complete april 2012 wsda document
This document outlines what is commonly called the Cottage Food (CF) industry of Washington. The industry participates in a 2011 "new category" of food processor type-permitting within the regulatory food-safety scientific-framework managed under authority of the Washington state Department of Agriculture (WSDA) , which also regulates all other WSDA inspected "Food Processing" facility-types in the state. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Teb1CYamYCO7DRSKIk88HLf0mnOqY0Db/view?usp=sharing
A DEEPER DIVE INTO COTTAGE FOOD INDUSTRY "PERMIT PRETENDERS"
Washington State Cottage Food is a 15 years-long state-regulated industry.
How to Protect Yourself and Others from Cottage Food "permit-pretenders"?
A Reasonable Consumer Safeguard:
All consumers have the right to ask for REASONABLE proof of a valid Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Cottage Food Permit from anyone selling homemade food—whether online, at pop-ups, or at in-person community events.
Why This Matters
Across Washington State, there are far more unlawfully operating home-based food sellers than lawfully permitted Cottage Food producers.
Some unlawful food sellers may appear legitimate, but they are not lawfully selling food. They may:
Neither of the aforementioned factors authorize the use of a home kitchen to produce consumer food, offer to, sell it to and /or deliver Cottage Food products the general public.
Only a WSDA issued Cottage Food Permit allows that activity in Washington State.
The Scope of the Problem
LocalUpFood.com research volunteer-estimates are that for each one (1) of WSDA-permitted Cottage Food producers, there are four (4) or more unlawfully operating homemade-food sellers marketing home-kitchen food products to Washington consumers. In some counties there are much larger ratios of unlawful home kitchen operators selling consumer foods than other counties.
For instance, in Washington’s central-eastern Adams county there is only one WSDA permitted cottage food operator and more than 20 identified unlawful operations retailing home-kitchen made foods have been identified by www.localupfood.com research. One of these started marketing in Adams County on 2 geo-local Facebook groups and at community events in mid-2024 since: 1) formed a Washington LLC, 2) obtained a state Master Business license and 3) obtained a “home occupation” business permit/license at the address where they and the home-kitchen resides, but as of the end of 2025 had still NOT 4) obtained a Cottage Food permit from the Washington state Department of Agriculture.
Many local health departments (aka local health jurisdictions, LHJs) with “boots on the ground” of local-staffing (across the 39 counties in the state) might identify some of these unlawful operations operating in public, in real-time at popups or community events, however, many LHJs are understaffed or logistically-constrained from being ‘out in the field’ at too many locations on any given day or working on weekends per their work schedules.
Further, the WSDA’s own Food Safety division has a smaller, dedicated staff ratio (compared to the totality of LHJ-staffing across the states counties) due to its existing duties of overseeing site-inspections of not just hundreds of Cottage Food applicants and pemittees per year, but also thousands of Food Processors in the state.
WSDA does not have ‘on call’ staff to travel hundreds of miles across the state to be onsite at every kind of public community event or one-day popups (popups are often sited inside existing brick & mortar businesses selling other kinds of retail products and usually the seller of food is the only seller of food) to investigate thousands of ‘come-and-go’ unlawful home-kitchen food producers in the state.
This scope of all this creates:
A black market includes the unlawful sale of otherwise legal goods—such as food—outside required regulatory oversight, which encourages potential tax avoidance issues and the loss of consumer protections
What a WSDA Cottage Food Permit Requires
The WSDA Cottage Food Program regulates home-kitchen food production to protect public health. Permit requirements include:
Only after approval may a home-kitchen producer legally sell cottage food products
What Cottage Food Producers Can and Cannot Do
Allowed:
Not Allowed:
For more regulatory-clarifications about the Cottage Food’s hybrid food-processor business-model see:
Cottage Food vs. Food Establishments
A limited duo-operation (Cottage Food & Food Establishment) exception can exist, in that a licensed Bed & Breakfast home-kitchen (inspected by a local health jurisdiction food-safety professional as a “food establishment”) can also obtain a WSDA Cottage Food home-kitchen “permit” approval after passing through the process of a separate WSDA CF application & WSDA CF inspection.
Although the WSDA inspects all food processors and cottage food permittees, Washington’s "food establishments" (unlike permitted Cottage Food operations) serve time/temperature controlled foods (often for ‘immediate’ onsite consumption) are primarily-regulated under the Washington Department of Health's (DOH) food-safety "FOOD CODE" 35 local health jurisdiction (LHJs) partners across the state.
Find WSDA-Approved Cottage Food Producers Near You
Current as of October 2025, per the last WSDA published list of 900+ approved Cottage Food permittees operating in nearly every county across the state.
Below LocalUpFood.com provides:
Data Disclaimer
All Cottage Food producers currently listed by LocalUpFood.com on this website were verified as WSDA-permitted as of October 2025. Our curation of CF Listings on our regional Cottage Food (CF) guide-pages are based on WSDA’s data of October 2025. The public can independently verify any CF permit’s status directly with the WSDA listed contacts @
https://agr.wa.gov/departments/food-safety/food-safety/contact-information
Reporting Unpermitted Food Sales
The WSDA accepts complaints about suspected unpermitted home-based food sellers.
WSDA Food Complaint Form:
https://agr.wa.gov/services/consumer-protection-and-complaints/food-complaints
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