Food is one of the most common ideas in the clinic: tamales, cakes, catering for parties, a booth at a fair. It can work. It also has more rules than cleaning or handyman work, and the rules decide what you can sell and where. This guide tells you which office to ask. It is not legal advice — the city's answer is the one that counts.
Two kinds of food business
Food made in your home kitchen. Illinois calls this a cottage food operation. If you live in Chicago, you register with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), not the county. Some foods are allowed from a home kitchen and some are not.
Food made in a licensed kitchen. Anything that is not allowed from home — hot meals, meat, most catering — has to be made in a licensed commercial kitchen. You do not need to own one. Chicago licenses shared kitchens that rent space by the hour, and you get a shared kitchen user license from the city to cook there.
Home kitchen: what to find out
Ask CDPH, or read the University of Illinois Extension cottage food pages, before you sell anything:
- Is my food allowed? Baked goods, candy, jams and many dry foods usually are. Meat, poultry, fish, most dairy and egg dishes, cheesecake and custard or cream pies, cut melon or tomato, low-acid canned foods and kombucha are on the state's not-allowed list.
- What training do I need? The state requires a Certified Food Protection Manager course and exam before you register. Chicago also requires a CDPH food service sanitation certificate.
- What does registration cost? There is a yearly fee. Ask CDPH for the current amount.
- What goes on the label? Home-kitchen food has to carry a statement that it was made in a home kitchen not inspected by a health department, plus your name and the ingredients. Ask CDPH for the full list.
- Where can I sell? Direct to customers: from home, delivery, online, at events and some markets. The city's own farmers markets (run by DCASE) do not allow home-kitchen food; some independent markets do.
CDPH Food Protection: 2133 W. Lexington St., 2nd floor · (312) 746-8030 · cdphfood@cityofchicago.org.
Licensed kitchen: what to find out
- Find a licensed shared kitchen near you and ask what an hour costs and what they require from you.
- Ask the city's Small Business Center (City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., Room 800, or chicago.gov/ChicagoBusinessDirect) which license you need: a short-term or long-term shared kitchen user license, and anything else for your food.
- Booths at fairs and festivals often need their own event license. Ask the event organizer and CDPH before you sign up.
Events, parties and catering
If you plan parties, decorate, or run events without making food yourself, the food rules above may not apply to you — but the food someone else brings still has to come from somewhere legal. For any event:
- Take a deposit when someone books a date. A date you hold for them is a date you cannot sell to anyone else.
- Write down what is included, the date, the time, the place, the total, and what happens if they cancel. Send it by text and ask them to reply "yes."
- Ask the venue what they require from vendors (insurance, a certificate, load-in times).
Pricing food
Food prices have to cover more than ingredients: packaging, labels, kitchen hours, gas for delivery, the food you throw away, and your time. Write down what one batch costs and how many you sell from it. If you are paying for kitchen hours, count them in every batch.
Clinic Tools
If you use Clinic Tools, put each product on your price list (by the dozen, by the tray, by the package), record cash sales at markets and events under Money → Add money in, and send an estimate before a big order so the customer can say yes in writing.
This week
- I looked up whether my food is allowed from a home kitchen, or whether I need a licensed kitchen.
- I called or emailed CDPH or the Small Business Center with my questions and wrote down the answers.
- I know what training or certificate I need and when the next course is.
- I know what one batch costs me, including packaging and kitchen time.