Selling it

Who inspects you

Updated October 2026

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Two layers, and they are not the same conversation Make the call early and describe the product fully Write down what you were told, and who told you Nothing here is a determination The venue can change the answer References

The definition is federal and the enforcement is usually your state department of agriculture. Which means the real answer to almost every question on this page is a phone call.

Two layers, and they are not the same conversation

The federal layer defines what an acidified food is and what is required of one. The state layer is who licenses your kitchen, inspects it and decides whether you may sell what you are making and where. Both apply and they are different conversations with different people.

Makers routinely get a clear answer from one and assume it settles the other. It does not, and the gap is where people discover late that the product they can legally make is one they cannot legally sell at the venue they planned on.

Make the call early and describe the product fully

Every ingredient, how it is acidified, how it is processed, where it will be sold. A partial description gets a confident answer to a question you did not ask. In particular, say whether you are fermenting, quick pickling or both, because they are different processes and the answer can differ between them.

Write down what you were told, and who told you

Name, date, what you described and what they said. Staff change and guidance gets restated, and a maker who can say who told them what in March is in a different position in September from one who remembers being told it was fine.

Nothing here is a determination

This property is written from the regulation and from published extension guidance. It is a starting point for the conversation, not a substitute for it, and no page here can tell you that you comply.

The venue can change the answer

Where you intend to sell is part of the question rather than a detail after it. A farmers market, a retail shelf, a restaurant and mail order across a state line can each sit differently, and a maker who asks only about making the product gets an answer that does not cover where they planned to sell it. Describe the whole plan, including the venue you have not started yet.

References

21 CFR 114, Acidified Foods, including the 114.3 definitions and the exclusion list. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21. law.cornell.edu

Michigan State University Extension. Cottage food law: which preserved products are covered. canr.msu.edu

United States Department of Agriculture. Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 6: Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables. Revised 2015, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu

Written from federal regulation and published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. An acidified food is a federal category with a filed process behind it, and your state enforces it. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture and a process authority, not a determination that you comply.