Selling it

Selling at a market

Updated October 2026

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The channel the exemption was written for What the market asks Cold at a market What still applies References

The natural first channel, and the one the juice HACCP retail exemption effectively describes.

The channel the exemption was written for

Selling your own product directly to the person who will drink it, from your own stall, and not distributing to other businesses.

Which is the condition of the exemption, and it means a market business can operate without a HACCP plan in a way a wholesale one cannot.

It also means the moment a stallholder next to you asks to stock it, the position changes.

What the market asks

Liability insurance, almost always.

A local food business registration and frequently a health department permit, which for a beverage is more likely to be required than for a dry good.

Handwashing and temperature control at the stall, which is a real requirement rather than a form: a refrigerated product on a warm table is a problem the inspector will see.

Cold at a market

The practical constraint. A live or unpasteurized product needs to be cold from the van to the customer's hand.

Coolers with ice, a temperature log, and a plan for a hot day rather than hope.

And a hard decision about what to do with stock at the end of the day, which for a short-life product is frequently to sell it cheap rather than take it back.

What still applies

The exemption is from the HACCP rule, not from everything.

The warning statement on packaged untreated juice still applies, and it is a common omission on a market stall.

So does labeling generally on anything packaged, so does the alcohol threshold on anything fermented, and so does your own responsibility for a safe product.

A cup poured to drink there and a bottle handed over to take home are treated differently, and the second is packaged.

References

21 CFR Part 120, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems for juice. Covered processors must achieve a 5-log reduction in the pertinent pathogen. ecfr.gov

US Food and Drug Administration. Exemptions from the Warning Label Requirement for Juice. A retail establishment selling juice directly to consumers and not distributing to other businesses is exempt from the HACCP rule, and untreated juice must still carry the warning statement. fda.gov

Written from the federal regulation and agency guidance named on each page, not from a laboratory. Whether a particular product meets a pathogen reduction requirement, and what its alcohol content actually is, are measurements about your product, and this is not those measurements.