Can I sell homemade jam in New Mexico without a permit?

Yes. Since July 1, 2021, New Mexico's Homemade Food Act has let you make standard high-sugar fruit jams and jellies in your home kitchen and sell them directly to New Mexico consumers with no permit from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) [1] [2]. The one thing you must do before you start is get a Food Handler Card from an approved program [1]. Every jar carries the state's home-produced statement. Hot pepper jelly and other vegetable jellies are excluded, and nothing made under the Act may go to a store, a restaurant or a buyer outside the state [1].

What "standard high sugar" lets in and keeps out

NMED's list of foods the Act covers includes "Standard high sugar fruit jams/jellies" [1]. Those words do the sorting, and NMED's list of foods that need time or temperature control (TCS foods, which the Act does not cover) names "Vegetable jams/jellies (e.g., hot pepper jelly)" [1]. Here is how the common products fall, as of October 2026:

The split between jam and canned fruit surprises people: a jar of peach jam is fine and a jar of canned peaches is not [1]. Read the list as written rather than by analogy. If a product sits in a gap, NMED's FAQ names a process authority who can evaluate it, Dr. Willis Fedio of the New Mexico State University Food Safety Laboratory (wfedio@nmsu.edu), and takes requests at food.program@state.nm.us [1]. NMSU Extension describes traditional high-sugar jams and jellies as foods that will not support pathogen growth at room temperature, and says a process authority can classify products that are not clearly covered [4].

Two of those gaps have pages of their own. A green chile or jalapeño jelly is an acidified food until a process authority says otherwise; see pepper jelly. And any spread made with less sugar needs both a method built for it and a different name; see low-sugar jam that sets and keeps and what you can call your jam.

The card, the label and nothing else

New Mexico asks very little of a jam maker, which makes the few requirements easy to get right.

1. Get a Food Handler Card from an approved food handler card program before you begin production [1]. NMSU notes the training is offered online and is valid for three years [4].
2. Skip the permit. The Act requires none, and Albuquerque's environmental health office says it no longer issues Homebased Food Processor permits [3].
3. Label every jar with your name, home address, telephone number and email; the common name of the jam; the ingredients from most to least, with sub-ingredients; and this statement, word for word [1]:

"This product is home produced and is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens."

NMSU's list of label elements also includes an accurate net amount by weight, volume or count [4], which the federal rules expect on any packaged food. The rest of the federal baseline (name, net weight, ingredients, allergens) is on what a jam label must say.

Where New Mexico jam can go

NMSU adds that permitted food businesses cannot use homemade foods as ingredients [4], so a café cannot bake your jam into its pastries. Shipping within the state is covered on selling jam online.

Albuquerque and Bernalillo County run their own programs

NMED's food program does not cover Bernalillo County or the City of Albuquerque, which have their own food safety programs [2]. The city's Homemade Food Act page lists the same split: fruit jams and jellies allowed, vegetable jams and jellies such as hot pepper jelly not [3]. Inside the city, questions about whether a product qualifies go to the Consumer Health Protection Division at 505-768-2738 [3].

Past the Act: pepper jelly, shops and other states

Foods the Act excludes "must be produced in an NMED permitted commercial kitchen" [1], and the same applies once you want to sell to stores, restaurants or out-of-state buyers. That step is covered on when you need a licensed kitchen.

NMED's Food Program, and Albuquerque's

The agency is the New Mexico Environment Department, Food Program, Harold L. Runnels Building, 1190 St. Francis Drive, Suite N4050, Santa Fe, NM 87505; 505-827-2855 or 800-219-6157 [2]. Its Homemade Food Act page links the Act and the FAQ [2]. Ask in writing about low-sugar spreads, fruit butters and consignment, the three points its FAQ does not settle. In Albuquerque, call the city instead [3]. The rules above were last verified in October 2026.

Pricing for a direct-only market

Every New Mexico sale is a retail sale to the person who eats the jam, so there is no wholesale price to protect. How to price jam works through cost per jar and market fees, and selling jam at a farmers market covers the stall where most of those sales happen.

References

1. New Mexico Environment Department, Homemade Food Act FAQ, updated August 16, 2021. https://www.env.nm.gov/foodprogram/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/06/Homemade-Food-Act-FAQ.pdf
2. New Mexico Environment Department, Food Program, Homemade Food Act, not dated (viewed October 2026). https://www.env.nm.gov/foodprogram/homemade-food-act/
3. City of Albuquerque Environmental Health, New Mexico Homemade Food Act, not dated (viewed October 2026). https://cabq.gov/environmentalhealth/food-safety/new-mexico-homemade-food-act
4. New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service, Flores and Lillywhite, Starting a Food Business in New Mexico: Food Safety (Guide E-510C), September 2022. https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_e/E510C.pdf