Arizona Cottage Food Law: Registration, Labeling, and Sales Rules

Arizona’s cottage food law lets you make and sell food from your home kitchen without a commercial license, as long as you register with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), earn a food handler certificate, label your products correctly, and stick to the categories of food the program allows. A 2024 update, HB2042, widened that list to include some perishable and temperature-controlled foods, so the program now covers more than the baked goods and jams it started with.

What You Can and Cannot Sell

The program covers shelf-stable staples like baked goods, candies, jams, jellies, granola, and roasted coffee, and after HB2042 it also covers foods requiring time and temperature control for safety. That opened the door to perishable meals and desserts that were previously off-limits.¹

Meat and poultry sit in a narrow lane. You can use meat or poultry from a federally inspected source as an ingredient in your cottage food product. You can also sell poultry and poultry products if you raised and slaughtered fewer than 1,000 of your own birds in a year, which tracks the federal small-producer exemption.¹ Slaughtering your own cattle or pigs and selling those products under this program is not allowed.²

Several categories are prohibited outright:

Alcoholic beverages and any food product containing alcohol
Raw milk or any product made from unpasteurized milk
Fish and shellfish of any kind, raw or cooked
Cannabis-infused products
Pet food, which is regulated under separate rules

Sales also have to stay inside Arizona. Shipping across state lines puts you into interstate commerce and out of the cottage food exemption entirely.

Register With ADHS and Get a Food Handler Certificate

You have to register with ADHS before you sell anything. The application is submitted online and asks for your name, the physical address of your home kitchen, and a list of every food product you plan to sell. Registration must be renewed every three years.²

At least one person involved in preparing the food has to hold a food handler certificate from a course accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board. These courses are widely available online and typically cost around $10 to $15. You’ll upload a copy of the certificate to complete your ADHS registration, and it has to stay current for as long as you operate.³

Kitchen and Location Rules

Your kitchen has to be inside your home and look like a normal residential kitchen. The statute defines a “home kitchen” as one typically found in a residential dwelling that does not exceed 1,000 square feet. Kitchens in facilities for individuals with developmental disabilities also qualify if they meet that same residential standard.²

The state does not inspect these kitchens and does not publish an equipment or sanitation checklist. Local rules still apply, though. Before you start production, check with your city or county planning office to confirm that a home-based food business is allowed under your zoning. Some HOAs have their own restrictions on home businesses as well.

Where and How You Can Sell

Arizona does not cap cottage food revenue. The statute allows sales “to the maximum extent allowed by federal law,” and there is no federal dollar ceiling for food sold within a single state.² Your permitted channels include:

Direct sales from your home to customers who come to you
Farmers’ markets and special events
Retail stores and restaurants, provided the products are pre-packaged with proper labels, displayed in a section separate from non-homemade items, and accompanied by signage stating they are homemade and exempt from state licensing and inspection
Online sales, but every order must ship to an address inside Arizona

Delivery rules split by product type. For non-perishable cottage food that doesn’t contain dairy, meat, or poultry, you or your agent (including a third-party vendor or delivery carrier) can handle the sale and delivery. For products that do contain dairy, meat, or poultry, you have to sell them yourself, in person or online, and deliver them to the customer in person. Third-party platforms like DoorDash or Uber Eats cannot carry those items.²

Perishable products that need temperature control have an extra transport rule: they must be kept at the correct temperature during delivery and cannot be transported more than once or for longer than two hours.¹ Route your deliveries accordingly.

Labeling Your Products

Every cottage food product must be packaged in your home kitchen and carry a label with:

Your business name and ADHS registration number
A complete ingredient list in descending order by weight
The date the product was made
This exact statement: “This product was produced in a home kitchen that may come in contact with common food allergens and pet allergens and is not subject to public health inspection.”
A reference to the ADHS cottage food website where consumers can report foodborne illness or verify your registration

These requirements come from ARS 36-932 and apply to every physical package, whether you’re selling at a farmers’ market, through a retail store, or delivering to a customer’s door.³ When you sell through a retail store or restaurant, a sign at the display area also has to state that the products are homemade and exempt from state licensing and inspection.²

Online Sales Disclosures

Selling online adds a separate set of disclosures on top of the physical label. Your online listing has to prominently display your name and registration number, the full ingredient list with the production date, the home-kitchen allergen statement, and a link to the ADHS website where consumers can report foodborne illness, verify your registration, or flag problems.³ Treating these as optional is one of the fastest routes to losing your registration.

Federal Allergen Labeling Still Applies

Arizona’s rules sit alongside federal allergen law. The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act requires any product containing one of the nine major allergens to identify it clearly. Those allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.⁴ You can meet this either by noting the allergen in parentheses next to the ingredient (“flour (wheat)”) or by adding a “Contains:” line after the ingredient list.

Taxes

Cottage food income is taxable. The IRS treats you as self-employed, so you’ll report earnings on Schedule C and pay self-employment tax once your net profit hits $400 in a year.⁵ You can deduct legitimate business expenses against your income: ingredients, packaging, farmers’ market booth fees, the food handler course. If your home is the sole fixed location of your business and you use part of it regularly for storing inventory or samples, you may also qualify for a home office deduction without needing to prove exclusive use of that space.⁶ Keep receipts for everything.

Arizona’s Transaction Privilege Tax generally exempts food sold for home consumption, but confirm with the Arizona Department of Revenue whether your specific products qualify and whether you need a TPT license. Some cities and counties layer on their own privilege taxes with different rules.

Insurance and Business Structure

Most homeowners’ policies exclude “business pursuits,” which means injuries or property damage tied to a commercial activity in your home aren’t covered. If a customer gets sick from your product and your insurer invokes that exclusion, the claim comes out of your pocket. Product liability policies designed for home food businesses fill that gap; specialty providers offer coverage starting around $299 per year for operators with under $50,000 in annual sales.

Forming a Limited Liability Company adds a layer of separation between your personal assets and your business obligations, so long as you keep the two sets of finances apart. Filing articles of organization with the Arizona Corporation Commission costs $50 for standard processing or $85 for expedited processing.⁷ An LLC won’t shield you from liability caused by your own negligence, but it stops a business claim from reaching your personal bank accounts or home equity.

What Happens If You Break the Rules

ADHS enforces the cottage food requirements. If you fail to comply with labeling, registration, or food safety rules, or if you interfere with an investigation into a reported foodborne illness, ADHS can require you to recertify as a food handler, suspend your registration, or revoke it.² A revoked registration ends your ability to legally sell cottage food in Arizona. The common triggers are selling prohibited items, missing required label elements, and letting the food handler certificate lapse. All three are avoidable if you set the operation up correctly from the start.

1
Arizona Legislature. HB2042 – 562R – House Bill Summary – Food Preparation; Sale; Cottage Food
2
Arizona Legislature. HB2042 – 562R – Senate Fact Sheet – Food Preparation; Sale; Cottage Food
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 36-932 – Labeling; Food Handler Certification; Sale and Delivery Requirements
4
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Food Allergies
5
Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
6
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 509, Business Use of Home
7
Arizona Corporation Commission. Schedule of Fees – LLCs