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

What Louisiana actually decides

Two things about Louisiana are easy to get wrong, and both of them are expensive. The first is the cap. Act 801 raised it from $30,000 to $100,000 on 1 August 2026, and the codified page at legis.la.gov still prints the old figure. There is no grace period at the ceiling either: the moment gross annual sales reach $100,000, the full Sanitary Code applies to you.

The second is the tax certificate. Louisiana issues no food permit, licence or registration, and the Department of Health publishes nothing about the regime at all. But subsection D(2) says nobody may sell low-risk foods prepared in the home unless they are registered to collect local sales and use taxes, evidenced by a current sales tax certificate from the collector for the parish where the sales happen. It is a tax registration rather than a food permit, and it is a hard precondition of selling.

Then there is the helper rule, which is unusually strict. If you employ anyone to help prepare breads, cakes, cookies or pies, the exemption does not apply to you at all. One hired pair of hands puts you fully under the Sanitary Code. Family arrangements are worth thinking through carefully before market season.

The allowed list is nine categories and there is no petition route: the statute says low-risk foods shall include all of the following, and that is the end of it. Unusually for a cottage food regime, custard and cream-filled bakery products are governed in detail by subsection A(2) rather than banned outright.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the training requirement or some kitchen rules, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Louisiana Department of Health directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 11, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.

What you can sell in Louisiana

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, including breads, cakes, cookies and pies
• Candies
• Cane syrup
• Dried mixes
• Honey and honeycomb products
• Jams, jellies and preserves
• Pickles and acidified foods
• Sauces and syrups
• Spices
• Custard and cream-filled bakery products, which are not in the statutory list but which subsection A(2) governs in detail, and which is unusual for a cottage food regime

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.

• Anything outside the nine listed categories. The statute says low-risk foods shall include all of the following and there is no petition route
• Any food consisting of animal muscle protein or fish protein
• Any food containing cannabidiol, unless and until the FDA approves cannabidiol as a food additive
• Unwholesome food of any kind
• Anything at all, if you employ someone to help you prepare breads, cakes, cookies or pies. That removes the exemption from you entirely and puts you under the full Sanitary Code

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales.

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. Louisiana issues no food permit, licence or registration for this, and the Department of Health publishes nothing about the regime at all. One thing is a hard precondition of selling: subsection D(2) says nobody may sell low-risk foods prepared in the home unless they are registered to collect local sales and use taxes, evidenced by a current sales tax certificate from the collector for the parish where the sales occur. That is a tax registration, not a food permit, and nothing from it prints on the label. On where you may sell, the statute is silent: it addresses preparation in the home for sale and never names a venue. What is affirmed is the other direction. Subsection C bars selling breads, cakes, cookies or pies to any retail business or individual for resale, and LAC 51:XXIII.1103.A separately bars food prepared in a private home from any food establishment or retail food store, with a carve-out only for jellies, preserves, jams, honey and honeycomb under $5,000 gross a year.

No training is recorded as universally required. The statute imposes none, and no Department of Health page states the absence.

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.

• Outside openings are protected against flies and other vermin, the building is constructed to exclude rats, mice and roaches, and domestic pets are kept out of any part of the place where preparation and baking happen.
• If you employ anyone to help prepare breads, cakes, cookies or pies, the exemption does not apply to you at all. Hiring one helper puts you fully under the Sanitary Code.
• Equipment is kept clean and sanitary, free from cracks, and wherever possible non-corroding metal or another smooth impervious material. Every food contact surface is cleaned and sanitized after each day of production.
• Refrigeration holds perishable products used in production at no more than 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Custard and cream fillings use pasteurized milk or milk products only, cooked at least to the equivalent of 145°F for 30 minutes, transferred immediately into sanitized covered containers, chilled to 45°F or below and held there, never touched with hands after cooking, and never filled from a cloth bag. On inspection, nothing official says whether anyone may enter a home kitchen on a complaint: the statute exempts you from the Sanitary Code's construction and equipment rules without barring entry, and it preserves the state health officer's role.

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.

• 2026-08-01: The gross annual sales ceiling for the low-risk home food exemption rose from $30,000 to $100,000.

Start this weekend

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

• Get a current sales tax certificate from your parish collector before you sell anything. It is a precondition.
• Use $100,000, not $30,000. The state page is out of date and has been since August 2026.
• Do not hire help for breads, cakes, cookies or pies. One employee ends the exemption entirely.
• Check your product against the nine categories. There is no way to petition for anything else.
• Watch the ceiling closely. There is no grace period: at $100,000 the full Sanitary Code applies.