For California home cooks who sell
Selling food from your home kitchen in California: two paths.
A home kitchen (MEHKO) permit for meals, where your county or city has said yes, or cottage food, registered or permitted with your county. Here is how to tell which path is yours.
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The question
Can I sell what I cook
at home?
You cook for people, not for paperwork. But in California the answer depends on what you make and where you live.
- Meals from your own kitchen need a microenterprise home kitchen (MEHKO) permit. A county or city hands those out only after it has opted in by ordinance (HSC 114367).
- Cottage food is the kind of food the CDPH cottage food page allows from a home kitchen. You register or get a permit with your county before you sell (HSC 114365).
- You are the cook, the seller and the bookkeeper, and a missed reading cannot be made up.
First things first
MEHKO,
or cottage food?
Two paths. Pick by what you make, then ask your county.
- A home kitchen (MEHKO) permit. Meals cooked and sold from your own home. Up to 30 meals a day and 90 a week, and up to 110,442 dollars in sales in 2026 (HSC 113825). Only where your county or city has said yes. We verified yes in Los Angeles County (not Long Beach, Pasadena or Vernon), Riverside and San Diego. Also Alameda (not Berkeley), Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and Monterey. And Santa Barbara, Solano, Lake, Imperial, Sierra and San Benito. Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus and Ventura say no. Everywhere else we could not find an answer, so ask your county. With the permit you are a food facility, and the app works the way it does for any small kitchen.
- Cottage food. The kind of food the CDPH cottage food page allows from a home kitchen. Class A sells straight to the customer and registers with your county. Class B also sells through stores and restaurants, and gets a permit. Yearly sales caps: 75,000 dollars for Class A, 150,000 for Class B (HSC 114365; CDPH). CleanCleaver does not run cottage food registration.
- Not sure which? Ask your county environmental health office before you sell the first plate.
How to open a food business in your county
Find your path first, free. The app is for the MEHKO path.
With a MEHKO permit
What does California ask
of a home kitchen?
The same rules as any small kitchen, in plain words, with where each line comes from and where your county differs.
Home kitchen (MEHKO) limits
Up to 30 meals a day and 90 a week. Up to 110,442 dollars in sales a year, adjusted each year (HSC 113825; the 2026 figure).
CleanCleaver: The limits are printed with the rule in the app.
HSC 113825; CDPH MEHKO sales limit 2026
Certified food protection manager
Whether California's manager certificate rule (HSC 113947.1) applies to a home kitchen wasn't confirmed in what we read. Ask your county before you open.
CleanCleaver: If you hold a certificate, the app keeps it and its expiry date.
HSC 113947.1, 113947.3
Guide: Food handler cards and food safety managersHot and cold holding
Hot food at 135°F or hotter. Cold food at 41°F or colder (HSC 113996).
CleanCleaver: Each fridge reading is saved with time and your name. A warm one asks what you did.
California: HSC 113996, HSC 114000
Guide: Hot and cold holding
What else can the inspector check? 3 more rules
Cooling
Cool hot food from 135°F to 70°F in 2 hours, then to 41°F within 6 in all (HSC 114002).
CleanCleaver: Start cooling sets the 2-hour and 6-hour timers; each reading is saved with time and name.
California: HSC 114002.1
Guide: Cooling food in two stagesDate marking and disposal
CalCode has no general 7-day date rule (only sealed reduced-oxygen food carries a Use By date, HSC 114057). We recommend the FDA Food Code's 7 days (3-501.17) anyway: the day you make it is day 1.
CleanCleaver: The app counts the 7 days and says what to write on the wrap.
FDA Food Code (model) 3-501.17, 3-501.18: not in California's code, so this line is our advice
Guide: Date marking: the 7-day ruleEmployee health: report, exclude, restrict
Sick? No cooking for sale that day. The person in charge tells the county environmental health office about a diagnosed Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli (STEC), hepatitis A or norovirus (HSC 113949.5).
CleanCleaver: Health questions before you start. The answer is
OK to work
orNo food work today
.California: HSC 113949.2, HSC 113950.5
Guide: Sick workers: report it and stay home
See the readings on the screen you will use.
A selling day
What does a selling day
with a permit look like?
Open the app to see what is due and what is late.
Check in
A few health questions. The answer is
OK to work
orNo food work today
.Fridge and freezer
Dip the thermometer in ice water, then type the fridge and freezer temperatures. Cold food stays at 41°F or colder (HSC 113996).
The cooling clock
Hot food to 70°F within 2 hours, then to 41°F within 6 (HSC 114002). Start cooling sets both clocks.
The date on the wrap
CalCode sets no general date rule; we recommend the Food Code's 7 days (3-501.17), and the day you made it is day 1. The app counts the days.
Kept
The binder PDF starts at the last 90 days.
These readings are on Today from day one, with your name on each.
What is in, what is not
What does CleanCleaver
not do for me?
Here is exactly what is in, and what is not.
- The fridge, cooling and date readings, saved with the time and your name.
- A binder as one PDF, starting at the last 90 days.
- California's rules, each with its Health and Safety Code section, and whether your county has opted in to MEHKO.
What stays with your county. Cottage food registration: that is your county's program, and we do not run it.
The MEHKO application and its fees: ask your county.
Utah-style 72-hour logs: California has no such rule, so the app does not ask for them.
Home mode is a separate space for household chores. It has no legal records and no binder.
Look at exactly what is in and what is not.
The cost of a gap
What if a reading
is missed?
With a MEHKO permit, you are inspected like any kitchen. A fridge temperature nobody wrote down is a gap the inspector can see.
CleanCleaver does not judge your permit or an inspection. It keeps what you did, with the time and your name.
After the orders
Cook what you love.
The readings are on your phone.
Cook one full week of orders on the free days first.
25 days free. Cancel anytime.
Questions? Call or text (415) 640-1667.
One or two people is Solo, $8 a month per location, and the first 25 days are free.
Questions
Before you
start.
Does my county allow home kitchen (MEHKO) permits?
Only if it has opted in by ordinance (HSC 114367), and there is no statewide list. We verified yes in Los Angeles County, with permits since November 2024 (not Long Beach, Pasadena or Vernon). Also Riverside (the first, in 2019) and San Diego (since January 2024). Also Alameda (not Berkeley), Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and Monterey. And Santa Barbara, Solano, Lake, Imperial, Sierra and San Benito. Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus and Ventura say no. For every other county we could not find an answer, and the app says "ask your county" rather than guess. Santa Cruz's and Santa Clara's programs started as pilots, so check them again.
What are the MEHKO limits?
Up to 30 meals a day and 90 meals a week. Up to 110,442 dollars in gross sales in 2026; the state adjusts that figure each year (HSC 113825; CDPH). Your county's older forms may still print 60 meals a week; the statute says 90.
What counts as cottage food in California?
The kind of food the CDPH cottage food page allows, made in your home kitchen. Class A sells straight to the customer and registers with your county. Class B also sells through stores and restaurants, and gets a permit (HSC 114365). Current yearly caps are 75,000 dollars for Class A and 150,000 for Class B. CleanCleaver does not run that registration; CDPH's page has the steps.
I sell meals, not jam, and my county has not opted in. What then?
Then there is no home kitchen permit to get there yet. Ask your county environmental health office whether it plans to opt in, or about a commercial kitchen you can rent. The county start page names your office and its phone.
Do I need a certified food protection manager at home?
We couldn't confirm it. California asks for at least one certified owner or employee at each food facility (HSC 113947.1), but we haven't read whether a home kitchen (MEHKO) counts. Ask your county before you open.
Is Home mode the same as this?
No. Home mode is a separate space for your household: chores, guides and use-by dates. It has no legal records and no binder.
Will it remind me to take the fridge temperature?
In a browser, yes, once you say yes when the app asks. Open the app and Today shows what is due and what is late. It does not send texts.
What does a home kitchen pay?
By the size of your staff list, per location per month: Solo $8 for one or two people, then Small $24, Team $40, Kitchen $69. The 25 free days start when you add a card on Stripe's page. Cancel before they end and you pay nothing. 25 days free. Cancel anytime.
Your binder is ready when the inspector is.
Pick your place. Start with one shift.
Start your 25 days free See it work
25 days free. Cancel anytime.
Questions? Call or text (415) 640-1667