Kentucky Cottage Food Law

Kentucky's cottage food law sets an annual revenue cap of $60,000 and a permit (Kentucky home-based processor permit) is required before the first sale. Direct sales, farmers markets, and online sales permitted.

Watch for: The permit fee is real — budget for it before launching. The cap is $60,000 (raised from the older $20,000 figure that some third-party guides still show).

Annual revenue cap

$60,000

Permit / registration

Kentucky home-based processor permit

Kitchen inspection

Not required

Food handler training

Not required

Acidified foods

Excluded

Interstate shipping

In-state only

Where you can sell

Direct sales, farmers markets, and online sales permitted.

Direct (in-person)
Farmers markets
Online (in-state)

What's required before your first sale

Registration plus a permit fee required. The $60,000 annual gross-sales cap applies to both home-based processors (non-potentially-hazardous foods) and home-based microprocessors (acidified/canned foods with process approval).

Label requirements

Name and address of the home-based processing operation
Common or usual name of the food product
Ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight
Net weight and volume by standard measure or numerical count
Verbatim disclosure required by KRS 217.136(3)(e), in ten-point type: "This product is home-produced and processed" (hyphenated; the statute carries no trailing period)
The date the product was processed
Allergen information per 21 U.S.C. 343(w)
Home-based microprocessors must additionally submit draft labels to the Cabinet for review before use (902 KAR 45:090 §5)

How Ardent Seller helps

Generate your Kentucky disclosure label in one click

Ardent Seller assembles a print-ready cottage food label for Kentucky from data you already track — the state's required disclosure statement rendered verbatim (and sized to meet the state's minimum type size where one applies), your operator info, ingredients in descending order by weight, the federal "Contains:" allergen line, net weight, and lot code. A validation checklist flags anything Kentucky requires that's missing before you print. Included on every plan.

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