Everything you need to sell home-made food in Colorado — legally, confidently, and profitably.
Colorado's Cottage Foods Act (C.R.S. § 25-4-1614), enacted in 2012 and expanded through amendments in 2013, 2015, and 2016, lets home food sellers produce and sell non-potentially hazardous foods directly to consumers — without a permit, without a license, and without a home kitchen inspection. It's one of the most welcoming cottage food frameworks in the country.
What makes Colorado truly unique is its per-product revenue limit. Instead of capping your total annual sales, the state limits each individual product to $10,000 in net revenue per year. Different flavors count as different products — so strawberry jam and peach jam each get their own $10,000 ceiling. That means your total earning potential is effectively unlimited as long as you diversify.
The one requirement: Before you start selling, you must complete an approved food safety training course. Options range from a 90-minute online Food Handlers Card (~$10–$15) to Colorado State University Extension's in-person cottage food training (~$50, valid for 3 years). No inspection, no registration, no application — just complete training and start selling.
You can sell at farmers markets, through your own website, via social media, at community events, and through direct delivery — as long as every sale stays within Colorado. The 2016 amendment opened the door to internet sales and added all non-potentially hazardous foods to the approved list, including pickled fruits and vegetables with pH of 4.6 or below. Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) even offers free pH testing for up to 5 pickled products per producer.
Eight detailed guides covering everything from what you can sell to launching your business.
The full breakdown of open, restricted, and prohibited products under Colorado's cottage food rules.
Read Guide →pH requirements, water activity rules, storage standards, and how to track your per-product sales limit.
Read Guide →Understand temperature-controlled foods — what's off-limits under cottage food and how to go further.
Read Guide →Teas, coffee, kombucha, juice, and more — which drinks you can sell and what requires separate licensing.
Read Guide →Colorado requires no state permit — but you may need a local business license and sales tax registration.
Read Guide →Every required label element, the exact Colorado disclaimer text, and allergen labeling rules.
Read Guide →Step-by-step: sole proprietor vs LLC, DBA filing, EIN, taxes, pricing, and where to sell in Colorado.
Read Guide →Meat, dairy, alcohol, fermented foods, and CBD/THC edibles — separate licensing paths explained.
Read Guide →Colorado's food story starts long before statehood — with the Ute people, the state's oldest continuous residents, who followed seasonal migration patterns across the Rockies and Great Basin for centuries. Skilled hunter-gatherers, they hunted elk and deer, gathered piñon nuts, berries, yampa roots, and greens, and practiced a sophisticated rotation of gathering sites that sustained the land for generations. In the southwestern mesas, ancestral Puebloan peoples cultivated corn, beans, and squash — the "Three Sisters" that anchored one of North America's earliest agricultural traditions.
The Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1858 transformed Denver from a remote frontier camp into a city that needed to feed itself fast. The very first food-processing plant was a brewery, established when Denver was barely months old. Railroads brought flour milling and canning; cattle ranching defined the Eastern Plains; and the Western Slope's irrigated valleys gave rise to the legendary Palisade peach, first planted in 1882. Germans from Russia, Hispano farmers, and Japanese immigrants all shaped the agricultural landscape — from sugar beet fields to the heirloom bean varieties and dried chile ristras of the San Luis Valley.
Today, Colorado's food identity is unmistakable: green chile smothered over everything, Pueblo chiles roasted on fall weekends, Olathe sweet corn and Rocky Ford cantaloupes celebrated at dedicated festivals, and Rocky Mountain Oysters served at rodeos across the state. The Denver-Boulder corridor is one of America's great craft beer capitals with over 400 breweries, and the state launched Chipotle, Noodles & Company, and Smashburger. For cottage food sellers, this means selling into a state that deeply values local food, knows its producers by name, and actively supports the artisan food economy.
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