Texas cottage food and jam: what you can sell and how

Yes, and Texas is now one of the most open states for it. Since September 1, 2025, a Texas cottage food production operation may sell any food except a short list of exclusions (meat, poultry, seafood, ice products, low-acid canned goods, cannabis-derived products and raw milk), so standard jam needs no permit and no registration [1]. The condition every seller must meet is training: you must complete an accredited basic food handler course before you sell [1]. Gross income is capped at $150,000 a year, three times the old limit and adjusted each year for inflation using the CPI-U [4], and jam may now be sold wholesale to registered cottage food vendors who can place it in stores [1].

Older Texas advice you may still find

Search results still surface Texas A&M AgriLife's October 2023 fact sheet, which gives a $50,000 cap, says products bought online "cannot be shipped or mailed," and describes testing each batch with a calibrated pH meter when you do not use an approved recipe [2]. The cap and the food list in that sheet were replaced by SB 541 [1]. The sheet is still useful for one thing: it lists "Canned jams and jellies" and "High-acid fruit butters" by name, and advises tested recipes and a boiling water bath for them [2]. Follow the current DSHS page for the rules.

How each kind of jam fits the 2025 rules

The recipe sources DSHS accepts for acidified and fermented foods are the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (2015 revision), So Easy to Preserve (6th edition), the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (37th edition) and two Ball Home Canning Test Kitchen books (2016 and 2017) [1]. For a recipe outside that list, email a Request for Official Determination to foodestablishments@dshs.texas.gov or use a process authority from the AFDO directory [1]. Pepper jelly belongs on this route; see pepper jelly.

Selling online, delivering and wholesale

• Online orders are allowed when the operator, an employee or a household member personally delivers the food [1]. Before payment, the required label statement must be posted legibly on your website; after payment, the label must show your address or DSHS identification number [1].
• Shipping. SB 541 removed the mail-order language from the statute, so an online order is filled by personal delivery, not by mail or carrier [4]. The current DSHS page does not describe shipping, and out-of-state sales are not addressed [1]. Patterns in other states are on selling jam online.
• Wholesale. Apart from TCS foods, you may sell at wholesale to a registered cottage food vendor, who may resell at a farmers market, farm stand, food service establishment or retail store [1]. The vendor, not you, registers for that. Jars sold through a vendor must show the date made [1]. Pricing a wholesale case is on selling jam to shops and cafes.

The Texas label, item by item

1. The name of the cottage food production operation.
2. Your address, or a unique identification number in its place. To get the number, register with DSHS even if your products do not require it [1].
3. The common or usual name of the product.
4. Any major food allergen in the ingredients [1].
5. A batch number for pickled, fermented or plant-based acidified canned products, such as pepper jelly made that way [1].
6. The date made, for TCS foods and for jars sold through a vendor [1].
7. This statement, as DSHS prints it: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION." [1]

Batch numbering and dating methods are on best-by dates and lot codes; the federal elements are on what a jam label must say.

Past $150,000 or past the rules

Above the income threshold, or to sell directly to stores yourself, you move to a licensed food operation regulated by DSHS; ask the department which license fits your plan. See when you need a licensed kitchen.

DSHS and the cottage food rules

The Texas Department of State Health Services administers cottage food under Health and Safety Code Chapter 437 and 25 TAC § 229.661, both linked from its Texas Cottage Food Production page [1] [3]. The statute page did not load for this review, so this page follows the DSHS summary. Send product questions, such as whether a low-sugar spread counts as TCS, to foodestablishments@dshs.texas.gov and keep the reply [1].

The rules above were last verified in October 2026. If a registered cottage food vendor wants to stock your jam, selling jam to shops and cafes covers pricing and terms.

References

1. Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Cottage Food Production, not dated (2025 rules; viewed October 2026). https://www.dshs.texas.gov/retail-food-establishments/permits-retail-food-establishments/texas-cottage-food-production
2. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Selling Food at Home: Texas Cottage Food Law, October 2023 (originally February 2021). https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Selling-Food-at-Home-Texas-Cottage-Food-Law.pdf
3. Texas Legislature, Health and Safety Code Chapter 437, current text (linked from DSHS; did not load for this review). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.437.htm
4. Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 541, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, enrolled (Health and Safety Code 437.001, 437.0192, 437.0193, 437.0194), effective September 1, 2025. https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/pdf/SB00541F.pdf