Can You Make Food at Home for Your New York Restaurant?

Quick answer: Not under New York’s home-processor exemption. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets says the exemption isn’t available to anyone who holds a Department of Health permit or an Agriculture and Markets license. Once you hold one, all the food you offer for sale has to be made at the permitted or licensed facility. Your home kitchen doesn’t become a second prep kitchen for your café.

Buying from someone else is a different question. A separate, registered home processor may sell approved items wholesale to restaurants and cafés in New York State, as long as the processor makes, packages and labels them the way the rules require. That’s a supplier you check, not an exemption you use.

This covers New York State’s home-processor rules only, based on the Department’s Home Processing page as read on October 21, 2026. The page doesn’t show a publication or update date, and the underlying regulation wasn’t separately reviewed for this answer. It isn’t legal advice. Other states have their own rules.

What the state says about your own restaurant

The Department’s FAQ asks the question directly:

Q. Can I get a home processor license exemption to make products for me to sell at my store or my restaurant?

A. No. The home processor license exemption is not available to anyone who holds a Department of Health permit or Department of Agriculture and Markets license. When a license or permit is held, all foods offered for commercial sale must be made at the licensed or permitted facility.

The registration section says the same thing from the other side. A home processor’s registration becomes null and void if they make or sell foods the exemption doesn’t allow, or if they “open a food business which is inspected and permitted/licensed by either the Department of Agriculture and Markets or the Department of Health.” In that case, the page says, “all food must be manufactured in the commercial facility.”

So if you’ve been selling scones at a farmers’ market under a home-processor registration and you’re now opening a café, don’t plan on the registration running alongside the café. Plan for the café’s baking to happen in a permitted or licensed kitchen, and size the kitchen, equipment and prep schedule for it before you commit the opening menu. If the space can’t produce that menu, sort it out before you sign. Our restaurant permits approval map shows which offices to ask.

Ask before you rely on an arrangement the page doesn’t cover

The page doesn’t say how the rule applies to:

• the weeks between applying for your restaurant permit and receiving it;
• a home kitchen run by your business partner, a relative or a separate company you control, making food for your restaurant;
• which permits count, since it says “Department of Health” without separating state, county and city health departments.

Don’t read that silence as permission, and don’t restructure ownership to get around the rule. Describe the exact arrangement to the Department’s Home Processor Registration team, listed on its Home Processing page, and to the office that issues your restaurant permit. Get the answer in writing before you plan production around it.

Buying from a separate home processor is allowed, with conditions

The same FAQ answers the supplier’s side:

Q: Can I sell my Home Processed goods to a local establishment?

A: Yes, as a Home Processor you are allowed to sell your items wholesale to local facilities (restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, etc.) that wish to carry them. You will need to manufacture, package, and label the items accordingly. These products can only be sold to facilities within New York State.

That yes belongs to the processor, and it comes with the processor’s conditions. These are the ones that matter when you’re the buyer.

• Only approved foods. The exemption is limited to a list of approved, non-potentially hazardous foods, including certain breads, cookies, brownies, double-crust fruit pies and jams made from high-acid fruits. Any finished product that requires refrigeration is prohibited. So are cheesecake, cream-filled pastries, cream pies and homemade buttercream or cream cheese frosting, among others.
• Ingredients and process matter too. Raw nuts are prohibited (nuts must be commercially roasted or otherwise heat-treated), breads containing vegetables are prohibited, and several approved items can’t have chocolate or candy-melt toppings. A product type can be on the approved list while a particular recipe still doesn’t qualify.
• Packaged and labeled at home. Items must be pre-packaged in the home and properly labeled. The label must show the product’s common name, an ingredient list in order of predominance by weight, the net quantity, the processor’s name and full address, and the allergens in the ingredient statement. The address can be a street address or a PO Box, with city, state and ZIP, so the label won’t necessarily tell you where the kitchen is. The Department also says processors should add a phrase such as “Made in a Home Kitchen.”
• New York only. Home-processed food can only be sold within New York State, and the wholesale answer is limited to facilities within the state.
• The registration is specific. It’s tied to the processor’s location, so a move means a new registration. Adding a product takes a supplemental registration. A supplier registered for cookies isn’t automatically registered for the next item they offer you. Confirm the location and the product from the registration, or with the Department, not from the address on the label.

There’s no routine kitchen inspection report to ask for. The page says home kitchens are reviewed on a complaint basis only. The Department does publish a list of currently registered home processors on the same page.

The state page is about what the processor may make and sell. It doesn’t say what your restaurant may do with the product after you buy it, such as unwrapping it to sell by the piece, plating it or warming it. Ask the office that issues your restaurant permit before it goes on the menu.

On timing, the page currently asks applicants to allow up to 16 weeks for review because of high request volume. That isn’t a guaranteed deadline. If a supplier says they’re adding a product in time for your opening, treat that product as unapproved until their registration covers it.

A supplier check for your purchasing file

Copy this into the file for each home-processed product before you buy it or list it. The first part restates the state’s rules for the supplier. The second part is purchasing checks we recommend, which aren’t state requirements.

New York home-processor supplier check (New York State only. Based on NYS Agriculture and Markets Home Processing guidance read October 21, 2026. Not legal advice.)

Supplier: [name] · Product: [name] · Address on the label: [street address or PO Box, city, state, ZIP] · Production location covered by the registration: [as confirmed below, not from the label]

State rules for the supplier (from the Department’s guidance):

1. The product is on the Department’s approved list, isn’t on the prohibited list and doesn’t require refrigeration as a finished food.
2. It’s pre-packaged in the home and labeled: common name, ingredients by weight, net quantity, processor name and address, allergens. The address may be a street address or a PO Box, with city, state and ZIP.
3. It’s made and sold within New York State.

Our purchasing checks (recommended, not state requirements):

1. The supplier is independent of our restaurant. If an owner, partner or relative of our business makes it, or ownership is shared in any way, stop and ask the Department.
2. From the supplier’s registration or the Department, not the label, we’ve confirmed the location where this product is made is the registered location, and this exact product is on the supplier’s approved product list. A PO Box label is fine, but no label address proves where the kitchen is. A pending or “being added” product isn’t covered yet.
3. The office that issues our restaurant permit has confirmed how we may receive, store and sell it.

If any line is “no” or “don’t know,” hold the product. Don’t buy it or put it on the menu until that line is resolved.

Once a product passes, add it to your normal receiving checks. Our food-safety starter covers setting those up, including keeping supplier ingredient information current.

A fictional example

A fictional owner has sold cookies and scones at a farmers’ market under a home-processor registration and is opening a small café that will hold a Department of Health permit. Three menu ideas come up.

Keep baking the scones at home for the café. No. Once the café holds its permit, the FAQ says all food it offers for sale has to be made at the permitted facility, and the owner’s home registration becomes void when the café opens. The scones move to the café kitchen.

Buy brownies from an unrelated registered home processor in the next town. Possibly. Brownies are on the approved list. The owner still needs to see the supplier’s registration covering brownies at the kitchen where they’re made, receive them packaged and labeled, and get the permit office’s answer on selling them unwrapped by the piece. Until all three come back, brownies stay off the opening menu.

Buy cream-filled éclairs from that same supplier. No. Cream-filled pastries are on the prohibited list, so a home processor can’t make them under the exemption.

If the brownie supplier turned out to be the owner’s relative or business partner, this page wouldn’t settle it. The owner would describe the arrangement to the Department and wait for its answer before buying.

Sources

• New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Home Processing, including the Overview, Labeling, Prohibited Foods, Approved Home Processed Foods, Frequently Asked Questions and Register as a Home Processor sections; read October 21, 2026. The page shows no publication or update date.