Two things on this label appear nowhere else
Arizona's required disclosure is longer than most states', and two parts of it are unique in the country.
This product was produced in a home kitchen that may come in contact with common food allergens and pet allergens and is not subject to public health inspection.
Pet allergens. No other state names them. It is a sensible acknowledgement that a home kitchen usually sits in a home with animals in it, and it is the sort of detail a buyer with a serious allergy actually reads.
Then a second line, which is not a disclaimer at all:
To obtain additional information about cottage foods or to report a foodborne illness, go to azdhs.gov/Cottagefood.
A web address, on the label. Arizona is alone in requiring one. Set it as text and check it survives your print process: a URL that has been letterspaced into a design, hyphenated across a line break, or auto-capitalised by a layout program is a URL that no longer works.
The rest of the label
- The name of the product
- The name of your cottage food operation
- Your ADHS registration number
- The ingredients, major ones first, with sub-ingredients in parentheses
- The net quantity
- Allergen information
- The production date
Two of those are worth a second look. Sub-ingredients in parentheses is a specific format instruction, not a general suggestion, so a commercial chocolate chip becomes something like "chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin)". And the production date means your labels cannot be entirely pre-printed, the same constraint Illinois imposes.
Registering is free, and lasts three years
Registration with the Arizona Department of Health Services is online and costs nothing. It renews every three years, which is long enough to forget, so put the renewal date somewhere you will see it.
There is no state sales cap. You may sell online to buyers in Arizona.
No cap means federal law is your ceiling
Arizona will not stop you growing, so the thresholds that matter are the FDA's.
The Nutrition Facts panel exemption at 21 CFR 101.9(j)(1) holds while your annual gross sales are $500,000 or less, or your annual gross sales of food to consumers are $50,000 or less. Nothing is filed to use it.
It ends when a nutrient content or health claim appears on the label, in labeling, or in advertising. Given that Arizona already puts a URL on your label, it is worth being deliberate about what else you add: an online shop description saying "low sugar" ends the exemption exactly as surely as printing it on the jar.
A second federal route exists for a business over those thresholds but still small. 21 CFR 101.9(j)(18) covers a product where the business averages fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees and sells fewer than 100,000 units of it in the US in 12 months, and it needs an annual notice to the FDA. When nutrition labels are required in the US has both routes.
Making the panel
Nutrifax builds a Nutrition Facts panel from your recipe against USDA FoodData Central, in the FDA 2016 format, rounded per 21 CFR 101.9. Import or build the recipe, check each ingredient match, set the serving size from the reference amount for your category, and export a print-ready PDF or PNG.
Plan the layout early. Between the two-sentence disclosure, the URL, the registration number, the date, and a panel, an Arizona label is carrying more than most, and space runs out faster than people expect.
Related pages
- Cottage Food Label Requirements by State
- When Nutrition Labels Are Required in the US
- US FDA Nutrition Label Requirements for Small Producers
- Serving Size and Rounding Rules (US FDA)
- FDA nutrition label generator
Sources
- Arizona Department of Health Services: Cottage food program
- FDA: Small business nutrition labeling exemption guide
- eCFR: 21 CFR 101.9 (Nutrition labeling of food)
Disclaimer
Educational content only; not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the Arizona Department of Health Services, and confirm the final label against current regulations for your product and jurisdiction.