42-5.3-12 bars any local unit of government from requiring licensure, certification or inspection by ordinance, and the Department of Health goes further in its FAQ: a farmers market may not require a food licence from you. It may ask to see your food handler certificate, which is fair, because that is the one thing you genuinely need.

Get the certificate from an ANSI-accredited issuer, give a copy to the local health department in your county, and be able to produce it on request to IDOH or to a customer. There is no cap on sales and nothing to renew with the state.

The product boundary is a prohibited list with some specific edges. Cakes and cupcakes are in, provided the icing is commercially prepared or lab-tested and needs no temperature control. No-bake cookie dough is in, if it uses commercially heat-treated flour. Out are raw or cooked animal protein, prepared foods like casseroles and charcuterie boards, anything with cut leafy greens, and pickled, acidified or fermented foods.

July 2026 added a second tier worth knowing about. Homestead vendors and small farms may now sell meat products, prepared foods, produce, natural sweeteners and fruit spreads under IC 16-42-5.4, under $1.5 million gross a year, with their own label statement and a duty to describe allergens. The home-based vendor rules on this page are unchanged and still in force.

The short version

what the rule is calledHome-based vendor
when an inspector comesOnly on a complaint
annual sales limitNo cap

What you can sell in Indiana

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 baklava, scones, lamington and select kolache
  • Bread: bagels, focaccia, pretzels, quick bread, sourdough, cheese biscuits
  • Cakes and cupcakes with commercially prepared or lab-tested icing that needs no temperature control
  • Cookies, and no-bake cookie dough made with commercially heat-treated flour
  • Candy, chocolate, fudge, ganache, truffles and hot chocolate bombs
  • Canned high-acid fruits, jams, jellies, preserves and high-acid fruit curds in glass jars
  • Chips and crackers
  • Dried and dehydrated fruits, dried herbs, granola and trail mix
  • Honey, raw, creamed, combed or infused with generally recognised as safe ingredients, and maple syrup
  • Roasted coffee beans, whole or ground
  • Nut butters ground from peanuts or tree nuts
  • Baking mixes, spice blends and dried teas

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.

  • Raw or cooked animal protein, including meats and tallow
  • Prepared foods: casseroles, charcuterie boards, fruit salads, lasagna, ready-made meals
  • Dairy products, except commercial dairy used only as an ingredient
  • Anything using cut leafy greens, such as kimchi, salad and sauerkraut
  • Pickled, acidified and fermented foods, and home-canned low-acid vegetables
  • Low-acid or low-sugar jams and jellies, pepper jelly, fig preserves, homemade hot sauce, barbecue sauce, chow chow and chutney
  • Cheesecake, cream, custard and meringue pies, fruit tarts, pumpkin and sweet potato pies
  • Kombucha, cold brew coffee, fresh-pressed juice, homemade extracts, CBD or Delta-8 and Delta-9 products, and pet treats
Up nextWhere you are allowed to sell it

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 registration exists. IC 16-42-5.3-12 bars any local unit of government from requiring licensure, certification or inspection by ordinance, and the IDOH FAQ says a farmers market may not require a food licence either, though it may ask to see your food handler certificate.

Training is required: ANSI-accredited food handler certificate. Get it from an ANSI-accredited issuer, give a copy to the local health department in your county, and produce it on request to IDOH or to a customer.

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.

  • Food is made at your primary residence or a permanent structure on the same property. A shared or rented commercial kitchen does not qualify.
  • No animals may be present in the food preparation or packaging area.
  • Containers and packaging are sanitized, and every food-contact surface is cleaned and sanitized.
  • Shipped or delivered orders go in a tamper-evident sealed package, and you keep the delivery address of every such sale for at least one year.
  • Post the label of each food product on your website. This one is easy to miss.

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.

  • 2026-07-01: A second tier opened: homestead vendors and small farms may sell meat products, prepared foods, produce, natural sweeteners and fruit spreads under IC 16-42-5.4, under $1.5 million gross a year, with their own label statement and a duty to describe allergens. Home-based vendor rules are unchanged and stay in force.

What belongs on an Indiana label

Indiana Department of Health, checked September 9, 2026

  1. 01Product name
  2. 02Ingredients by weight
  3. 03Net weight
  4. 04Name and street address
  5. 05Home kitchen statement, exact wording
  6. 06Date made
  7. No permit number. Required text at least 10 point.
Make an Indiana label

Start this weekend

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

  1. Get an ANSI-accredited food handler certificate and file a copy with your county health department.
  2. Carry the certificate to markets. They can ask for it, and it is the only thing they can ask for.
  3. Check your icing. Cakes are fine when the icing is commercially prepared or lab-tested and shelf stable.
  4. If a local ordinance demands a licence, it cannot. IC 16-42-5.3-12 preempts it.
  5. Look at the new homestead tier if you want to sell meat, prepared foods or produce. It is a different section of the code.

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 Indiana 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. Indiana Department of Health 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.

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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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The label maker opens with these requirements already loaded. Build it, then read the finished sticker back against the official source before you print a full sheet.

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