Food labeling for US cottage bakers

The short answer

Cottage bakers in the US print a state home-kitchen disclaimer plus the product name, ingredients, major allergens, net weight and contact name. You do not get to skip wheat, milk, egg or sesame because the kitchen is also your kitchen.

Where this shows up in a real kitchen

Home bakers learn from UK Instagram accounts that talk about Natasha’s Law. Useful discipline, wrong statute. Your limit is the state food list and sales cap. Your allergen duty is still FALCPA names on the packed cookie.

The US rule

State cottage-food statute + FDA identity, ingredients, FALCPA. Nutrition Facts often skipped until claims or growth. No meat. No low-acid canning unless the state says so — and most say no.

How to apply it

Bake only allowed foods. Label every sealed item before the market. Keep pecans, peanuts, sesame and milk obvious. Do not offer nationwide shipping until you leave cottage food on purpose.

1. Print the state disclaimer from the official sheet.
2. Add FALCPA names for what is in the dough.
3. Weigh the box; print that net weight.
4. Stay inside the sales-channel limits.

Worked example

Ohio cottage chocolate-chip cookies, dozen box: identity, 12 oz net, ingredients with wheat, butter (milk), eggs, soy lecithin, the Ohio disclaimer, name and city. Contains: wheat, milk, egg, soy. No Nutrition Facts if the exemption still holds and the front does not shout “keto high protein”.

Using a UK PPDS generator printout as the only cottage label

You still need the disclaimer and usually net weight and your name. The UK 14-list may also mis-teach your Contains line.

Questions