Do cottage foods need a Nutrition Facts panel?
Often not, but it depends on your sales, your products and what your label says. FDA’s Nutrition Facts rule, 21 CFR 101.9, has small business exemptions in paragraph (j). Here is what they say, what removes them, and where state rules come in.
Short answer: FDA exempts many small sellers from Nutrition Facts, but only while the label, labeling and advertising make no nutrition claims and give no other nutrition information. Your state’s cottage food rules also apply. We can’t tell you whether you qualify: check the rules below with your own numbers.
Last checked against the official text. Sources
The small retailer exemption: 101.9(j)(1)
Food offered for sale by a person who makes direct sales to consumers ( e.g., a retailer) who has annual gross sales made or business done in sales to consumers that is not more than $500,000 or has annual gross sales made or business done in sales of food to consumers of not more than $50,000, Provided, That the food bears no nutrition claims or other nutrition information in any context on the label or in labeling or advertising.
21 CFR 101.9(j)(1)(i)
- Sales are based on “the most recent 2-year average of business activity”; newer businesses use reasonable estimates (101.9(j)(1)(ii)).
- FDA: for this exemption, “a notice does not need to be filed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)” (FDA: Small Business Nutrition Labeling Exemption).
The low-volume product exemption: 101.9(j)(18)
A product can be exempt for a 12-month period if, for the preceding 12 months, “the person claiming the exemption employed fewer than an average of 100 full-time equivalent employees and fewer than 100,000 units of that product were sold in the United States” (101.9(j)(18)(ii)). New products use the units reasonably expected to be sold.
A notice is usually required. The exemption must be claimed in a notice filed with FDA before the period begins (101.9(j)(18)). There is one exception: “if the person is not an importer and has fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, that person does not have to file a notice for any food product with annual sales of fewer than 10,000 total units” (101.9(j)(18)(iv)).
FDA says the notice is filed annually, and that starting October 5, 2026, web-based notices go through FDA Industry Systems (FIS); paper notices by mail or fax are still accepted (FDA page).
Claims remove the exemption
- Under (j)(1): “Claims or other nutrition information subject the food to the provisions of this section”.
- Under (j)(18): the exemption covers products “whose labels, labeling, and advertising do not provide nutrition information or make a nutrient content or health claim”. FDA: “low volume products that bear nutrition claims do not qualify for an exemption of this type.”
- A nutrient content claim characterizes the level of a nutrient; FDA’s examples are “low sodium” or “contains 100 calories” (21 CFR 101.13(b)(1)).
“In labeling or advertising” means the exemption can be lost by what you say beyond the package, not only on it.
Very small packages: 101.9(j)(13)
“Foods in small packages that have a total surface area available to bear labeling of less than 12 square inches” are exempt if they make no nutrition claims or other nutrition information. Packages using this exemption must give an address or telephone number where consumers can get the nutrition information (101.9(j)(13)(i)(A)).
What the exemptions don’t cover
These are exemptions from 101.9, the Nutrition Facts rule. They don’t exempt you from the ingredient list (21 CFR 101.4) or allergen labeling (see the allergen guide), or from your state’s label rules.
Cottage food: your state may add rules
The rules above are federal. If you sell from a home kitchen, your state’s cottage food law decides what your label must show, and it can add its own requirements or set them differently. On nutrition information, our state pages for California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and Oregon each say it is needed only when the label makes a nutrition claim (each page quotes or cites the state rule). Our Arizona and Texas pages don’t list nutrition information among their state’s label elements; the federal rules above still apply.
Always check your state page and your state agency before you print. Our state guides: Arizona · California · Florida · Georgia · Michigan · Ohio · Oregon · Texas. Another state? See cottage food labels.
If you need, or want, a panel
Our Nutrition Facts calculator is free to use: enter your recipe and see every value per serving, with FDA rounding. Clean PNG and PDF downloads of the panel are a $19 one-time unlock (pricing; no subscription). Values are estimates from USDA FoodData Central ingredient data, not lab analysis.
Make the label
Most cottage food labels need the ingredients, allergens, net weight, your business details and your state statement. The label maker puts those together for free.
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Sources
Last checked . We read each of these official sources; quotes on this page are copied from them. Regulation text is from the eCFR (up to date as of October 19, 2026).
- 21 CFR 101.9(j): exemptions from nutrition labeling
- FDA: Small Business Nutrition Labeling Exemption
- 21 CFR 101.13(b): nutrient content claims
- 21 CFR 101.4: ingredients
This page explains federal rules in plain English. It is not legal advice, and FDA does not approve labels. Found something wrong? Contact us · How we verify