Do You Need a License to Sell Microgreens in Colorado?

No, as long as you sell them raw and unwashed for the customer to wash. Colorado is the exact mirror image of Florida, and the difference is one word.

Florida writes washing into its exemption: the statute covers produce "washed or otherwise treated in its natural form", which is why the Florida page can answer the washing question so cleanly.

Colorado writes the exemption the other way round. The clearest published statement lists "micro greens intended to be washed by the consumer prior to consumption" among the whole and uncut produce exempt from licensure. The exempt product is the one the customer is going to wash.

So in Florida washing keeps you inside. In Colorado washing is the thing most likely to move you out, because once you wash and pack a ready-to-eat green you are processing rather than selling a raw agricultural commodity. Same crop, same activity, opposite result across a state line.

One honest caveat about that source. The clearest statement of the microgreens exemption is a county health department's, not a state document. That is less flimsy than it sounds, because Colorado devolves retail food licensing to local public health agencies almost everywhere, so your county is genuinely the authority for you. But it does mean you should confirm with your own county rather than assume Douglas County's wording is statewide.

The federal layer applies on top and is the same everywhere. See the FDA Produce Safety Rule page.

Where the line sits

There is no named Colorado permit for the narrow case of a grower selling their own raw unwashed microgreens. That is the point of the exemption: there is nothing to apply for.

When you do need an approval, there are two of them and they are not interchangeable. A Retail Food Establishment license covers a regulated retail operation. Manufactured Food or Storage Facility registration covers manufacturing, repacking, storage and wholesale. Do not call an RFE license a farm permit, because they answer different questions and the wrong one wastes a plan review.

Who actually licenses you

This is the practical fork in Colorado and it is worth getting right before you make any phone call.

CDPHE, the Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability on 303-692-2000, directly licenses retail food in only nine counties: Clear Creek, Dolores, Gilpin, Moffat, Ouray, Park, Pitkin except Aspen, Rio Blanco and San Juan.

Everywhere else, and that means almost all of the Front Range where you will actually be selling, your licensor is the local public health agency. Manufactured food and wholesale registration stays with CDPHE regardless.

So the sequence is: identify your county, work out whether it is one of the nine, and call the right body first. Douglas County's guidance is a good example of what a county publishes and it is the source of the clearest microgreens statement here, but it binds Douglas County.

Cottage food, and the trap of a permissive law

Colorado has a reputation for an unusually permissive Cottage Foods Act, which is exactly why people assume it covers microgreens. It does not, and the exclusion is explicit rather than inferred: CDPHE lists cut fresh fruits and vegetables as ineligible cottage foods. Eligible produce is dried, freeze-dried, or qualifying acidified and pickled product. Fresh greens are not on the list.

The current cap is $10,000 in net revenue per calendar year from each eligible food product, a fixed figure rather than an inflation-adjusted one. You will see it quoted in Colorado microgreens discussions. It is not your number, because you are not in that regime at all.

One thing to watch. HB 26-1033 was enacted and amends the Cottage Foods Act with effect from 1 January 2027. CSU Extension says the changes will bring time and temperature control for safety food rules into scope from that date and is revising its training accordingly. That is a real change and worth tracking, but it does not convert fresh cut microgreens into a 2026 cottage food, and the final 2027 regulations should be confirmed with CDPHE before anyone relies on the expanded law.

Food safety, water and the free review

The Colorado Department of Agriculture implements the federal Produce Safety Rule. A covered farm manages worker hygiene, equipment and sanitation, animals, biological soil amendments and agricultural water under 21 CFR Part 112. CDA provides education, registration and regulatory inspection, and its program does not turn a small exempt farm into a cottage food business.

Water is where Colorado has genuinely current news. For a covered farm's pre-harvest water, the rule is now a systems-based agricultural water assessment reviewed annually by a supervisor, replacing the former fixed pre-harvest microbial testing schedule. CDA says public water results and certificates can document compliance where relevant. Separately, CSU Extension recommends potable water for harvest rinsing and testing well water every one to two years as practical food safety, which is a recommendation rather than a universal legal interval for an exempt grower.

The readiness review. CDA runs non-regulatory On-Farm Readiness Reviews with CSU Extension education, described as compliance assistance. Request one at cda_produce.safety@state.co.us; Program Manager Duane Sinning is listed on 303-869-9284. No fee is published, which is not the same as it being free, so confirm when you book.

Inspections. An unprocessed raw produce stand is not routinely inspected as a licensed establishment. A licensed RFE is inspected by CDPHE in the nine counties or by the local agency elsewhere. Triggers are starting a regulated operation, plan review or a new facility, a complaint or outbreak, a change of owner or location, or a process that requires regulation. CDPHE charges a $155 plan review application fee for a directly licensed retail food establishment and issues the license only after approval and payment.

Certification. None is published as a condition of selling raw unwashed microgreens. Cottage food producers must complete Colorado cottage food safety training, but that is not you. A licensed retail establishment follows the applicable retail food rules and its local agency's requirements, so check with the licensing county rather than assuming a general food handler card is required.

Labeling

Colorado publishes no statewide microgreens label checklist for an unwashed raw produce sale, and no Colorado-only label element list specific to packaged raw microgreens was located.

The clear instruction is a negative one: do not use the Cottage Foods Act label or disclaimer. It belongs to eligible cottage foods, and fresh cut vegetables are excluded from that category, so putting it on a clamshell of microgreens misdescribes the product and claims a status you do not have.

If your operation becomes a manufactured, repacked or wholesale food operation, apply the federal food label requirements and register with CDPHE, which registers repackers and manufacturers as approved sources. For a label question in that territory, CDPHE's Manufactured Food Program is on 303-692-3645.

No Colorado-specific "keep refrigerated" statement was verified for raw microgreens. That is not permission to leave greens warm. CSU recommends most fresh vegetables be stored at 35 to 40°F, buyers routinely make refrigeration and label language a supply condition, and a product entering a regulated retail path picks up the food code cold-holding rules.

Tax, and the indoor-growing break worth knowing about

Food for home consumption is generally exempt from Colorado state sales tax, but local and home-rule city taxes can differ, and Colorado has a lot of self-collecting home-rule cities that write their own rules. A seller making only products exempt from state and state-administered local tax does not need a sales tax license. A seller who must collect needs one, at $16 prorated plus a $50 deposit which is refundable after qualifying filings and payment. Confirm your exact city rather than the state position.

For a commercial farm producing vegetables for profit, Colorado exempts farm equipment and agricultural inputs used primarily and directly in the farm operation. You give the seller DR 0511, the Affidavit for Colorado Sales Tax Exemption for Farm Equipment. It does not cover home gardens with incidental sales, office or janitorial equipment, sales, distribution and transport equipment, or post-harvest processing, and local adoption varies.

The one worth flagging for indoor growers: since January 2023, qualifying controlled environment agriculture equipment has a property tax exemption running through 1 January 2028 under HB22-1301. CDA also recognises controlled environment facilities growing raw crops for wholesale profit as agricultural facilities. For a rack-and-light microgreens operation, that is a rare case of the tax code actually contemplating what you do.

On entity choice, no filing is required simply to grow microgreens and a sole proprietor can operate without an LLC. The current Secretary of State entity filing fee was not verified from an official fee page, so ask the Business Division on 303-894-2200 rather than trusting a figure from a blog.

Selling channel by channel

Farmers markets. Colorado markets are not automatically temporary events and are subject to retail food rules, but whole and uncut fruits and vegetables, including microgreens intended for consumer washing, are exempt from licensure. Sampling is the catch: it must be sanitary and use an approved handwashing facility, and food prepared on site has to come from a licensed mobile unit or pushcart holding an RFE license. Markets add their own applications, vendor fees, insurance, Colorado-grown rules and sales tax or event requirements.

Restaurants. Restaurants may buy unprocessed farm product directly, which is a materially better position than growers get in Arkansas. Expect the buyer to want approved-source evidence, invoices, traceability and cold chain. If you wash, repack or manufacture for wholesale, register the facility with CDPHE, because that registration is the approved-source route.

Grocery. Beyond the legal exemption, expect an approved-source and vendor record, product, lot and harvest-date traceability, a recall contact, refrigerated delivery, invoices and a certificate of insurance, and often GAP, GHP or a third-party audit. CDPHE maintains an approved-source list of active registered manufactured food businesses, which matters if you process or repack for grocery distribution.

Online. For raw produce orders inside Colorado, keep the raw and unwashed status intact and check your sales tax and local delivery obligations. Crossing a state line is a separate federal and destination-state analysis. Colorado's farm produce exemption does not travel with the shipment.

Home growing and zoning

There is no statewide home-occupation rule. Zoning, business licensing, greenhouse and building permits, commercial traffic, signage, water and sewer, and HOA covenants are all local. Ask your city or county planning department before you install a commercial-scale rack room or a greenhouse, because the raw produce exemption does not override zoning and never has.

Growing and harvesting raw microgreens does not by itself require a commercial kitchen. A dedicated licensed facility is triggered by food manufacturing, repacking, preparing ready-to-eat or TCS food, wholesale manufacturing or storage, or operating a retail food establishment. Note that CDPHE manufactured food registration is specific to owner and location, so a new business, an ownership change or a physical address change all require a new application, and a shared kitchen needs a commissary agreement.

Colorado's right to farm statute, at CRS sections 35-3.5-101 to 102, protects an agricultural operation using methods commonly or reasonably associated with agricultural production from being found a nuisance in stated circumstances, with additional protection where the operation predates surrounding non-agricultural use and is not negligent. It is a nuisance defense. It exempts you from nothing in zoning, health, water, building or private covenants.

Insurance

No Colorado law was located requiring general or product liability insurance solely because a grower sells raw microgreens. Workers' compensation, commercial auto and employer obligations arise on their own facts, so treat the absence of a produce-specific mandate as narrow rather than general.

Carry product and general liability before you go to markets or wholesale anyway. For insurance regulation questions, Colorado Division of Insurance Consumer Services is on 303-894-7499; for whether your operation has a specific legal duty, ask a Colorado attorney or broker.

Buyer contracts commonly require general and product liability with a certificate and additional-insured status, indemnity, recall cooperation, lot and harvest-date traceability, refrigerated transport, approved-source documentation and a vendor food safety plan or audit. Colorado publishes no universal mandatory limit, so the vendor agreement in front of you is the real requirement.

What Colorado does not publish

The market

Colorado's strongest microgreens demand is on the Front Range: Denver and Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and the mountain resort communities. Restaurant density, affluent specialty retail and the economics of year-round indoor growing all line up there.

The competition is established rather than absent. Buyers expect consistent weekly availability, mix-specific packaging, local provenance and food safety records, which is a higher bar than a novice grower usually anticipates. The realistic entry is chef accounts, specialty grocers, CSA add-ons and farmers markets. It is not a statewide commodity crop strategy, and nothing about Colorado's regulatory position changes that.

Validate live menus, market vendor rosters and your actual delivery radius before you set a price. On funding, CDA's Community Food Access Program can include small family farms supplying qualifying small retailers; check current rounds with CDA directly rather than assuming a round is open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Colorado? A: Not for selling your own raw, unwashed microgreens intended to be washed by the customer. That sits with whole and uncut produce exempt from licensure.

Q: Can I wash them first, like in Florida? A: Do not assume so. Colorado's exemption is described around greens the consumer will wash, which is the opposite framing to Florida's statute. Washing and packing a ready-to-eat green is processing. Ask your county before you change your process.

Q: Colorado's cottage food law is generous. Can I use it? A: No. CDPHE lists cut fresh fruits and vegetables as ineligible. The $10,000 per product cap you keep seeing quoted is real and irrelevant to you.

Q: Who do I actually call? A: Your county, unless you are in Clear Creek, Dolores, Gilpin, Moffat, Ouray, Park, Pitkin outside Aspen, Rio Blanco or San Juan, which CDPHE licenses directly. Wholesale and manufactured food registration is always CDPHE.

Q: Can I sell to restaurants? A: Yes, restaurants may buy unprocessed farm product. If you wash, repack or manufacture for wholesale, register with CDPHE, because that registration is what makes you an approved source.

Q: Is there a tax break for indoor growing? A: Yes, and it is unusually well matched to this crop. HB22-1301 exempts qualifying controlled environment agriculture equipment from property tax through 1 January 2028.

Q: Does anything change in 2027? A: HB 26-1033 amends the Cottage Foods Act from 1 January 2027. It does not make fresh cut microgreens a cottage food now, and the final regulations should be confirmed with CDPHE before anyone relies on the change.

Final thoughts

Colorado is a comfortable state to sell microgreens in, provided you notice which side of the washing line you are standing on. The exemption is real, there is nothing to apply for, and indoor growing even gets a property tax break written with operations like yours in mind.

Three things to carry. Work out your licensor before your first phone call, because for most growers it is the county and not CDPHE. Do not let Colorado's permissive cottage food reputation pull you into a regime that explicitly excludes cut fresh vegetables. And if you are thinking about washing and bagging a ready-to-eat product, treat that as a regulatory decision rather than a packing decision, and get your county's view in writing first.

If something here does not match what your local health agency told you, report it and it gets corrected. A page that is wrong about a rule is worse than no page.

Sources

Every claim above traces to one of these. All checked 6 August 2026.