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Checked 2026-09-08 · Source linked below

Cottage food laws in Arizona

What you can sell from your home kitchen in Arizona, how much of it, where you can sell it, and what has to go on the label — with the government source for every line.

Blake Boykin

Researched and maintained by Blake Boykin, Founder, Boykin Web Management. Last checked 2026-09-08.

We are not lawyers. Confirm anything here with Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Food Safety and Environmental Services before you produce or sell. Fields marked Not confirmed are open questions, not zeros. How we source this.

Arizona

Permissive

Cottage Food Program · Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Food Safety and Environmental Services

The limits

Sales cap
None
You can sell
Baked goods, cookies, breads, jams/jellies from allowable fruits, candy, dried mixes, roasted nuts, and honey. Following HB 2042 ("the Tamale Bill," effective September 14, 2024): tamales and other prepared meals, dairy products, acidified foods (pickles, salsas, hot sauces), and USDA-inspected meat/poultry are also allowed.
You cannot sell
Alcoholic beverages, unpasteurized milk products (except as otherwise permitted), fish, shellfish products not otherwise authorized, marijuana/marijuana products; a cottage food product may not be sold with intent to be used as an ingredient in other retail-sold products

Getting set up

Permit / registration
Yes — online registration with ADHS (renews every 3 years); no home kitchen inspection as part of standard registration
Cost
Not confirmedUnverified. Neither ADHS's cottage food program page nor the Arizona Administrative Code rule text (R9-8-101.02, via Cornell Law's LII mirror) mentions a registration fee amount, or states that registration is free. Numerous non-primary aggregator/blog sites uniformly claim ADHS registration is free and that the required ANAB-accredited food handler training course costs roughly $7–$15, but these are not acceptable sources of record under the source rules. Confirm directly with ADHS (azdhs.gov Cottage Food Program).
Training
Yes — completion of a food handler training course from an ANSI/ANAB-accredited program; certification must stay active and is tied to the 3-year registration renewal
Kitchen inspection
No routine inspection under registration; Department may act on verified food safety complaints
Labeling
Name and registration number of the cottage food preparer, full ingredient list, date prepared, the statement "This product was produced in a home kitchen that may come in contact with common food allergens and pet allergens and is not subject to public health inspection," and "To obtain additional information about cottage foods or to report a foodborne illness, go to azdhs.gov/Cottagefood"; packaging must be clean, secure, and tamper-evident

Where you can sell

Permitted venues
Direct-to-consumer sales and delivery within Arizona; may also sell through a third-party vendor (store/kiosk) if the cottage food is kept in a separate section with a disclosure sign
Online sales
Yes, with an online prominent disclosure of all required label information
Delivery in state
Yes. Non-TCS cottage foods may be delivered directly or via a third-party delivery platform that agrees to comply with statutory requirements. TCS foods or products containing meat/poultry must be delivered in person only (no third-party platform), kept at proper temperature, limited to one destination and no more than two hours in transit.
Shipping out of state
No — registered preparers "shall only offer cottage foods for sale and delivery in Arizona"

The fine print

Statute
A.R.S. Title 36, Chapter 8, Article 2 (§§ 36-931 to 36-933); Arizona Administrative Code R9-8-101.02 (published in the Arizona Administrative Register, Feb. 28, 2025)
Recent changes
HB 2042 ("Tamale Bill"), signed March 29, 2024, effective September 14, 2024, greatly expanded allowed foods (perishable/TCS items, dairy, acidified foods, USDA-inspected meat/poultry) and added delivery-method rules (third-party delivery platforms for non-TCS foods).
Notes
No MEHKO-style program identified for Arizona. A home kitchen used for a cottage food business may not also serve as a commissary for a mobile food unit. ---

Questions that apply in every state — pricing, insurance, labeling, pet treats, sales caps — are answered in the full FAQ.

Knowing the rules is the easy part

The harder part is selling without a place of your own to sell from.

  • Your buyers are Messenger threads, not customers

    There is no export and no list, so there is no way to tell 400 past buyers that holiday pre-orders open Friday. Every season starts from zero.

  • Marketplace listings do not rank on Google

    Three years of posting can leave you with no searchable presence at all, while the people searching for what you make land on whoever does have a page.

  • Every order costs you a conversation

    Price, pickup time, allergens, payment, three follow-ups — by hand, per order. That is the real ceiling on how much you can sell, and it has nothing to do with how fast you bake.

The longer version, plus what to run your business on, is on the main reference page.

Free, before you decide anything

Stop selling through Messenger threads

Arizona lets you take orders online. A Marketplace listing cannot take an order, hold a pickup window, or collect an email address — a page of your own does all three, and it keeps showing up in Google long after the listing expires.

Tell me what you make and I will build you a sample site — real and clickable, not a mockup. You see it first, and owe nothing if it is not right for you.

  • Built around Arizona's labeling and disclosure rules
  • Order cutoffs and pickup windows, so nothing oversells
  • Yours to keep — your domain, your customer list

No cost and no obligation. You see the sample first and decide from there.