Confita
What Virginia actually decides
Virginia writes this as an exemption from inspection rather than as a programme you join. There is no permit, no registration and no fee, and VDACS says that an exempt operator does not pay its $40 annual inspection fee. If a bill arrives anyway, report it.
What confuses people is that there are three tiers, not one. Baked goods, candy and dry goods have no dollar cap at all. Pickles and acidified vegetables are separate and capped at $9,000 gross in a calendar year, with VDACS asking you to document those sales as you go. Honey from your own hives is a third tier, under 250 gallons a year, and on that tier alone you may not sell other foods except through the two above.
July 2026 changed how you sell. Both home tiers may now sell at any location, over the internet, or by phone to someone in Virginia, and deliver in person, by mail or by delivery service. Before that it was in person only. The label may also now carry a PO box instead of a physical address, which is a genuine privacy improvement.
If you are doing acidified products, take the pH requirement seriously. Every different product needs its own test at an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower, paper strips are not accurate enough, and VDACS wants an electronic meter, roughly $100. For anything canned under two months, blend the sample rather than testing the brine on its own.
One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the prohibited-food list, the training requirement or some kitchen rules, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 9, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.
The short version
What you can sell in Virginia
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.
- Candies
- Jams and jellies that are not low-acid or acidified low-acid products
- Dried fruits, dried herbs, dry seasonings and dry mixtures
- Coated and uncoated nuts
- Vinegars and flavoured vinegars
- Popcorn, popcorn balls and cotton candy
- Dried pasta and dry baking mixes
- Roasted coffee and dried tea
- Cereals, trail mixes and granola
- Baked goods that need no time or temperature control after preparation
- Pickles and acidified vegetables at an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower, including pickled products, salsa, chow-chow and relishes. This is a separate tier with its own $9,000 cap
- Honey from your own hives, under 250 gallons a year. This is a third tier
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.
- Canned fermented foods
- Canned foods that need refrigeration for safety
- Canned acid foods
- Canned fruits
- Low-acid canned vegetables
- Any food that needs time or temperature control after preparation, derived from the statute rather than published as a prohibition.
- Low-acid or acidified low-acid jams and jellies, derived the same way.
- Infused honey, which VDACS treats as a value-added product outside the pure-honey exemption
Where you are allowed to sell it
The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, online orders, delivery, in-state shipping.
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.
