Rules for Louisiana · Last updated September 11, 2026

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

Louisiana raised the cap to $100,000 in August 2026 and the state page still prints the old $30,000. There is also a hard precondition nobody expects: a sales tax certificate.

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Key takeaways

$100,000 gross a year since 1 August 2026. The codified page still shows $30,000.
You may not sell without a current parish sales tax certificate. That is a precondition, not a formality.
Employ one helper to prepare breads, cakes, cookies or pies and the exemption stops applying to you.

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.

The short version

what the rule is calledLow-risk foods prepared in the home

when an inspector comesOnly on a complaint

annual sales limit100,000 USD

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.

Up nextPaperwork, training and inspections

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.

What belongs on a Louisiana label

Louisiana Department of Health, checked September 11, 2026

01Product name
02Home kitchen statement, exact wording
No permit number. No state size rule; the federal 1/16 inch minimum applies.

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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.

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 11, 2026. Confirm current prices, policies, or provider instructions before relying on them.

Is this the whole Louisiana rule?

No, and you should not treat it as one. This is the official source read carefully on September 11, 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. Louisiana 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.

More cottage food laws

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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