South Carolina's Home-Based Food Production Law covers a broad range of shelf-stable foods. Here's the full picture — open, restricted, and prohibited — so you can plan your product line with confidence.
Every food a home seller might make falls into one of three categories under South Carolina's Home-Based Food Production Law. Open foods are clearly allowed with no special conditions. Restricted foods are allowed, but only when specific requirements are met. Prohibited foods cannot legally be made and sold from a home kitchen under this law — a different license pathway is required.
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Create Free Account to Use This Tool →South Carolina's Home-Based Food Production Law is grounded in the 2009 FDA Food Code. The core concept is simple: foods that require time or temperature control to stay safe cannot be made and sold from a home kitchen. Here's what that means in practice.
TCS stands for Temperature Control for Safety. These are foods that support the rapid growth of harmful bacteria when left at unsafe temperatures (between 40°F and 140°F). Meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, cooked vegetables, and cut produce are classic TCS foods. South Carolina's cottage food law prohibits TCS foods because a home kitchen cannot guarantee the temperature controls a licensed food facility can.
pH measures acidity. Foods with pH ≤ 4.6 are acidic enough to inhibit the growth of dangerous bacteria like Clostridium botulinum — no matter the temperature. That's why pickles, jams, and vinegars are allowed when properly made: their acidity protects them. Foods with pH above 4.6 AND water activity above 0.85 fall into the "Product Assessment Required" zone and are generally prohibited unless tested.
Water activity (Aw) measures how much "free" water is available in a food for microbial growth. A value of 1.0 is pure water; 0.0 is completely dry. Foods with Aw ≤ 0.85 are shelf-stable enough for cottage food — this covers most dry goods, crackers, properly dehydrated fruits, and very low-moisture baked goods. When in doubt, Clemson Extension's Food2Market program can run a product assessment for you.
Most U.S. states restrict cottage food to direct-to-consumer sales only. South Carolina is one of a small handful that allows retail store placement. Your products must be pre-packaged, fully labeled with the state disclaimer, and sold "as-is" — the retailer cannot use your product as a cooking ingredient without a separate SCDA variance. The store must also display the required HBFPL notice to customers.
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