Milk, cheese, yogurt, butter — excluded from Cottage Food
LICENSED DAIRY REQUIRED
Bottom line: Selling milk, cheese, or yogurt for human consumption needs a Grade A or manufacturing Dairy Permit — full stop. The only legal path to raw milk is a pet-food license, and Florida has firmly closed the herdshare loophole.
The Path
Dairy is entirely excluded from cottage food. Selling pasteurized milk, cheese, or yogurt for human consumption requires a Grade A or manufacturing Dairy Permit from FDACS, licensed pasteurization equipment, and regular inspection. Retail sale of raw milk for human consumption is flatly prohibited (Fla. Stat. § 502.091). The only legal path to sell raw milk in Florida is under a Master Feed Registration / "Manufacturing and Distributing Pet Food Facility" license (Fla. Stat. § 580.036), labeled "Not for Human Consumption" — and in retail settings it must be kept behind a physical partition from human-food dairy cases (Fla. Stat. § 502.165). Florida regulators have taken a firm position that herdshare arrangements still count as a sale, so that route is not a safe workaround here the way it is in some other states.
What You Need
Human-consumption dairy: Grade A or manufacturing Dairy Permit from FDACS
Raw milk (pet path only): Master Feed Registration / Pet Food Facility license, clear "Not for Human Consumption" labeling
Retail raw pet milk kept behind a physical partition from human-food dairy products
Watch Out For
Never sell milk, cheese, or yogurt for human consumption without a Grade A/manufacturing Dairy Permit
Herdshare programs are not a reliable legal workaround in Florida — FDACS treats the exchange as a prohibited sale
Raw milk cheese aged under 60 days is not a safe assumption either way — confirm with FDACS before selling any raw dairy