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

What Nevada actually decides

Registration comes first here, and there is no small-scale exception. You register with your local health authority before selling any food item, giving your name, address, contact details and any trading name. Southern Nevada Health District charges $220 for fiscal year 2026/27, one-time and non-refundable, invoiced after a pre-screening review. Leave it unpaid for 30 days and the application is denied as delinquent.

The cap is $35,000 gross per calendar year, and gross means the full amount your customers hand over with nothing deducted for ingredients. As of 2026-2027 it is indexed to the Consumer Price Index and adjusted by the Department of Agriculture, but no adjusted figure is published yet, so confirm the live number rather than assuming it moved.

Channels are narrow: direct sales and farmers markets. No online orders and no shipping. If the plan involves an order form, this is the wrong tier.

Two structural things are in motion. SB 466 moved regulation from the Division of Public and Behavioral Health to the Department of Agriculture in July 2025 and recodified the chapter, which is why the section number changed from NRS 446.866 to NRS 580.600. From 1 July 2027 it moves again, to NRS 585.700 to 585.770. Old guidance will cite the old numbers.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the prohibited-food list, the permit or registration or the training requirement, among other details, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Nevada Department of Agriculture, with registration through your local health authority 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 Nevada

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.

• Nuts and nut mixes
• Candies, though the health district excludes cream-based chocolates such as ganache and truffles
• Jams, jellies and preserves on standardised recipes under 21 C.F.R. 150, with fruit butters and sugar-free jams out
• Vinegar and flavoured vinegar, strained or filtered so no flavouring components are left in the bottle
• Dry herbs and seasoning mixes, culinary only and no medicinal herbs
• Dried fruits, low-acid only, so no melon
• Cereals, trail mixes and granola
• Popcorn and popcorn balls
• Baked goods that are not potentially hazardous, contain no cream, uncooked egg, custard, meringue or cream cheese frosting or garnishes, need no time or temperature control, and are cooked by dry heat rather than fried or steamed

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 potentially hazardous or time and temperature controlled food
• Baked goods containing cream, uncooked egg, custard, meringue, cream cheese frosting or garnishes, which the health district extends to ganache, egg-containing buttercreams, Chantilly frostings, custard fillings such as lemon bars, pumpkin, pecan and sweet potato pie, and fresh fruit toppings
• Fruit butters of any kind, and sugar-free or no-sugar-added jams and jellies
• Soft cheeses, and animal products as additions. Hard cheese only grated and used sparingly
• Home-canned, pickled, fermented, acidified or salsa-type foods, which fall under the separate Department of Agriculture craft food law
• Dried or dehydrated meats and jerky, non-commercial maple syrup, and apple cider
• Anything sold unpackaged at the point of sale
• Cosmetics, which get their own separate licence from 2027. The two agencies also disagree on freeze drying: the Division of Public and Behavioral Health bans it outright as an advanced process while the health district allows it for low-acid fruits, and neither position is in the statute.

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets.

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 lists Cottage food operation registration with your local health authority before you sell; the listed cost is Southern Nevada Health District charges $220 for fiscal year 2026/27, one-time and non-refundable, invoiced after a pre-screening review. Unpaid after 30 days the application is denied as delinquent.. You must register before selling any food item, giving your name, address and contact details plus any trading name. The health authority may charge a fee not exceeding its actual cost, so there is no state-wide fee and no state-wide process: five bodies register, and a registration only covers the counties its issuer covers. Southern Nevada Health District covers Clark County; Northern Nevada Public Health covers Reno, Sparks and Washoe; Carson City Health and Human Services covers Carson City and Douglas; Central Nevada Health District covers Churchill, Pershing, Mineral and Eureka; and the Division of Public and Behavioral Health covers Elko, Esmeralda, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Nye, Storey and White Pine. A cottage food operation is a single natural person: no partnerships, no families, no corporations, no employees. A Nevada State Business License is required on top, and no local zoning board or governing body may adopt an ordinance prohibiting cottage food operations. The statutory text behind this row was read in the National Agricultural Law Center's Nevada cottage food compilation, current through the 2025 session, because no Nevada host would serve it, and registration fees outside Clark County could not be reached at all.

No training is recorded as universally required. No training requirement appears in the statute, in the health district FAQ or application, or in the Division of Public and Behavioral Health guide, and no agency states the absence. Worth knowing for contrast: Nevada's separate craft food registration for acidified foods does require an approved course and an exam, so a reader who has heard about Nevada food safety training has probably heard about that programme.

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 prepared and processed in the kitchen of your own private home, or, if your health authority allows it, in the kitchen of a fraternal or social clubhouse, a school, or a religious, charitable or other nonprofit organisation. You may not rent a kitchen and you may not use a permitted food establishment.
• Every item is prepackaged in the home, before transport, in a way that protects it from contamination during transport, display, sale and acquisition. Nothing is open at the point of sale, and samples count: they are pre-portioned into closed food-grade containers at home.
• The operation is one natural person. Partners and employees are not permitted, which is a kitchen rule in practice as much as a licensing one.
• Nevada sets no mandatory home kitchen hygiene rules. The sanitation advice both agencies publish, on pets and small children, smoking, handwashing, sanitising, potable water and pests, is written throughout with "should".
• The two agencies read the online sentence opposite ways. The statute requires an in-person transaction that does not involve selling by telephone or over the internet. Southern Nevada Health District says that does not preclude taking a phone or internet order that ends in a face-to-face sale at delivery or pick-up; the Division of Public and Behavioral Health says a website may advertise but may not have an option for online purchasing or shipping. Ask your own registering authority by name before you turn on a checkout.

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: SB 466 moved regulation of food establishments from the Division of Public and Behavioral Health to the Nevada Department of Agriculture and recodified NRS chapter 446 as chapter 580, so the cottage food section became NRS 580.600. It also added annual Consumer Price Index adjustment of the sales limit from fiscal year 2026-2027. Local health authorities remain the registering bodies until 30 June 2027.
• 2027-07-01: AB 352 replaces the whole regime. A statewide Department of Agriculture licence replaces registration with a local health authority; the cap rises from $35,000 to $100,000 per calendar year; sales may be made by telephone or over the internet and fulfilled in person, by mail, or through a food delivery service platform; teas and dried vegetables join the product list while vinegar and flavoured vinegar drop off it; the kitchen may be any kitchen not otherwise required by law to be inspected; and local government may regulate time, place and manner but may not prohibit. A parallel cottage cosmetics licence is created. The required label sentence is unchanged, and the bill contains no type size or colour rule.

Start this weekend

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

• Register with your local health authority before you sell anything. Budget $220 if you are in Southern Nevada.
• Pay the invoice within 30 days. After that the application is denied as delinquent and you start again.
• Ask for the current adjusted cap. It is indexed now but no adjusted figure has been published.
• Plan for direct and market sales only. Online and shipping are not in this tier.
• Check the section number on any guidance you find. It changed in 2025 and changes again in July 2027.