NJ Food Label Requirements for Small Food Businesses and Farmers Market Sellers

Non-potentially hazardous, shelf-stable foods made in a home kitchen: baked goods without cream or custard fillings (bread, cookies, cakes, pastries); candy and confections; jams, jellies, and preserves (high-sugar, low-pH products); dried herbs and spice blends; roasted nuts and nut mixes; granola and trail mix; and honey. These are foods that stay safe at room temperature.

Any potentially hazardous food requiring refrigeration; meat, poultry, and seafood products; dairy products; canned low-acid vegetables such as green beans and tomatoes (these require USDA process authority approval); and fermented or pickled products with a pH above 4.6. If a food needs refrigeration or specialized processing to stay safe, it falls outside the cottage food exemption and requires a licensed facility.

NJ cottage food products may be sold directly to the end consumer only — at farmers markets, roadside stands, farm stores, and directly from your home. You cannot sell to retailers, restaurants, or wholesale distributors under the cottage food exemption. Annual gross sales are limited to $50,000.

The common name of the food — “Strawberry Jam,” “Cinnamon Granola,” “Sourdough Bread.” Use the name a customer would recognize, not a fanciful brand-only name that hides what the product actually is. This is the statement of identity for your product.

Your name and your home address, or a post office box. This identifies who made the product and where. It’s required on every cottage food label sold in New Jersey.

The quantity of contents, stated as net weight (for solids, e.g. jams and baked goods) or net volume (for liquids). This tells the buyer how much product they’re actually getting, not counting the jar or packaging.

All ingredients listed in descending order of predominance by weight — the ingredient there’s the most of goes first, down to the least. Every ingredient in the product must appear. Sub-ingredients (what’s inside a compound ingredient) should be broken out where required.

Any of the nine major food allergens — milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame — must be declared. You can do this either by naming the allergen in plain language within the ingredient list, or with a separate “Contains:” statement (for example, “Contains: wheat, tree nuts”). This is the single most safety-critical element on the label; do not leave it to guesswork.

This exact wording must appear on every NJ cottage food label, verbatim: “This product was made in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the New Jersey Department of Health.” It is mandatory and not optional. Leaving it off is the most common cottage food labeling mistake.

Statement of identity; net quantity of contents; manufacturer name and address; ingredient list; a full-format Nutrition Facts panel (per 21 CFR Part 101); and allergen declaration. This is the standard for any product sold outside the direct-to-consumer cottage food channel.

Licensed food manufacturers in New Jersey register with the NJ Department of Health’s Food and Drug Safety Program. This is a step beyond the cottage food exemption, which requires no such license for qualifying direct sales.

If you’re selling to a grocery chain, specialty store, or any retailer, the retailer may impose requirements beyond FDA minimums — including UPC barcodes, specific label dimensions, and placement rules. Confirm each retailer’s spec sheet before you print, because their requirements often exceed the legal minimum.