Alabama: the home-kitchen movement
Full cottage food Cottage food law
Alabama's cottage food law (Code of Alabama §22-20-5.1) lets you sell shelf-stable homemade foods — baked goods, jams, candy, dried mixes, roasted coffee, and fermented/pickled vegetables — directly to Alabama consumers with no sales cap and no permit. You need a food safety course certificate, compliant labels, and a review filing with your county health department.
Status, history, and administering agency are verified from the state law guide's primary sources. Supporter/opposition research for this state is still in progress — nothing is listed until it can be sourced.
Where it stands
No amendments to §22-20-5.1 in 2024, 2025, or 2026. The most recent change was the 2021 amendment (SB 160, signed 2021): it removed the $20,000 annual gross receipts cap, legalized online sales and in-state delivery (previously internet sales were prohibited), and added fermented or preserved vegetables and fruit. In 2026, HB 175 (the 'Farm-to-Food Bank Act,' an income-tax credit for farm/food-bank donations — not a home-kitchen bill) died in committee. Alabama has no food freedom act and no MEHKO-style hot-meal program.
Cottage food fight in Alabama
- 2021 — Cottage food law
The most recent change was the 2021 amendment (SB 160, signed 2021): it removed the $20,000 annual gross receipts cap, legalized online sales and in-state delivery (previously internet sales were prohibited), and added fermented or preserved vegetables and fruit. Source
How we got here
- 2024 — Cottage food law
No amendments to §22-20-5.1 in 2024, 2025, or 2026. Source - 2021 — Cottage food law Cottage food fight
The most recent change was the 2021 amendment (SB 160, signed 2021): it removed the $20,000 annual gross receipts cap, legalized online sales and in-state delivery (previously internet sales were prohibited), and added fermented or preserved vegetables and fruit. Source - 2026 — Cottage food law
In 2026, HB 175 (the 'Farm-to-Food Bank Act,' an income-tax credit for farm/food-bank donations — not a home-kitchen bill) died in committee. Source - — Cottage food law
Alabama has no food freedom act and no MEHKO-style hot-meal program. Source
Supporters
Supporter research for this state is in progress — nothing is listed until it can be sourced.
Opposition
No on-record opposition has been verified for this state yet.
The deciders
Governor
Office of the Governor of Alabama (name not yet verified in this research pass)
Contact the deciders
A pre-written letter in Alabama's own terminology. The buttons open it in your email — addressed by you to the office above. Nothing sends until you press send.