Selling homemade food in Hawaii
Hawaii exempts Homemade Food Operations from needing a DOH permit, but operators must complete a food safety training course (renewed every 3 years) and label products correctly. An August 2025 update to the Food Safety Code (HAR 11-50) expanded allowed foods (adding certain brined/fermented/acidified items) and now permits wholesale/third-party sales of non-perishable products, aside from honey which is governed separately. Because these changes are recent, confirm current online-sales details with DOH.
You can sell
- Baked goods without cream/custard fillings
- Jams, jellies, preserves
- Candy & chocolate
- Dry mixes & granola
- Mochi and hand-pounded poi
- Brined, fermented, or acidified plant foods with pH at or below 4.2 or water activity at or below 0.88 (added by the August 2025 Food Safety Code update)
You can't sell
- Time/temperature-control-for-safety (refrigerated/perishable) foods
- Meat & poultry products
- Dairy-based products
- Home-canned low-acid vegetables
Where you can sell
- Direct in-person sales from home
- Farmers markets
- Wholesale/third-party sales of non-perishable products, newly allowed since the August 2025 rule update (except honey, which has its own statute)
Selling online
Since the August 2025 Food Safety Code update, homemade food operators may sell to third parties and wholesale non-perishable products; this is understood to extend to online ordering with in-state delivery/pickup, but Hawaii's rules are very new and still settling — confirm current online and shipping specifics directly with the Department of Health before relying on them
What your labels must include
- Business name & address
- Common name of the product
- Full ingredient list
- Allergen declaration
- Net weight
- "This product was made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Hawaii Department of Health." statement