Selling cookies in Kentucky
What Kentucky's own pages say about making cookies at home, each line linked, and the path to a store when you want one to stock it.
Run the free rules check for it: no account, no AI.
Can I make cookies at home in Kentucky?
Kentucky's own pages name cookies, or foods like them, among what Kentucky says a home kitchen may make. ShelfStep found these lines by the words they use; whether they cover your product is for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to say. Those lines, as the state writes them:
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: what may be made at homeKRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“(56) "Home-based processor" means a person who in his or her home, produces or processes pork lard or tallow-based cosmetic products or non-potentially hazardous foods, including but not limited to dried herbs, spices, nuts, candy, dried grains, whole fruit and vegetables, mixed-greens, jams, jellies, sweet sorghum syrup, preserves, fruit butter, bread, fruit pies, cakes, or cookies,”KRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
What rules do cookies come under beyond Kentucky's?
Outside a home kitchen, ShelfStep's plan reads cookies as a baked good, snack or dry mix. The plan's own line for it, a default and not a law:
What the rules behind it say, in their own words, with the page and the day ShelfStep read each. ShelfStep does not decide which of them apply to your product.
- Acidified foods: the definition and its exclusions21 CFR 114.3(b) says:“(b) Acidified foods means low-acid foods to which acid(s) or acid food(s) are added; these foods include, but are not limited to, beans, cucumbers, cabbage, artichokes, cauliflower, puddings, peppers, tropical fruits, and fish, singly or in any combination. They have a water activity (aw) greater than 0.85 and have a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below. ... Carbonated beverages, jams, jellies, preserves, acid foods (including such foods as standardized and nonstandardized food dressings and condiment sauces) that contain small amounts of low-acid food(s) and have a resultant finished equilibrium pH that does not significantly differ from that of the predominant acid or acid food, and foods that are stored, distributed, and retailed under refrigeration are excluded from the coverage of this part.”21 CFR 114.3(b) · Read Oct 8, 2026
- FDA's definition of a food facility21 CFR 1.227 says:“Facility means any establishment, structure, or structures under one ownership at one general physical location, or, in the case of a mobile facility, traveling to multiple locations, that manufactures/processes, packs, or holds food for consumption in the United States. ... The private residence of an individual is not a facility.”21 CFR 1.227 · Read Oct 8, 2026
Where may food made at home be sold in Kentucky?
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: where it may be sold902 KAR 45:090 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“(2) A home-based processor doing business in the state shall be a resident of Kentucky. (3) A home-based processor may advertise and accept orders and payments in person, electronically, or via the internet or phone.”902 KAR 45:090 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: a yearly sales ceilingKRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“and who has a gross income of no more than sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) annually from the sale of the products;”KRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: where it may be soldKRS 217.136 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“Food or cosmetic products identified in KRS 217.015(56) and produced, processed, and labeled in accordance with subsection (3) of this section are acceptable food or cosmetic products that may only be offered for sale directly to consumers within this state, including from the home-based processor's home, whether by pick-up or delivery, at a market, roadside stand, community event, or online.”KRS 217.136 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
What does Kentucky say a home-made label must carry?
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: the home-made label902 KAR 45:090 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“(5) Home-based processed food products shall: (a) Be labeled as required by KRS 217.136(3); and (b) Contain allergen information as specified by 21 U.S.C. 343(w).”902 KAR 45:090 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: the home-made labelKRS 217.136 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“A home-based processor shall label each of its food or cosmetic products and include the following information on the label of each of its food or cosmetic products: (a) The name and address of the home-based processing operation; (b) The common or usual name of the food or cosmetic product; (c) The ingredients of the food or cosmetic product, in descending order of predominance by weight; (d) The net weight and volume of the food or cosmetic product by standard measure, or numerical count; (e) The following statement in ten (10) point type: "This product is home-produced and processed"; and (f) The date the product was processed.”KRS 217.136 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
How do I get cookies into a store in Kentucky?
- Kentucky's Home-Based Processor rules: what applies beyond the home-kitchen rulesCHFS, Food and Cosmetic Manufacturing says:“The Food and Cosmetic Manufacturing Program is responsible for regulating: Businesses that formulate and process food for wholesale distribution”CHFS, Food and Cosmetic Manufacturing · Read Oct 24, 2026
- Kentucky, a home-based microprocessor: what applies beyond the home-kitchen rulesKRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) says:“(57) "Home-based microprocessor" means a farmer who, in the farmer's home or certified or permitted kitchen, produces or processes foods, including but not limited to acid foods, formulated acid food products, acidified food products, or low-acid canned foods, and who has a gross income of no more than sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) annually from the sale of the product;”KRS 217.015 (Kentucky General Assembly) · Read Oct 24, 2026
From there, ShelfStep's standard plan for a baked good, snack or dry mix has 18 steps. The first 6 help you find out where and how cookies can be made at all, so they come first:
- 1.
Write the recipe down with exact amounts
Cost, price, nutrition and the label are all worked out from this. Write it in the units you actually use; ShelfStep converts for the label. What matters is that someone else could make the same batch from what is written.
- 2.
Decide how it is kept: on a shelf, in the fridge or frozen
The planned storage helps the reviewer assess the process, shelf life and packaging.
In the plan: It decides which rules you follow.
- 3.
Find out where you are allowed to make it for sale
This finds out whether the state’s rules allow making this in a home kitchen or point to a commercial one — and that changes the cost and the timeline of everything after it. It is much cheaper to find out now than after buying packaging.
In the plan: Your state's home-kitchen rules, in its own words. Whether they cover your product is for your state's agency to say.
- 4.
Have the pH and water activity of a finished batch measured
These measurements give your reviewer information about the batch; they do not establish safety or storage conditions on their own.
In the plan: The two numbers the acidified-food rules name. Measured on the finished product, once it has settled.
- 5.
Look into FDA registration
Registration is how FDA knows your facility exists; the plan is what an inspector or a buyer’s audit asks to see. Both are far easier to do now than during either.
- 6.
Choose the container and what seals it
The container decides the label size, how many fit a case, what shipping costs, and whether the process authority’s answer still holds. Changing it later re-opens all four.
In the plan: How it will be packed, what will seal it and what one will cost. Not sure yet is an answer.
Every step, with its reason and what it typically costs, is on the cookies page:
Where do I go from here?
Check the rules for yours, then keep it
The rules check runs the same deterministic engine ShelfStep uses inside the app, on your answers, and quotes the sentences each rule rests on, with their links and the day ShelfStep read them. It does not decide which apply. It is free, needs no account and uses no AI. A ShelfStep workspace then keeps your plan, your records and the dates, free for one product.