California was the first state to pass a modern cottage food law (AB 1616, 2013), and its rules still work differently from most of the states that followed it. Rather than one fixed sentence CDPH tells every operator to print, California's official labeling guidance — the Department of Public Health's "Labeling Requirements for Cottage Food Products" — sets out required elements and leaves the exact phrasing of some of them to you, while enforcement and any additional local expectations sit with your county's environmental health department, not the state.
What CDPH's own labeling guidance requires
The common or descriptive name of your product has to appear on the principal display panel — the side of the package a shopper sees first on the shelf. Net weight or volume must be declared in both U.S. customary units (ounces or pounds) and metric units (grams) — a detail several other states don't require in dual form. If your product contains any of the major food allergens, a plain-language allergen declaration is required. And if your label is computer-generated rather than handwritten, CDPH's guidance specifically calls out that all of the required information still has to be sized and laid out so an average consumer can actually read it — a generic "as long as it's technically present" reading of the rule isn't enough.
Class A and Class B — why California doesn't have one flat sales cap
Instead of a single statewide revenue ceiling, California splits cottage food operators into two permit tiers. A Class A permit covers direct-to-consumer sales only — you selling at a farmers market, from your home, or shipping orders you personally hand off — and is usually a straightforward, low-cost registration with your county. A Class B permit adds indirect sales, meaning a retail shop, café, or grocer can carry your product, and that tier requires an actual kitchen inspection by your county's environmental health department. Which tier you need changes what your county will ask you to document, so it's worth confirming with them before you print your first batch of labels.
Why this page won't hand you a single quotable disclosure sentence
Several other states — Texas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and New York among them — publish one exact sentence you're legally required to reproduce verbatim on every label. California's CDPH guidance doesn't do that; it focuses on the elements above and leaves broader compliance (and any county-specific label expectations) to local health departments. Rather than invent a sentence and imply CDPH requires it, this page — and the free generator's California setting — sticks to what CDPH's own document actually specifies, and tells you plainly to check with your county for anything beyond that. If your county health department hands you a specific sentence to use, that instruction controls.
Using the free generator for a California label
Select California in the generator on this site's homepage and it will build a label with your product's common name, ingredients listed in descending order by weight, net weight shown in both ounces/pounds and grams automatically, an allergen line if you flag any of the major allergens, and your business name. It intentionally leaves the disclosure line for you to add per your county's guidance rather than guessing at wording CDPH hasn't published. Print it directly or save it as a PDF sized to a standard label sheet.
Required label elements at a glance
- Common or descriptive name of the product, on the principal display panel
- Net weight or volume, declared in both U.S. (ounces/pounds) and metric (grams) units
- A plain-language allergen declaration for any major allergen present
- Business name (and, per your county, an address or registration reference)
- If computer-generated, all required text sized so an average consumer can read it on the panel
Minimum type size
No minimum type size is specified in the official source for the disclosure statement itself.
Sales cap
Set by a Class A vs. Class B permit tier rather than one statewide dollar cap — see the permit note below.
Permit / registration
Class A permits cover direct-to-consumer sales only (farmers markets, your home, online orders you hand-deliver) and are typically a low- or no-cost registration with your county environmental health department. Class B permits add indirect sales through a third party, like a shop or grocer, and require a county health inspection of your kitchen.