Florida's cottage food law is one of the more permissive in the country — no permit, no state inspection, and a gross-sales ceiling most home bakers will never approach — but the state is specific about what has to be printed on every package.
The exact statement Florida law requires
Fla. Stat. §500.80(3) requires this exact sentence on the label, in at least 10-point type, in a color that contrasts with the label's background so it can't be printed in a barely-visible shade:
"Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations."
The rest of the label
Alongside that statement, FDACS requires the name and address of the cottage food operation, the name of the product, an ingredient list in descending order by weight, the net weight or volume, and allergen information covering the major food allergens. If — and only if — you make a nutritional claim anywhere on the packaging, you also need to add nutrition information; if you make no such claim, a full Nutrition Facts panel isn't required. There's no requirement for a barcode or an FDA-approved label layout beyond the elements above.
No permit, but there is a $250,000 sales cap
Florida doesn't require cottage food operators to hold a license or permit from FDACS, and cottage food kitchens aren't subject to routine state inspection the way a licensed food establishment would be. The tradeoff is a gross annual sales ceiling: FDACS caps a cottage food operation at $250,000 in sales per year. Products must be sold within Florida — you can sell online if the product is hand-delivered to the buyer or to a specific event, but you can't ship it wholesale or out of state under the cottage food exemption. Florida also publishes a specific list of product categories the law covers (breads, cakes and pastries, candies, jams and jellies, dried fruit, dry mixes, roasted nuts, vinegar, popcorn, and similar low-risk shelf-stable items) — confirm your specific product is on that list before relying on the exemption.
Using the free generator for a Florida label
Select Florida in the generator on this site's homepage and it fills in your operation's name and address, product name, descending-order ingredient list, net weight, and allergen line, then inserts the exact FDACS disclosure sentence automatically, live in the preview. Print directly or save it as a PDF sized to a standard label sheet — the contrast and size of the disclosure text in the generated preview follows the ≥10-point, contrasting-color rule described above.
Required label elements at a glance
- Name and address of the cottage food operation
- Name of the product
- Ingredients, listed in descending order by weight
- Net weight or volume of the product
- Allergen information for the major food allergens
- Nutrition information, only if a nutritional claim is made on the label
- The exact FDACS disclosure statement (below), ≥10-point contrasting type
Minimum type size
At least 10-point type, in a color that contrasts with the label background, per Fla. Stat. §500.80(3).
Sales cap
$250,000 in gross sales per year.
Permit / registration
No permit or license from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) is required to operate a cottage food business, and cottage food operations are not routinely inspected.