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Selling homemade food in Arkansas means your label has to follow the Arkansas Food Freedom Act (Act 1040 of 2021), Ark. Code Ann. § 20-57-501 et seq.; labeling/disclosure requirements at § 20-57-505. (An older, narrower Arkansas Department of Health cottage-food track under § 20-57-206 also exists and uses different disclaimer wording.). Here is exactly what that label must show in 2026 — the required fields, the allergen rule, and the verbatim disclaimer and its font size — sourced to the statute and dated.
Print this statement on the label, word for word:
Verbatim statement prescribed by the Food Freedom Act (Ark. Code Ann. § 20-57-505); confirmed word-for-word against the statutory text (FindLaw reproduction) and a second source. The disclosure may be delivered by an affixed package label, a label on the container plus a separate written document (bulk sales), a placard at the point of sale, or on the website listing for online sales. The Food Freedom Act statute does NOT fix a minimum point size — do NOT assume one. A '10-point minimum' appears only in third-party guidance attributed to the Arkansas Department of Health, not in the statute; confirm any typographic minimum with ADH / the Arkansas Department of Agriculture before relying on it. IMPORTANT: the separate older ADH cottage-food track (§ 20-57-206) uses different 'made in a home kitchen that is not inspected' wording — use the Food Freedom Act sentence above for products sold under the Food Freedom Act.
Arkansas is a broad 'food freedom' state, not a narrow cottage-food state: under the 2021 Food Freedom Act, homemade producers sell direct-to-consumer with NO license, registration, permit, or inspection for exempt products — so there is no permit number to print. The one hard obligation is the label, and its centerpiece is a single statutorily verbatim exemption/allergen sentence (confirmed word-for-word against § 20-57-505). A privacy perk unique to AR: a producer may show a Department of Agriculture-issued ID number instead of their home address, but that number is optional, not a required permit.
The current, verbatim-mandated wording is 'This product was produced in a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens.' The older Arkansas Department of Health cottage-food track (§ 20-57-206) uses a different 'made in a home kitchen that is not inspected' sentence. Copying the outdated one onto a Food Freedom Act product makes the label non-compliant. Reproduce the sentence exactly, including both sentences.
Some third-party guides state a 10-point minimum attributed to ADH guidance; the Food Freedom Act statute (§ 20-57-505) itself prescribes NO point size. Do not print a specific pt requirement as if it were black-letter law — confirm any typographic minimum with the Arkansas Department of Health / Department of Agriculture before relying on it.
Because exempt homemade foods need no license, there is no permit/registration number that must appear. The only number that can go on the label is the OPTIONAL Department of Agriculture ID used in place of a home address. Don't build a label field that forces a mandatory permit number.
The disclaimer's 'may contain allergens' does not replace identifying the major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, sesame), and packaged goods generally still carry net quantity. Treat the state's required sentence as the floor, not the ceiling.
Timeline: Immediate — no state application, waiting period, or approval is required to begin selling exempt homemade food; you can print a compliant label and sell the same day.
Cost: $0 — no permit, registration, or fee required for exempt homemade foods under the Food Freedom Act (an optional Dept. of Agriculture ID number, if requested to replace a home address, is likewise not a paid permit).
Cottage food laws get revised, and a new disclaimer or font size can quietly make your label non-compliant. Leave your email and we'll write to you only when Arkansas's cottage food label rules change. Nothing else, ever — and you can unsubscribe from any message.
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Make my Arkansas label →Arkansas requires this exact statement on a cottage food label: “This product was produced in a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens.” The state sets no minimum point size for it.
No. Arkansas does not require a permit or registration number printed on the label.
At minimum: product name — the common name of the food; your business / producer name; the address of the cottage food operation; a complete ingredient list, in descending order by weight (sub-ingredients included); an allergen declaration — the 9 major FDA allergens, in the ingredient list or a “Contains:” line; net weight, in US customary and metric units; the state's required disclaimer (see below); the date the food was made; a telephone number for the operation.
No. CottageCompliance gives general information based on each state's published rules, dated to when we last verified them. Always confirm with your state or local agency before selling.
Source: https://codes.findlaw.com/ar/title-20-public-health-and-welfare/ar-code-sect-20-57-505/ (statutory text, Ark. Code Ann. § 20-57-505) ; https://www.cottagefoodlicense.com/state/arkansas/ ; https://healthy.arkansas.gov (Arkansas Department of Health — Food Freedom Act / cottage food) ; https://agriculture.arkansas.gov (Arkansas Department of Agriculture) Verified 2026-08-10. General information, not legal advice — confirm with your state or local agency before selling.