Cottage food laws in Oregon

The limits

Sales cap

$52,700 (2026 figure; adjusts annually for inflation from a $50,000 base set by SB 643, effective January 1, 2024, indexed under ORS 616.723(2)(d)/OAR 603-025-0320 to West-region CPI-U each March). Figure for 2025 was $51,200.

You can sell

Baked goods, confectionery items, and other non-time/temperature-controlled-for-safety (non-TCS) foods as defined under OAR 603-025-0311 through 603-025-0330.

You cannot sell

Oregon's cottage food exemption does not publish a standalone 'prohibited foods' list. Instead it authorizes only a closed list of specific product categories: baked goods; confectionery items (including freeze-dried confections); coffee beans; dried tea, spice, or seasoning blends made from commercial food; jams and jellies made only with fruit having a natural pH below 4.60; honey and honey products made with commercial food; syrups; fruit butters made only with fruit having a natural pH below 4.60; nut mixes; repackaged freeze-dried, dried, and dehydrated commercial foods; powdered drink mixes made from commercial food; and popcorn. Anything outside this list is not covered by the exemption. Across the board, products must not be time/temperature-controlled for safety (i.e., no perishable or potentially hazardous foods, such as items requiring refrigeration) and may not contain marijuana or marijuana items. Cottage foods also may not be sold to institutions such as restaurants licensed by a county health department, caterers, schools, day care centers, hospitals, nursing homes, or correctional facilities.

Getting set up

Permit / registration

No formal permit/license required for the cottage food exemption itself, but producers are directed to contact a local ODA food safety inspector to confirm the product qualifies.

Cost

None documented for the base exemption.

Training

Yes. Under OAR 603-025-0320 (the Cottage Food Establishment Exemption rule), every employee of the cottage food establishment -- which includes a sole operator -- must have successfully completed a food handler training program, referencing ORS 624.570 and OAR chapter 333 division 175. This is the same food handler card requirement that applies to restaurant workers statewide. ORS 616.723 independently states the same condition for the underlying statutory exemption.

Kitchen inspection

No (exempt from licensing and routine inspection).

Labeling

Product name; ingredient list in descending order by weight/volume (including sub-ingredients); business name and phone number for the cottage food establishment; required OAR 603-025-0325 disclosure statement. Unpackaged items sold at a market must display the required label information on a clearly visible placard at the point of sale.

Where you can sell

Permitted venues

Direct producer-to-consumer sales at the producer's home, farmers markets, farm stands, roadside stands, and similar venues.

Online sales

Yes — online sales and shipped orders are permitted, and products may also be placed in retail stores.

Delivery in state

Yes

Shipping out of state

Not confirmedUnverified as a matter of state law. Neither ORS 616.723 nor OAR 603-025-0311 through 603-025-0335 contains any provision addressing sales, shipping, or distribution outside Oregon. ODA's own current guidance states only that 'Cottage foods may be sold directly to the end users in any manner, including from the home, online, through the mail, and at events,' without specifying a geographic limit either way. Because the statute and rules are silent, this is not an authorization to ship out of state; general federal rules governing interstate shipment of food (and the fact Oregon's exemption is tied to Oregon's own licensing framework) would still need to be checked. Confirm directly with ODA Food Safety Program (503-986-4720; Oda.Exemptfoods@ODA.oregon.gov) before shipping across state lines.

The fine print

Statute

ORS 616.723; OAR 603-025-0311 through 603-025-0330; sales-cap indexing under OAR 603-025-0320; base cap set by SB 643 (2023, effective Jan. 1, 2024).

Recent changes

SB 643 reset the sales-cap base to $50,000 with annual CPI indexing, effective January 1, 2024; cap has since risen to $51,200 (2025) and $52,700 (2026).

Notes

Not confirmedThe ODA exemption page itself is thin on prohibited-foods detail, training, and interstate-shipping specifics — those fields are flagged Unverified rather than filled from secondary sources, since only aggregator sites (not confirmed against a second .gov or statute page) supplied those details and could not be independently verified via a working primary PDF fetch during our research (ODA's own Cottage Food Exemption FAQ PDF could not be rendered as text on fetch). No Oregon MEHKO/home-kitchen-restaurant program was identified in our research; none appears to currently exist in Oregon (unlike California).