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Rules for South Carolina · Last updated September 11, 2026

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

South Carolina issues no permit, licence or registration, and says so plainly. The 2022 rewrite also opened grocery stores and restaurants, which most states keep closed.

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Key takeaways
  • No permit, licence, certificate or registration. Regulation 61-25 lists this as a permit exemption.
  • Since 2022 you can sell online, by mail, to retail stores and to restaurants.
  • A department-approved water supply is required, including annual testing on a private well.

What South Carolina actually decides

SCDA does not issue permits, licences, certificates or registrations to home-based food operators, and Regulation 61-25 lists home-based food production operations among its permit exemptions. There is no cap either. The only paperwork is strictly voluntary: an ID number you can request and print on the label instead of your home address.

The 2022 rewrite was substantial and it is why South Carolina now sits at the open end of the spectrum. It expanded the exemption from candy and baked goods to all non-potentially hazardous foods, added online and mail-order direct sales, opened sales to retail stores including grocery stores, and made home-based food an approved source for a retail food establishment. Restaurants are in scope. Very few states allow that.

What you do have is a water and sewage condition that reads more like a licensed facility than an exemption. You need a department-approved water supply, meaning either a public drinking water system or a private well tested at least annually for total coliform by a laboratory certified for public drinking water testing in South Carolina, plus approved sewage disposal. The kitchen has to be inside your home dwelling and be the family-use kitchen.

One quirk to know if you are reading the code yourself. An unrepealed parallel section, 46-57-20, still carries the pre-2022 text. If a search lands you there, you are reading the old rule.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the permit or registration, the training requirement or some kitchen rules, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from South Carolina 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.

The short version

what the rule is calledHome-based food production operation
when an inspector comesNo inspection
annual sales limitNo cap

What you can sell in South Carolina

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 generally: baklava, kolachke, lamington, scones
  • Baking mixes for cake, cookie or bread
  • Bread: bagels, cheddar bites, cheese biscuits, cheese bread, ciabatta, focaccia, jalapeño, naan, pretzels, sourdough from a commercial starter, tortillas
  • Cake: brownies, cake pops, coconut cake, cupcakes, muffins
  • Candy, hard candy, fudge, marshmallows and chocolate: coating, ganache, hot cocoa, moulded, tempered, truffles
  • Canned jams, jellies and preserves on high-sugar, high-acid recipes
  • Corn, potato and vegetable chips, popcorn, granola and protein balls
  • Cookies and edible cookie dough
  • Dried, dehydrated, roasted and freeze-dried fruit, nuts and seeds
  • Dry herbs and spices, extracts, coffee, sugar substitutes, vinegar and syrup
  • Icings and frostings, fillings, pastries and doughnuts, pasta, and high-acid pie and pie fillings
  • Honey, but only after you surrender any SCDA Registration Verification Certificate or honey exemption. You cannot hold both

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: casseroles, prepared meals, meat and meat-containing products, poultry, seafood, and all refrigerated foods
  • Cheesecake in all varieties, cream, custard, meringue, pumpkin, sweet potato and vegetable pies, fruit tarts, cream and fresh-fruit fillings, and cream cheese and caramel icings
  • Canned and acidified foods: pickles in all forms, salsa, relish, chow chow, chutney, hot sauce, BBQ sauce, mustard, pepper jelly, marinades, acidic vinaigrettes and dressings, fermented foods, aluminium canned goods, low-acid vegetables, fruits, dressings and sauces, and jams and jellies made from low-sugar, no-sugar or low-acid recipes
  • Bottled beverages, cold brew, herbal tea, kombucha, kefir, ice cream and raw milk as an ingredient
  • Charcuterie boards, which the statute’s own definition names
  • CBD isolate, Delta 8 and Delta 9, liquor-filled candy and infused fruit
  • Repackaging purchased bulk foods, plus sprouts, cut melons, cut leafy greens, cut tomatoes and garlic-in-oil, which the statute defines as potentially hazardous
  • Pet treats and animal feed, which fall under the SC Commercial Feed Act rather than this law

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, online orders, delivery, in-state 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.

Up nextPaperwork, training and inspections

Paperwork, training and inspections

The researched record does not list a general permit for this tier. SCDA does not issue permits, licences, certificates or registrations to home-based food operators, and Regulation 61-25 lists home-based food production operations among its permit exemptions. The application for an ID number is strictly voluntary: it is issued on request and may be printed on the label instead of your home address. No fee is published anywhere, and the online application sits behind an account login. Restaurants are a real route with a real gate: home-based food may not be served or used as an ingredient in a retail food establishment without a variance approved by SCDA, but may be sold there in packaged and labelled form. It is the restaurant, not you, that files the Request for Operational Variance, and its consumer advisory must carry the statement. Two other things the channel list cannot say: a shop buying your food must post clearly visible signage that home-based food products are not subject to commercial food regulations, and operations under the section's $1,500 net-earnings floor fall outside the section entirely, so they need no label but may not sell at retail locations and must be physically present at the sale.

No training is recorded as universally required. No training requirement appears in section 44-1-143 or on any SCDA page, and SCDA never states the absence. The statute does require everyone handling food for sale to be knowledgeable of and to follow safe food handling practices, with no named course.

No inspection 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.

  • The kitchen must be inside your home dwelling and must be the family-use kitchen.
  • A department-approved water supply, meaning either a public drinking water system or a private well tested at least annually for total coliform bacteria by a laboratory certified for public drinking water testing in South Carolina, plus department-approved sewage disposal.
  • No animals, including pets, in the production area while food is being prepared, processed or packaged, and no animal contact with stored food or food being assembled for distribution. No domestic activities in the kitchen at the same time as production.
  • Separate storage for ingredients used in food for sale, a properly functioning refrigeration unit, a sink with enough hot water to clean and sanitize all utensils and equipment, adequate storage for them, hand washing facilities separate from the utensil sink, a working toilet, and no evidence of insect or rodent activity. SCDA contradicts itself on the separate handwashing sink: the statute and the Guidance both require it, while Appendix G of the same Guidance calls it a best practice rather than a requirement. Follow the statute.
  • Nobody with a communicable disease transmissible by food, a carrier, or anybody with an infected wound or an acute respiratory infection may handle food for sale, and you must directly supervise anyone else who does.

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.

  • 2022-05-23: S. 506 expanded the exemption from candy and baked goods to all non-potentially hazardous foods, added online and mail-order direct-to-consumer sales and sales to retail stores including grocery stores, made home-based food an approved source for a retail food establishment, added the department-issued ID number as an alternative to printing your home address, deleted the "NOT FOR RESALE-" prefix from the required statement, and raised the exemption floor from five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars of net earnings a year.
  • 2024-07-01: The home-based food production programme moved from DHEC to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Act 60 split DHEC into the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services and transferred the retail food programme, including this law, to SCDA, which now issues the Home-based Food ID number and publishes the guidance. The same act added section 46-57-20, a copy of the pre-2022 law that conflicts with section 44-1-143 and has not been repealed.

What belongs on a South Carolina label

South Carolina Department of Agriculture, checked September 11, 2026

  1. 01Product name
  2. 02Ingredients by weight
  3. 03Allergens
  4. 04Business name
  5. 05Home kitchen statement, exact wording
  6. No permit number. No state size rule; the federal 1/16 inch minimum applies.
Make a South Carolina label

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

  1. Test your well annually for total coliform at a certified lab if you are not on public water.
  2. Request the voluntary ID number if you would rather not print your home address.
  3. Check which code section you are reading. Section 46-57-20 still carries the pre-2022 text.
  4. If a restaurant or grocery store wants to stock you, that is allowed here. Confirm their own approved-source paperwork.
  5. No animals in the kitchen, and the kitchen has to be the family-use one inside your home.

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 South Carolina 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. South Carolina Department of Agriculture 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.

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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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