You can only ship non-perishable food, and you can only ship items within Illinois. Your shipped products must be sealed in a way that reveals tampering.

In addition to the above allowed venues, you can also offer “pickup from a third-party private property with the consent of the third-party property holder”.

At the point of sale (e.g. event booth, online website, etc), you must prominently display this notice: “This product was produced in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department that may also process common food allergens.”

Unlike most laws, Illinois specifies which types of foods are NOT allowed.

Your products cannot contain these items:

• Meat, poultry, fish, seafood, or shellfish
• Dairy, except as an ingredient in a non-potentially hazardous baked good or candy (such as caramel), or as an ingredient in a baked good frosting (such as buttercream)
• Eggs, except as an ingredient in a non-potentially hazardous baked good, including dry noodles, or as an ingredient in a baked good frosting (such as buttercream), if the eggs are not raw
• Pumpkin pies, sweet potato pies, cheesecakes, custard pies, creme pies, and pastries with potentially hazardous fillings or toppings
• Garlic in oil mixtures, unless they are acidified
• Low-acid canned foods (such as canned green beans)
• Sprouts
• Cut leafy greens, except for leafy greens that are dehydrated, acidified, or blanched and frozen
• Cut fresh (or pureed) tomato or melon
• Dehydrated tomato or melon
• Frozen cut melon
• Wild-harvested, non-cultivated mushrooms
• Alcoholic beverages
• Kombucha

If your food or drink product does not contain items on that list, then you are allowed to sell it!

Although you can sell many types of perishable foods, you cannot ship them. You can only ship non-perishable items.

However, if you want to sell certain canned or baked goods, you need to follow additional requirements:

• Canned tomatoes (or canned products containing tomatoes)
  • If you do not follow an approved* recipe, you must test your product in a lab once per year, to ensure that it is non-perishable
• Acidified or fermented foods
  • You must submit approved* recipes that you use
  • If your product does not use an approved* recipe:
    • You must submit a food safety plan & a pH test
    • You only need to submit one plan & test for each category of acidified/fermented foods that use the same production procedures (for instance, if you sell different flavors of hot sauce, you’d only need to submit one plan & test from a hot sauce recipe)
    • You must submit each food safety plan once per year
    • You must submit each pH test once every 3 years
  • You must follow these packaging requirements:
    • If your acidified/fermented product is canned, you must use the boiling water bath canning method (no pressure canning) and Mason-style jars or glass containers
    • If your acidified/fermented product is NOT canned, you must keep the product refrigerated (below 41 degrees) at all stages (storage, transport, & sale), and you must use new containers
• Baked goods with cheese
  • A local health department can require you to get your product tested in a lab, to ensure that it is non-perishable

* An approved recipe is one that has been tested by the USDA or any state cooperative extension

In 2014, Illinois passed a bill (PA 098-0643 aka HB 5354) to allow “home kitchen operations”. This specialized law was only for bakers, and unfortunately, it was very restrictive. It required counties to opt-in by creating an ordinance, but not many did. Home kitchen operations could only sell up to $1,000 of baked goods per month from home (not at any venues). This law was started in direct response to 11-year-old Chloe Stirling getting shut down by the health department.