Catering license requirements in Georgia

Georgia removed the state license requirement for cottage food operators through HB 398, effective 1 July 2025. The Department of Agriculture’s current guidance reflects that: no state license, no fee, and no routine inspection for a cottage operator selling non-potentially-hazardous food. The administrative rule at Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-7-19 has not caught up. It still describes annual registration with a $100 license and a mandatory accredited food safety class.

The statute is later in time and the Department’s guidance is the agency’s own current word, so the guidance governs in practice. But the rule text is still published, which means anybody who looks the law up in the obvious place finds the older answer. That is worth telling a reader plainly rather than quietly resolving. On the catering side there is no such ambiguity: the Department of Agriculture states that county health departments regulate food service establishments and caterers, and it does not.

Who issues a caterer’s permit

Your county health department, under Department of Public Health rules. The Department of Agriculture says so directly: food service establishments and caterers are regulated by the local county health departments rather than by the agriculture department. The Department of Agriculture’s own licensing role covers food sales establishments, meaning retail stores, and it administers cottage food. So Georgia splits by sector, and the split is stated by the agency that is not responsible, which is the most reliable kind of source for a question like this.

Home kitchen or commercial kitchen?

Commercial for catering. The cottage food track is direct-to-consumer product sales, not food service, and the Department is explicit that food service establishments will not allow home-produced foods to be used in their operations under Department of Public Health regulation. That closes both directions: you cannot cater from the cottage food permission, and a restaurant cannot buy your cottage food products to serve.

The cottage food route

Yes, administered by the Department of Agriculture and materially changed by HB 398 effective 1 July 2025. Non-potentially-hazardous foods only: jams, jellies, baked goods, hard candies, and dried or shelf-stable products. No meats, poultry, dairy, cooked vegetables, beverages, or most canned goods. Home-canned produce may not be used as an ingredient except in jams and jellies. Sales are direct to the end consumer, with internet sales to Georgia consumers allowed; wholesale, restaurant and retail-store sales including consignment are prohibited. Individual venues such as some farmers markets may still ask for a Food Sales Establishment license of their own volition even though the state does not.

The sales cap

None. The Department states that it does not have any limits on gross sales or the number of units that can be produced. That is unusual bluntness for an agency page and it is a genuine competitive advantage for a Georgia home producer against neighbors operating under a ceiling. What replaces the ceiling as the growth constraint is the channel rule: direct to the end consumer only, so scaling means selling more units yourself rather than placing product with a retailer.

Food safety certification

This is the contested field. The Department’s current guidance describes no formal training requirement for cottage food operators. The standing administrative rule at 40-7-19 requires an accredited food safety class before registration, alongside the annual registration and $100 license that HB 398 removed. The two documents describe different obligations and both are published. Ask the Department’s Cottage Food Program directly rather than relying on either document, and note that county requirements for permitted food service establishments are a separate question with a separate answer.

Confidence: unconfirmed. This review could not confirm this specific from a source it could read, and it is not stated here as settled. The Georgia Department of Agriculture Cottage Food Program and your county health department is the authority. Ask them directly.

Off-site events

From the county health department covering the county the event is in. Georgia has 159 counties, more than any state except Texas, so a caterer working a wide radius deals with a lot of separate health departments and a lot of separate temporary-event processes. This review did not read a state page setting uniform temporary-event terms, because the permitting sits with the counties.

Confidence: unconfirmed. This review could not confirm this specific from a source it could read, and it is not stated here as settled. The Georgia Department of Agriculture Cottage Food Program and your county health department is the authority. Ask them directly.

What people get wrong about Georgia

A rule and a FAQ that disagree is not a defect in this page. It is a fact about Georgia, and it is the most useful thing on the page for anyone about to spend $100 on a license the department no longer issues. A page that silently picked one document would be asserting something the state itself has not resolved.

The HB 398 change is recent enough that most Georgia cottage food content in circulation predates it and describes the licensed regime. Check the date on anything you read, including guidance printed by well-meaning local organizations.

For caterers specifically, Georgia is straightforward: county health department, food service establishment permit, and the agriculture department is not involved. The confusion in this state is entirely on the cottage food side.

What this page was written from

Every claim above comes from one of the sources below, and each entry says what was actually read there. A citation nobody opened backs nothing.

1. Georgia Department of Agriculture — Cottage Food FAQ primary

   Re-opened live for this review. Confirms no state license from the Department of Agriculture under HB 398, that "The Georgia Department of Agriculture does not have any limits on gross sales or the number of units that can be produced", that county health departments regulate food service establishments and caterers, and that food service establishments will not allow home-produced foods to be used under Department of Public Health regulation.

2. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-7-19 (Cottage Food Regulations) primary

   The cottage food operator and home kitchen definitions, allowed foods, the home-canned-produce restriction, annual registration with a $100 license, direct-to-end-consumer sales only, the labeling statement, and a mandatory accredited food safety class. This rule text does not reflect HB 398 and appears superseded in part.

More on the paperwork in the licenses, permits and food safety chapter, or compare states on the state index.