Looking for a Cottage Food License?
Our mission is to help new food industry entrepreneurs understand how they can start making their food, beverage and snack products in their home kitchen (for resale via farmer’s markets, events and more).
What is a Cottage Food License?
A Cottage Foods License is a permit or authorization issued by a state or local government that allows individuals to produce and sell certain low-risk food products from their home kitchen. These licenses typically have restrictions on the types of food products that can be made, the volume of sales, and the direct-to-consumer selling methods.
What Are the Most Common Items
The most common food and beverage items created with a cottage food license include baked goods like cookies, cakes, and bread, as well as homemade jams, jellies, and preserves. Additionally, items like candies, granolas, and certain non-perishable items may also be produced and sold under a cottage food license, depending on the specific regulations in each region.
What Are the Most Common Retail Areas a Cottage Foods Licensee Sells To Its Customers?
- Farmer’s Markets: These are popular venues where cottage food producers can directly interact with consumers and sell their products.
- Events and Festivals: Participating in local events and festivals allows cottage food businesses to showcase and sell their goods to a wider audience.
- Online Sales: Many cottage food producers use online platforms or their websites to reach customers who prefer to purchase their products online.
- Local Specialty Stores: Some cottage food products may be sold in local specialty stores or boutiques that focus on artisanal or locally-made goods.
- Community and Craft Fairs: Cottage food licensees often participate in community and craft fairs to promote and sell their homemade products.
- Direct-to-Consumer: Some cottage food producers operate on a direct-to-consumer basis, where customers order products for pick-up or delivery directly from the producer’s kitchen.
There are over 9,000 Farmers Markets and 8,600 Farm Stands in America Today. The USDA created a website showing where farmer’s markets are today. Farm Stands (also called produce stands and fruit stands) are ideal for placement of new products (such as beverages and juices, jams and jellies, snacks, frozen foods and desserts, coffee and tea, bulk foods, confections and more).
The Contract Packaging Association and the Co-Packing Network established the Contract Manufacturing Alliance as a prime resource for all aspects of consumer product manufacturing, catering to startups, emerging, and established brands.
Explore more at www.ContractMFG.org
The Contract Manufacturing Alliance
The Eight Arms of Manufacturing:
Our Search By County Tool: Commercial Kitchens
We created the 'Search By County' Tool to help food industry start-ups find the ideal commercial kitchen (also known as a commissary kitchen, kitchen incubator) in their area. We list the commercial kitchens by county and by zip code.
Look for our other programs relating to help with working with farmer's markets; our commercial kitchen incubation programs for clients of commercial kitchens and our own efforts helping create new kitchens.
Pioneering Industry Standards in Contract Packaging & Manufacturing
Established in 1992, the Contract Packaging Association (CPA) is the national, non-profit trade organization dedicated to promoting the growth and welfare of firms in the Contract Packaging / Manufacturing industry and related businesses. We offer exposure and programs designed to foster growth within our member firms.
A Century of Expertise in Consumer Product Manufacturing
The Co-Packing Network is a comprehensive national Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) advisory group deeply rooted in the diverse US and Canadian consumer product manufacturing industries. Celebrating our 100-year anniversary, our expansive history spans supermarkets, wholesaling, manufacturing, owning brands, and beyond.
The Contract Manufacturing Alliance’s founders have over 30-years in the consumer products space and are available to help create new brand group (start-up, emerging and established) customer sales plans. Recruiting New Commercial Kitchens: The Contract Packaging Association’s membership includes contract manufacturers, pilot plants, private labelers and commercial kitchens of all-types. We are recruiting current commercial kitchens and contract manufacturers to offer pilot runs and / or to create pilot plants within their own locations. We also are working with colleges and universities with current programs.
We offer all Commercial Kitchens (culinary kitchens, shared kitchens, kitchen incubators, food innovation centers) with tools that help their clients (such as incubation programs). We will be availing our matchmaking platforms to our commercial kitchen partners that have needs for kitchen equipment, ingredients, packaging, recipe tools and much more.
The Contract Manufacturing Alliance
Creating products for the following:
Local and Regional Farmers Markets
Our incubation program connects consumer product entrepreneurs with kitchens, co-packers, and pilot plants nationwide, perfect for farmer's market operators and vendors.
Local, Regional, National Retailers
Together with our own internal and external sales partners, we help place products (retailers, e-commerce) that consumer product entrepreneurs make with their manufacturing partners. Our own www.RetailFormats.com showcases all of the retail and food service formats that are ideal for placements.
Local, Regional, National Food Service
We help entrepreneurs place their products with manufacturers in retail and food service locations via our sales partners. Check out the ideal formats at www.RetailFormats.com.
Local, Regional, National E-Commerce (Internal / External)
We create e-commerce platforms and Amazon relationships for client brands using our internal and external sales partners, with customers like Thrive Market, Abe’s Market and Wayfair.
Our family has been involved within the consumer product industry (US based manufacturing, retailing, distribution) since the early 1920’s. From the first generation to the latest, our best practices have been handed down over time leading to a long legacy of successes in the business (manufacturing, retailing, distribution and more).
Our New Community Tool: Squawkee
Our Own Media:
Contract Packaging (CP) is the official magazine for the Contract Packaging Association, published three times each year by PMMI Media Group (owners of Packaging World magazine). Dedicated exclusively to contract packaging issues and news, each issue is overseen by Editor-in-Chief, Anne Marie Mohan.
20,000 qualified packaging professionals receive each edition of CP. These professionals are individuals who have indicated that they have purchase involvement in contract packaging and related services and products. Magazine recipients are also contract packagers, who are CPA members.
www.ContractPackaging.org
