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

What Oregon actually decides

If you meet the qualifications, you do not apply and you do not register. That is the whole administrative story in Oregon. The one thing you can pay ODA for is a Unique Identification Number, $25, entirely optional, and its only job is to replace your street address on the label. It is personal and non-transferable, so a change of business entity or partnership membership means a new number, and using an expired or unauthorised one is misbranding.

The cap is unusual in two ways. It is indexed: the statutory base is $50,000, adjusted every year against the West region Consumer Price Index and rounded to the nearest $100, which put it at $52,700 after a 2.9 percent rise in March 2026. And it stacks with the processed Farm Direct cap, which is separate. In 2026 that means $52,700 of cottage foods plus $50,000 of processed Farm Direct foods, if you qualify for both.

Training is required and it is cheap. Every individual involved in preparing cottage food holds an Oregon food handler card, $10, valid three years, issued by any county and valid statewide. A valid food manager training certificate is accepted instead. The ID number does not satisfy this and is not a substitute.

The kitchen rules are more specific than most states and worth reading before you rearrange anything. Separate closed storage for cottage food ingredients, finished containers and labels. Separate refrigerated storage for perishable cottage food ingredients. A separate storage area for household cleaning chemicals and toxic substances.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the date a recent change took effect, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Oregon Department of Agriculture 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 Oregon

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
• Confectionary items, including freeze-dried confectionary items
• Coffee beans
• Dried tea, spice or seasoning blends made from commercial food
• Popcorn
• Jams and jellies made only with fruit whose natural pH is below 4.60
• Honey or honey products using commercial food
• Syrups
• Fruit butters made only with fruit whose natural pH is below 4.60
• Nut mixes
• Repackaged freeze-dried, dried and dehydrated foods from commercial food
• Powdered drink mixes from commercial food. The statute’s list is open-ended, but the rule’s list is closed and the rule is what ODA enforces

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 time or temperature controlled for safety: cream pies and cheesecakes, pastries with cream, custard, meringue or cream cheese fillings, focaccia with vegetables or cheese, caramel and candy apples, chocolate-covered strawberries, and baked goods containing meat, fish or shellfish
• Marijuana or marijuana items, including cannabinoid products, concentrates and extracts
• Meat and meat-containing products
• Pet treats and animal food
• Bottled or brewed tea, and any tea made with hemp leaves. Only dried tea from a commercial source qualifies
• Freeze-dried products you make yourself, other than confectionary items. Repackaging commercially freeze-dried food is fine
• Pickles, pepper jelly and anything made from produce whose natural pH is above 4.60
• Low-acid canned foods and acidified foods

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.

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. If you meet the qualifications you do not fill out an application or register with ODA at all. The UIN is the only thing you can pay ODA for and it is optional: it replaces the street address on the label. Using an expired or unauthorised UIN is misbranding, and it is personal and non-transferable, so a new number is needed if the business entity or partnership membership changes. It does not satisfy federal labelling, so it is no good for interstate shipping: if you ship out of Oregon you must print a real address. A PO box may never be used as the address. Above the cap the next tier is a licence rather than a registration: a Domestic Kitchen Bakery is $179 for $0 to $50,000 of gross annual sales and a Domestic Kitchen Processor is a flat $223, both expiring 30 June.

Training is required: Oregon food handler card. Every individual involved in preparing cottage food must hold a food handler certificate. The card costs $10, is valid three years, is issued by any county and valid statewide, and a valid food manager training certificate is accepted instead. Cards from other states are not valid in Oregon, and the Oregon Health Authority warns that fake "Oregon-approved" online courses exist, so use a provider on its list.

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.

• Separate closed storage space for the ingredients, finished product containers and labels used to make cottage food, and separate refrigerated storage for perishable cottage food ingredients.
• A separate storage area for household cleaning materials and other chemicals or toxic substances. Medical supplies and equipment may not be stored or allowed in the domestic kitchen at all.
• No processing, preparing, packaging or handling of cottage food while pets are present, or while other domestic activity is going on in the kitchen. The rule names family meal preparation, serving, dishwashing or eating, clothes washing or ironing, cleaning floors, walls, cabinets or appliances, and entertaining guests. ODA may not refuse the exemption because pets live in the home.
• ODA can order a product assessed by a recognised Process Authority or tested at a certified food testing laboratory, and results must show a pH of 4.60 or less or a water activity of 0.850 or less. Refusing is grounds to revoke the exemption, as is failing to give reasonable access for an inspection.
• Records are mandatory: the location of every sale, the date sold or shipped, the product, price and quantity, and the running annual gross sales calculation, kept three years and produced to ODA within five business days. For online sales the record includes the address and contact details of each purchaser.

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.

• 2024-01-01: Senate Bill 643 replaced the 2015 Home Baking Bill with the Cottage Food Exemption: the product list expanded well beyond baked goods and confectionery, the cap went from $20,000 to $50,000 with annual inflation indexing, online and mail sales were authorised, and sales to retailers became possible. The effective date comes from secondary sources because oregonlegislature.gov was unreachable at verification time.
• 2024-04-18: ODA adopted the implementing rules: OAR 603-025-0320 with the closed product list, kitchen conditions and retailer sales, 603-025-0325 on labelling, the UIN as an address substitute and the mandatory pets declaration, 603-025-0328 on records, 603-025-0330 on revocation, and 603-025-0335 on the UIN and its $25 fee.
• 2025-08-11: OAR 603-025-0320 was amended. The amendment is confirmed in the rule's own history line but the filing caption could not be retrieved, so what it changed is unknown. Most likely the annual inflation adjustment to $51,200, since the 2026 order records $51,200 as the immediately prior figure, but that is inference.
• 2026-03-13: The annual inflation adjustment raised the cottage food gross sales limit from $51,200 to $52,700, on a 2.9 percent rise in the West all-items Consumer Price Index for the twelve months ending December 2025.

Start this weekend

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

• Check the current cap before you plan a year. It is indexed and moved to $52,700 in March 2026.
• Get a food handler card for everyone who prepares, not just you. $10, three years, any county.
• Buy the $25 ID number only if you want your street address off the label. Nothing else needs it.
• Set up separate closed storage for cottage food ingredients, containers and labels.
• If you also qualify for Farm Direct, remember the caps stack rather than sharing one ceiling.