Florida Cottage Food Law · 2026
Can you sell homemade empanadas in Florida?
IT DEPENDS
It depends on the filling. Baked fruit empanadas (guava!) are allowed cottage foods; meat or cheese empanadas are not.
Why it depends?
An empanada is legally just a filled hand pie — so the filling decides everything. Baked, fruit-filled empanadas (guava, apple, sweet plantain-style shelf-stable fillings) qualify as fruit pies, which are allowed.
Meat, chicken, or cheese empanadas contain potentially hazardous fillings and cannot be cottage foods. Fried empanadas of any kind also push toward prepared-food territory — baked is the safe lane.
Florida Cottage Food Law: Key Facts
Updated July 2026- Permit required: None — no license, permit, or FDACS registration for cottage foods
- Legal basis: Florida Statute 500.80
- Annual sales cap: $250,000 gross per year
- The rule: Only non-potentially-hazardous foods (safe at room temperature)
- Sales channel: Direct to consumers in Florida only — no wholesale
- Labels: 6 required elements, including the cottage food statement
How to sell empanadas the legal way
- 1Legal: baked guava, guava-and-... skip the cheese — pure fruit fillings only
- 2Not legal: beef picadillo, chicken, ham & cheese, anything refrigerated
- 3Bake, don't fry, and sell same-week with a clear "best by" date
- 4The guava empanada is a Florida icon — lean into it hard
Storage & refrigeration
Whether empanadas qualifies comes down to keeping it shelf-stable and non-hazardous. A room-temperature-safe version is generally fine; if your recipe needs refrigeration, acidification controls, or a filling that must stay cold, it falls outside Florida's cottage food exemption.
How to label empanadas
Every package of empanadas you sell needs a compliant label with all 6 required elements:
- 1Your cottage food business name and address
- 2The product name
- 3Ingredients, listed in descending order by weight
- 4Net weight or quantity
- 5Allergen declaration (milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish)
- 6The cottage food statement (exact wording, below)
“Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations.”
This statement must appear word-for-word.
Where you can sell empanadas in Florida
Cottage food is sold direct to the customer, within Florida. For empanadas, that means:
✅ Allowed
- Farmers markets, fairs & events
- Home pickup and local delivery
- Online, phone & mail order — delivered in Florida
🚫 Not allowed
- Wholesale to stores/restaurants for resale
- Selling or shipping outside Florida
- More than $250,000 in gross sales per year
Pricing empanadas for profit
Add up your cost per unit (ingredients + packaging), multiply by 3–4× to cover your time and overhead, then sanity-check against what similar makers charge locally. Undercharging is the single most common mistake — your time is a real cost, not a freebie.
Free recipe cost calculatorCommon mistakes to avoid
- Underpricing — not counting your time, packaging, and market fees
- Missing a required label element, especially the exact cottage food statement
- Adding a filling or frosting that needs refrigeration, which quietly turns compliant empanadas non-compliant
- Selling across state lines or wholesale to a shop for resale
- Losing track of the $250,000/year gross sales cap
Not sure about a different product?
Check any food against Florida's rules in seconds with our free tool — then price it and label it with the rest of the toolkit.
Frequently asked questions
Guava AND cheese is the classic — really not allowed?
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Really. Cream cheese makes it perishable. Pure guava paste filling is shelf-stable and legal — and still delicious.
Can I sell frozen uncooked empanadas for home baking?
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No — frozen foods aren't cottage foods. Sell fully baked, shelf-stable fruit empanadas.
People also ask about
Official Florida sources
FDACS — Cottage Foods
Florida Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services — the official cottage food program.
Florida Statute 500.80
The cottage food law itself, on the Florida Legislature's official site.
This is general educational information, not legal advice. Cottage food rules change — always verify current requirements with FDACS before you sell.
Ready to start selling?
Get the step-by-step startup guide, free pricing tools, and a spot in Florida's cottage food directory.
Educational information, not legal advice. Verify current requirements with FDACS. Based on Florida Statute 500.80 as of 2026.