Selling granola in Texas
What Texas's own pages say about making granola 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 granola at home in Texas?
Texas's own pages, as ShelfStep read them on September 25, 2026, do not name granola or foods like it, so this page cannot tell you whether a home kitchen in Texas may make it. Ask the Texas Department of State Health Services before you make it at home to sell. What the state allows and leaves out in general is on the Texas page.
What rules does granola come under beyond Texas's?
Outside a home kitchen, ShelfStep's plan reads granola 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 Texas?
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: where it may be soldTexas Health and Safety Code §437.001 says:“(C) sells the foods produced under Paragraph (A) directly to consumers or to a cottage food vendor; and (D) delivers products to the consumer or cottage food vendor at the point of sale or another location designated by the consumer or cottage food vendor.”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.001 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: a yearly sales ceilingTexas Health and Safety Code §437.001 says:“(B) has an annual gross income of $150,000 or less from the sale of food described by Paragraph (A), as the department annually adjusts for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics or its successor in function;”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.001 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: where it may be soldTexas Health and Safety Code §437.0194 says:“A cottage food production operation may sell a food other than a food described by Sections 437.002(2-b)(A)(i)-(vi) in this state through the Internet only if: (1) the consumer purchases the food through the Internet from the operation and the operator or operator's employee or household member personally delivers the food to the consumer; and”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.0194 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: where it may be soldTexas Health and Safety Code §437.0194 says:“(a) Except as provided by Subsection (a-1), a cottage food production operation may not sell food at wholesale. (a-1) A cottage food production operation may sell to a cottage food vendor at wholesale food other than a food described by Sections 437.002(2-b)(A)(i)-(vi) or a time and temperature control for safety food.”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.0194 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: where it may be soldTexas Health and Safety Code §437.01965 says:“A cottage food vendor may sell food produced by a cottage food production operation in accordance with Section 437.0194(a-1) directly to consumers at a farmers' market, a farm stand, a food service establishment, or any retail store.”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.01965 · Read Sep 25, 2026
What does Texas say a home-made label must carry?
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: the home-made labelTexas DSHS, Texas Cottage Food Production says:“The common or usual name of the product. If a food is made with a major food allergen, such as eggs, tree nuts, soy, peanuts, milk, wheat, and sesame that ingredient must be listed on the label.”Texas DSHS, Texas Cottage Food Production · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: the home-made labelTexas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 says:“The label must include: (1) the name and address of the cottage food production operation; and (2) the following disclosure: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION."”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: the home-made labelTexas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 says:“Notwithstanding Subsection (b)(1), a cottage food production operation is not required to include on a food label the address of the operation if the operation registers with the department in the form and manner the department prescribes, and includes on the label a unique identification number provided by the department.”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 · Read Sep 25, 2026
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: the home-made labelTexas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 says:“A cottage food production operation that sells a time and temperature control for safety food must include: (1) on the food label the date the food was made; and (2) on the food label or on an invoice or receipt provided with the food when sold the following statement in at least 12-point font: "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption."”Texas Health and Safety Code §437.0193 · Read Sep 25, 2026
How do I get granola into a store in Texas?
- Texas's Cottage Food Production Operation rules: what applies beyond the home-kitchen rulesTexas DSHS, food manufacturers FAQ says:“An individual who manufactures and packages food for sale is required to be licensed as a food manufacturer. A requirement of being licensed as a food manufacturer is that no manufacturing can take place in the home kitchen.”Texas DSHS, food manufacturers FAQ · Read Sep 25, 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 granola 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 granola 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.