Cottage food label requirements in New York

Last checked 5 August 2026 · Informational only, not legal or food-safety advice. Verify anything important with New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Division of Food Safety and Inspection before you print a run of labels.

What goes on the label

1. The product name, in words a customer would use.
2. Every ingredient, heaviest first.
3. The major allergens, called out separately from the ingredient list.
4. Who made it: your name or your business name.
5. How to reach you.
6. The date it was made.

What the label has to say

New York describes what the label has to get across rather than publishing a sentence to copy. This is a common form of it, read on 5 August 2026:

Made in a Home Kitchen

Wording close to this is generally accepted.

The detail

New York's scheme is the Home Processor Exemption from the Article 20-C food processing licence, administered by NYS Ag & Markets. The wording is explicitly flexible: the guidance says home processors should add 'a phrase like' one of 'Made at Home by XYZ', 'Made in the Home Kitchen of XYZ', or 'Made in a Home Kitchen'. Minimum type is 1/16 inch or larger, which is a HEIGHT, not a point size, so statement_min_pt is null. Roughly 1/16 inch of letter height corresponds to about 4.5 pt of type but do not print that as a legal equivalence. NY also requires net quantity of contents on the label, which many states do not: product common name, ingredients by descending weight, net quantity, processor name and full address, and allergens (eggs, milk, fish, shellfish, soybeans, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, sesame).

Make one

Free, nothing saved, no account. It fills in New York's wording for you and prints a sheet.

What it is What is in it, heaviest first Make the labels

Where to verify all of this

Rules change, and this page can lag behind them. Before you rely on any of it:

• The rule itself