Guide
Cottage-food Nutrition Facts: when US homemade packs can skip the panel
Many US cottage-food laws let a homemade pack skip a Nutrition Facts panel if you stay inside the state’s product list, sales cap and labeling disclaimer. They do not let you skip the name of the food, the ingredients, or FALCPA allergen names. A cookie tin without wheat, milk and egg named is still wrong.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The short answer
Many US cottage-food laws let a homemade pack skip a Nutrition Facts panel if you stay inside the state’s product list, sales cap and labeling disclaimer. They do not let you skip the name of the food, the ingredients, or FALCPA allergen names. A cookie tin without wheat, milk and egg named is still wrong.
Where this shows up in a real kitchen
Home bakers hear “cottage food means no labels”. What most statutes actually do is require a homemade-in-a-home-kitchen sentence, ingredients, allergens, and net weight, while waiving a commercial kitchen and often waiving Nutrition Facts. The waiver dies when you make a nutrient claim (“high protein”, “low calorie”, “sugar-free”) or when you leave cottage-food for a licensed kitchen.
The US rule
Federal Nutrition Facts (21 CFR 101.9) has small-business exemptions with dollar and unit tests. State cottage-food statutes layer on top: allowed foods, sales caps, disclaimers, sometimes a ban on interstate shipping. FALCPA is federal and still names the nine majors on packaged food. Do not treat a state disclaimer as a FALCPA exemption.
How to apply it
Read your state’s cottage-food label list. Put the disclaimer on the pack. List ingredients and majors. Skip Nutrition Facts only if both the federal exemption and the state cottage rules allow it. The day you print “keto, 3 g net carbs” you have probably bought a panel.
- Confirm the food is on your state’s cottage list.
- Put the statutory homemade disclaimer on the pack.
- List ingredients and FALCPA names regardless.
- Skip Nutrition Facts only if no nutrient claim and the exemption still fits.
Worked example
A Colorado cottage baker’s 8 oz chocolate-chip cookies: identity, net weight, ingredients, Contains: wheat, milk, egg, soy, plus the state homemade disclaimer. No Nutrition Facts. The same baker’s “protein cookie, 20 g protein” Instagram SKU needs the panel because the claim triggered it — or needs the claim removed.
Checks that belong on this pack
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Disclaimer wording matches the statute | A cute “made with love” line is not the legal sentence. |
| Wheat, milk and egg are still named on cookies | Cottage is not a FALCPA holiday. |
| No high-protein or sugar-free boast unless you will print a panel | Claims end exemptions. |
| Sales are still under the cap | Crossing the cap is how people accidentally become a full manufacturer. |
Skipping the ingredients list because Nutrition Facts is waived
Those are different columns. A waived panel does not waive 101.4 or FALCPA.
What LabelClear can and cannot print
Draft ingredients and allergen names in LabelClear, then add your state’s homemade sentence and net weight. Do not ask the generator for a Nutrition Facts waiver — that is a statute you have to read.
Questions
If I am under the federal small-business Nutrition Facts exemption, am I cottage food?
Do I need Nutrition Facts to sell on a state cottage-food website?
Can I copy another state’s disclaimer?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- Nutrition labeling requirementsU.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Food Labeling GuideU.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA)U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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