Vermont cottage food law for home bakers

The short version

Vermont rewrote its home-food rules in 2025: a single cottage food exemption now replaces the old, narrower home-bakery rule, and you can sell up to $30,000 a year in cottage food receipts without a state license or a fee.

In exchange, you file a short exemption form with the health department once a year and attest that you have finished the required training, both before you start and every year after.

The current rule does not spell out whether an order can be taken online or shipped, the way some neighboring states' rules do; the department's own guidance says only that the food cannot go to a restaurant or another licensed food establishment. Until that gap is filled in agency guidance, the safer reading is that a sale needs to reach the buyer directly and in state.

Registering

The rule is administered by Vermont Department of Health; the guide reads 18 V.S.A. §§ 4301, 4303, 4353, 4358 (Chapter 85), as amended by 2025 Act No. 42 (H.401), effective July 1, 2025, which folded the old home-bakery exemption into a single cottage food exemption and raised its threshold to $30,000. Implemented by the Department of Health's Manufactured Food Rule, Chapter 5 Subchapter 1 (current version an emergency rule effective December 29, 2025, adopted to carry out Act 42; a permanent rule was in the final-proposed-filing stage as of November 2025 and was not independently confirmed to have replaced it as of September 25, 2026).

The filing is due once a year, and the department's own page names January 15 as the deadline. There is no charge for it, and it is separate from the training attestation it carries.

Where you can sell, and whether online counts

The law does not mention online sales, mail, shipping or delivery for a cottage food operation, in the 2025 rule or in the rewritten statute. The Department's own page adds that you cannot sell into a restaurant or other licensed food establishment. Nothing in the text opens online ordering or shipping, so treat both as closed until Vermont says otherwise.

What goes on the label

Every label needs your name and address, the product's name, its ingredients by weight, its net weight or volume, allergen information, and the exact disclosure sentence the rule sets out in at least ten point type with a background it stands out against. Nutrition labeling only applies if you make a nutrient or health claim.

• Name and address of the operation
• Name of the food product
• Ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight
• Net weight or net volume of the food product
• Allergen information as federal labeling rules require
• Nutritional labeling, if you make any nutrient content or health claim

What you can bake and sell

The list runs from baked goods and candy through jams, dry herbs, nuts, popcorn, coffee and tea, plus home-canned high-acid items made from a vetted recipe. A separate, smaller exemption exists for a non-bakery food manufacturer with ten thousand dollars or less in yearly sales, which is not the cottage food track and is not detailed here.

• Allowed: Nonpotentially hazardous baked goods, candy, jams and jellies, dry herbs, trail mix, granola, cereal, mixed nuts, flavored vinegar, popcorn, coffee beans, dry tea, and home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruits at pH 4.6 or below or water activity 0.85 or below, made from a recipe the National Center for Home Food Preservation has approved or a food processing authority has reviewed for safety.
• Not allowed: Anything needing refrigeration or time and temperature control to stay safe, any low-acid canned good outside the pH or water-activity limits above, and anything sold through a restaurant or other licensed food establishment.

The sales cap

Vermont caps cottage food sales at $30,000 a year, counted as gross receipts from the sale of cottage food products in a calendar year.

Work out how much room you have left this year with the cottage food sales cap checker.

Questions people ask

Do I need to register to sell cottage food in Vermont?

Yes, Vermont requires registration before the first sale. File the Department's licensing exemption filing once a year, on or before the date the Department sets (the Department's own page names January 15), attesting that the required annual training is complete. The filing is a paperwork step, not a kitchen inspection or approval process, and covers a cottage food operation with $30,000 or less in yearly cottage food receipts. Fee: The Department states plainly that no fee applies to an exempt operator; the filing itself carries no charge.

What is the cottage food sales cap in Vermont?

Vermont caps cottage food sales at $30,000 a year, counted as gross receipts from the sale of cottage food products in a calendar year.

Can I take orders online in Vermont?

The law does not say. It never mentions online orders, so read it as no until Vermont says otherwise. The handover has to happen in person.

Can I deliver or ship cottage food in Vermont?

The rule does not address delivery. The rule does not address shipping inside the state.

What does my Vermont cottage food label need to say?

The label must say: Made in a home kitchen not inspected by the Vermont Department of Health.

Sources

Laws change; check the linked source before you sell.

• 2025 Vermont Act No. 42 (H.401), An act relating to exemptions for food manufacturing establishmentslegislature.vermont.gov
• VT Dept. of Health, Manufactured Food Rule (Emergency filing, eff. 12/29/2025)healthvermont.gov
• VT Dept. of Health, Home-Based Food Licenses and Exemptionshealthvermont.gov
• 18 V.S.A. chapter 85, Food and Lodging Establishments (Vermont Statutes Online)legislature.vermont.gov