Indiana Cottage Food Allergen Labeling and Packaging Requirements

Indiana cottage food labeling is one of the few areas where the state gives home vendors zero flexibility. Miss a required field, use the wrong font size, or skip allergen declarations, and you've handed the local health department grounds for a misbranding investigation — regardless of your exempt status under the Home-Based Vendor or Homestead Vendor frameworks.

The Six Mandatory Label Fields

Every product sold by an Indiana home-based food vendor must carry all six of these elements:

1. Statutory disclaimer (10-point type minimum): Under the former HBV law (IC 16-42-5.3, through June 30, 2026): "This product is home produced and processed and the production area has not been inspected by the state department of health. NOT FOR RESALE."

Under the Homestead Act (IC 16-42-5.4, effective July 1, 2026): "This product was produced by a homestead vendor or the owner of a small farm that is exempt from government licensing and inspection."

The 10-point type requirement is specific — that's roughly the size of standard newspaper body text. Printing your disclaimer in tiny footer text won't satisfy the statute.

2. Full ingredient list: Listed in descending order of predominance by weight, following the same format used on commercial food labels.

3. Allergen declarations: Must identify the presence of any major food allergens.

4. Net weight: By weight (ounces, pounds, grams) for solid products; by volume (fluid ounces, milliliters) for liquids. Honey is always sold by weight — a common mistake is labeling a pint jar of honey as "16 oz" by volume when it actually weighs approximately 24 ounces.

5. Processing date: The date the product was made. Indiana doesn't mandate an expiration date, but the processing date lets customers judge freshness themselves. If you choose to add a "best by" date, you're not required to — but if you do, it becomes a claim you're accountable for.

6. Physical address: Your full street address where the product was produced. A P.O. Box doesn't satisfy this requirement. This is the address the local health department uses if a consumer files a complaint.

Allergen Labeling in Detail

Indiana follows federal allergen labeling standards. The nine major allergens you must declare if present in your product:

• Milk (including butter, cream, cheese, whey)
• Eggs
• Fish
• Shellfish
• Tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews — specify which)
• Peanuts
• Wheat
• Soybeans
• Sesame

You have two acceptable formats for declaring allergens:

Contains statement: Add "Contains: Milk, Wheat, Eggs" at the end of the ingredient list. This is the simplest approach and hardest to get wrong.

Parenthetical in the ingredient list: Identify allergens within the list itself — "Flour (Wheat), Butter (Milk), Eggs." This works but requires you to catch every allergen source, including less obvious ones like whey powder (milk) or soy lecithin (soy).

Cross-contamination warnings ("May contain traces of peanuts" or "Produced in a facility that handles tree nuts") are voluntary, not required by Indiana law. But if you're producing multiple products in your home kitchen — peanut butter cookies alongside a nut-free item — a cross-contact advisory is smart risk management.

Packaging Standards

Indiana doesn't mandate specific packaging materials or styles, but practical rules apply:

Tamper-evident packaging is required when a homestead vendor ships products by mail or third-party carrier under the 2026 Homestead Act. Shrink bands, sealed bags, or tamper-evident containers satisfy this requirement.

Temperature-appropriate containers matter even though the law doesn't specify materials. A perishable product sold under the Homestead Act must maintain appropriate temperature during transport. Insulated bags, cold packs, or coolers for TCS items aren't legally mandated in the statute, but a customer illness traced to temperature abuse will trigger a health department investigation.

Reused commercial containers create a misbranding risk. If you repackage honey into a jar that previously held a commercial brand's product, you must remove all original labeling. Selling your honey in a jar with another producer's label — even partially visible — constitutes misbranding.

Common Label Mistakes

Missing processing date: Many home vendors label their product at the start of a production run and use the same labels for weeks. Each batch needs its own date.

Allergen hidden in a sub-ingredient: Your granola contains chocolate chips. Those chips contain soy lecithin and milk solids. Both allergens must appear on your label even though you didn't add them directly.

Using "homemade" instead of the statutory disclaimer: The law requires the exact statutory language. "Homemade with love" or "Made in my kitchen" doesn't substitute for the mandated text.

Physical address missing: Using just a city name or county without a street address doesn't satisfy the statute.

Get Your Labels Right the First Time

A mislabeled product is the easiest way to trigger a health department investigation, even for exempt home vendors. The Indiana Cottage Food & Home Food Business Guide includes the exact disclaimer text for both the former HBV and current Homestead eras, along with label layout examples that fit all six mandatory fields onto standard packaging.

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