What New Hampshire actually decides
New Hampshire draws the line by channel rather than by volume, and the exempt side is wider than most states. Selling from your own residence, your own farm stand, a farmers market or a retail food store needs no licence at all. That includes grocery stores, which many states treat as wholesale and close off.
The licence starts mattering the moment you go beyond that. Offering products to restaurants, to food establishments other than retail food stores, over the internet, by mail order, or to wholesalers and brokers requires a Class H Homestead Food License, Category H-1, at $150 a year. Internet sales are the one that catches people, because it feels like direct selling but is treated as the licensed tier.
There is no sales cap on either tier, and no training requirement appears in either rule part or in the FAQ. Commercial equipment is not required and nothing has to be NSF approved, which keeps the setup cost low.
Kitchen requirements are modest: either a two-compartment sink, or a residential dishmachine plus a one-compartment sink, and no pets in the kitchen or food production area during production. A July 2025 change lets a QR code or a website carry the ingredient list for certain sales, which is useful on a small label.
One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the permit or registration, the training requirement or the date a recent change took effect, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 13, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.
The short version
What you can sell in New Hampshire
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 items, including breads, rolls, muffins, cookies, brownies and cakes
- Double-crusted fruit pies
- Candy and fudge
- Packaged dry products, spices and herbs included
- Acid foods, including vinegars and mustards
- Jams and jellies
- Roasted whole-bean or ground coffee, dry bread and instant bread mixes, freeze-dried candy, hard candies and lollipops
- Sweet breads and muffins made with fresh or frozen fruit or vegetables worked into the batter, never used as decoration or garnish
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 food needing time or temperature control, including anything that must be refrigerated
- Processed acidified and low-acid canned foods such as canned gravies and some canned vegetables
- Dehydrated meats, and dehydrated fruits or vegetables
- Live sourdough starters, and uncooked frozen bread or pizza dough
- Apple cider and bottled beverages such as iced coffee, iced tea, lemonade and fruit juices
- Pumpkin butter, which is low acid, and apple or other fruit butters until a process review clears them
- Honey and maple syrup, which the Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food regulates instead
- Pet treats, also the Department of Agriculture
Where you are allowed to sell it
The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, online orders, delivery, in-state shipping, interstate 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 lists Class H Homestead Food License, Category H-1, for the licensed tier before you sell; the listed cost is $150 a year. Selling from your own residence, your own farm stand, a farmers market or a retail food store needs no licence at all. The licence is required the moment you offer products to restaurants, to food establishments other than retail food stores, over the internet, by mail order, or to wholesalers, brokers or distributors, which is to say the moment a Confita shop takes a web order. Apply at least 30 days before you plan to operate and contact your assigned inspector to book a pre-opening inspection. The application carries a sample finished-product label, a complete product list, private-well lab results for bacteria, nitrates and nitrites, and process-review documentation for acidified or jarred products. Homesteads are exempt from the $75 floor-plan review. Fifteen self-inspecting cities and towns license their own food establishments, so in Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester and Salem, ask the town. A farmers market may require a food licence of its own vendors even where the state does not. On the sales cap: the current rule paraphrases the statute with no dollar figure and no department page mentions one, but older published text of the same subsection carried a $20,000 annual limit and every New Hampshire legislature host is blocked, so the statute could not be read. Ask Food Protection before you plan a year around it.
No training is recorded as universally required. No training appears in either rule part or in the FAQ, and the department never states the absence.
Before you open 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.
- Commercial equipment is not required and nothing has to be NSF approved.
- Either a two-compartment sink, or a residential dishmachine plus a one-compartment sink.
- Pets are not allowed in the kitchen or food production area during food production.
- Laundry facilities may be in the kitchen, but not in use while you are processing, preparing, serving or packaging food for the business.
- Everything is made and stored in your primary residence. No shed, barn, garage or other outbuilding, and no rented kitchen even if it is licensed.
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.
- 2024-02-22: The exempt homestead rule was readopted with amendment. The readopted text is substantively identical to the 2019 version, so what actually changed could not be determined.
- 2025-07-13: A QR code or a website may now carry the ingredient list for sales made directly from the homestead or the owner's own farm store. The substance is confirmed on the department's own FAQ; the chapter number and the effective date come from a secondary source, because every New Hampshire legislature host is blocked.
What belongs on a New Hampshire label
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
checked September 13, 2026
- 01Product name
- 02Ingredients by weight
- 03Allergens
- 04Name and street address
- 05Home kitchen statement, exact wording
- 06Date made
- 07Phone or email
- No permit number. No state size rule; the federal 1/16 inch minimum applies.
Start this weekend
In this order, so the label is the last thing you check and not the first thing you guess.
- Work out which side of the channel line you are on. Home, farm stand, market and retail store are licence-free.
- Get the $150 Class H licence before selling online, by mail, to restaurants or wholesale.
- Do not over-invest in equipment. Nothing needs to be commercial or NSF approved here.
- Sort a two-compartment sink, or a residential dishmachine plus a one-compartment sink.
- Consider the QR code option for ingredients if your label is small. It has been allowed since July 2025.
Nearby guides
Neighbouring 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.
Keep going
Frequently asked questions
Is this the whole New Hampshire rule?
No, and you should not treat it as one. This is the official source read carefully on September 13, 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. New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services 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.
Sources
Details were checked against public sources on September 13, 2026. Confirm current prices, policies, or provider instructions before relying on them.