Every product you sell must carry a compliant label before it leaves your home. Here's every required element, the exact disclaimer wording, allergen rules, and the most common mistakes to avoid.
Under KRS § 217.136 and the CHFS Labeling Requirements Guide, every unit of home-produced food offered for sale in Kentucky must carry a label with seven specific elements. There is no pre-approval process for labels — but non-compliant labels can result in your registration being flagged or revoked. Getting your label right from day one protects your business.
Sample label based on the Forrager.com example for Kentucky. For the official labeling guide, see the CHFS Label Requirements PDF.
Kentucky's labeling requirements follow the FDA's major food allergen framework, updated in 2023 to include sesame as the ninth major allergen. You must declare the presence of any of these nine allergens in your product — either as a named ingredient or as a sub-ingredient within a compound ingredient.
The most common format is a "Contains:" statement placed directly after the ingredients list: "Contains: milk, eggs, wheat, soy." This must name only the allergens actually present — don't include allergens not in your product.
If you use shared equipment or produce multiple products in the same kitchen where other allergens are used, you may voluntarily add a "May contain:" or "Made in a facility that also processes [allergen]" advisory. This is not required by Kentucky law for home sellers, but it is best practice and may reduce your liability.
When listing ingredients, you must already call out allergens within sub-ingredients — for example, "butter (cream, salt)" and separately noting "Contains: milk." The Contains statement summarizes; the ingredient list provides the detail. Both are required.
Every label must declare the quantity of contents. Kentucky follows FDA standard net quantity requirements — both U.S. and metric units must appear.
Baked goods, candy, granola, dried goods, snacks, and most solid products must declare net weight in ounces and grams (or pounds and kilograms for larger quantities).
Syrups (maple, sweet sorghum), honey, and any liquid product must declare net volume in fluid ounces and milliliters.
Jams, jellies, and preserves can be declared by weight or volume. Weight is standard practice for preserves. If your jar has a standard fill weight, weigh a test jar to confirm the actual net weight, as jar sizes are not always filled identically.
For products sold by count rather than weight (e.g., a box of 12 cookies), you may declare both net weight and count. The net weight declaration is still required.
Weigh the actual contents — do not estimate. Scales used for commercial sales at farmers markets must be certified legal-for-trade by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Kentucky law specifies a minimum 10-point font size for the required disclaimer statement: "This product is home-produced and processed." This is the only element with a state-mandated minimum size.
For context, 10-point type is the standard body text size in most word processors — it is comfortably readable. Do not go smaller in an attempt to fit more on a label.
While only the disclaimer has a mandated minimum size, all label text must be clearly legible. The Food Safety Branch expects that a consumer can read and understand every required element on your label.
Best practice recommendations:
These are the labeling errors the Food Safety Branch most commonly identifies during complaint investigations and market inspections.
Create a fully compliant Kentucky home food label in minutes — with the required disclaimer pre-filled, allergen detection built in, and net weight formatting guided automatically. Download print-ready label files.
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