Cottage Food Labels in South Carolina: Home-Based Food Production

The short version

South Carolina calls it Home-based Food Production, under S.C. Code 44-1-143. There is no licence, no permit, no inspection, no mandatory application, and no sales cap. There is also no registration in the sense other states mean it: the state issues an ID number only if you ask for one, and only so you can keep your home address off the package.

What South Carolina gives away in paperwork it takes back in one long sentence that has to appear on every label, set in a particular way.

The selling rights are unusually wide

Most cottage food states confine you to handing food to a person. South Carolina, after Senate Bill 506 took effect on 23 May 2022, lets a home-based producer sell:

• Direct to the consumer, including online and by mail order
• Direct to retail stores, including grocery stores

That combination is rare and it changes what the business can be. You can ship, and you can wholesale into a shop, without a licence. Two things stay out of reach: aluminum canned goods and charcuterie boards are excluded from the definition outright, and food used as an ingredient in a restaurant dish needs a variance approved by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The variance is the restaurant's responsibility to obtain, not yours. Packaged, labelled product sold as-is at a retail food establishment needs no variance.

The foods themselves must be non-potentially hazardous. That is the whole test, and it is broader than the pre-2022 rule, which covered only candy and baked goods.

The statement

Every label carries this, in all capital letters, and in a colour that gives clear contrast against the background:

PROCESSED AND PREPARED BY A HOME-BASED FOOD PRODUCTION OPERATION THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO SOUTH CAROLINA'S FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS.

At 21 words it is the longest mandated disclosure of any state covered here, and the two formatting conditions are part of the requirement, not styling advice. Dark grey on a kraft label is the usual way people fail the contrast test. Set it in caps, at a size you can read at arm's length, against something it actually contrasts with, and lay the package out around it rather than fitting it in afterwards.

When your product is used as an ingredient in a restaurant's dish, the consumer advisory the restaurant's variance requires carries the same sentence.

The rest of the label

• The name and address of the home-based food operation. If you would rather not print your home address, apply for an SCDA identification number and use that instead. The application is voluntary and free-standing; it is not a permit and it does not put you under inspection
• The standard name of the product
• The ingredients, in descending order of predominance by weight
• An allergen statement

South Carolina names nine allergens: wheat, soy, milk, egg, finfish, crustacean shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, and sesame. Where a product contains tree nuts, finfish or crustacean shellfish, the specific type has to be named. Not tree nuts but walnuts, pecans, almonds. Not fish but cod or flounder. A generic disclaimer that any major allergen may be present is also permitted, which is the blunt option if your kitchen genuinely cannot rule anything out.

Under $1,500 a year, the label rules fall away

An operation that otherwise fits the definition but takes $1,500 a year or less does not have to meet the labelling or other provisions of the law. The trade is narrower selling rights: no retail locations, and you must be physically present selling directly to the end consumer.

This is a real on-ramp for someone testing a product at two farmers' markets a season, and it is also a cliff. Cross $1,500 and the full labelling requirements apply to everything you sell from that point, including the wide selling rights above. If you expect to grow past it, print the compliant label from the first batch rather than redesigning mid-season.

No health claims, at all

The guidance is flat about this: no health claims may be made in association with a home-based food. That is a state condition on the exemption, separate from the federal rule below, and it applies whatever your sales volume.

The Nutrition Facts panel

South Carolina does not require one. The guidance says so directly, and notes that some producers add one for marketing reasons.

The federal question is separate and is the one to watch, because South Carolina sets no sales cap. Most producers are exempt under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(1): annual gross sales of $500,000 or less, or annual gross sales of food to consumers of $50,000 or less, with nothing to file. With no state ceiling and the right to wholesale into grocery stores, a South Carolina home producer can reach the federal thresholds faster than in almost any other state, and nothing in the state scheme flags the crossing.

Note also that the (j)(1) figures turn on gross sales, not on whether you sold direct or through a shop. Adding a grocery account does not change which exemption applies; it changes how quickly you use it up.

A nutrient content or health claim ends the exemption at any level, which in South Carolina you are barred from making anyway.

Past (j)(1), 21 CFR 101.9(j)(18) is the second route: fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees, fewer than 100,000 units sold in the US in 12 months, and an annual notice to the FDA. Both routes are covered in when nutrition labels are required in the US.

One thing that will confuse you in the statute

The text of S.506 gives the Department of Health and Environmental Control as the body that issues the ID number. DHEC no longer runs this. Act 60, effective 1 July 2024, moved the retail food programme and the Home-based Food Production law to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Apply to SCDA; the statutory text has not been rewritten.

Making the panel

Nutrifax builds it 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.

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

• SCDA: South Carolina Home-based Food Production Law guidance, version 1.4 (2025)
• SCDA: Retail food safety
• Clemson Extension: South Carolina home-based food production law guidance
• 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 against SCDA's Home-based Food Production Law guidance, and confirm the final label against current regulations for your product and jurisdiction.