Compliance Basics: What You Need to Know Before You Sell
This is a quick-orientation post, not the full picture — for the real detail, the Legal section covers all of this in depth. But if you're just starting out and want the basic shape of it before diving into statutes, here's the short version. You're probably starting as a cottage food producer. Texas allows home-based food production under its cottage food law, with no facility inspection or manufacturer's license required, up to a $150,000/year gross revenue cap (raised from $50,000 in 2025). This covers most people getting started. There's a label requirement, even at the smallest scale. Cottage food products need a specific disclosure label — this isn't optional paperwork for later, it applies from your very first sale. Selling online has a catch: personal delivery only. If you take orders online as a cottage food producer, Texas requires you to personally deliver them — you can't ship through a carrier like UPS or USPS. This surprises a lot of people who assume "online store" means "can ship anywhere." Growing past the cottage food cap changes things. Once you outgrow the cottage food threshold, or want to sell wholesale into retail stores directly (though a registered cottage food vendor can carry your product into stores on your behalf without you needing this — see the Legal section), you move into needing a Texas Food Manufacturer License, which does require a facility inspection and a commercial-grade space — not your home kitchen. The license fee itself is modest; the real cost is the facility. None of this is a substitute for reading the real thing. This post is meant to orient you, not to be your compliance reference — head to the Legal section for the full breakdown on cottage food law, the manufacturer's license, and the paths to getting facility access without building your own commercial kitchen from scratch.