Do You Need a License to Sell Microgreens in Louisiana?

No, when you grew them and you are selling them yourself to the person who will eat them.

Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3673 says a farmer or producer of fruits and vegetables may sell direct to a consumer at roadside, at a farmers market, or by other direct means without a state, parish, or municipal permit fee, license fee, occupational license tax, or inspection fee.

Read that list of governments again, because it is what makes Louisiana different. Most states in this series answer for themselves and then send you downstairs. Texas devolves the question to your city or county. Missouri hands it to your local public health agency, which may be stricter than the state. Colorado sends you to one of dozens of county agencies. Louisiana instead reaches down and tells the parish and the municipality that they may not charge a farmer for this.

Now the limit, which matters just as much. The statute bars the fee, not the inspection. It does not immunise your crop from a health inspection, it does not convert your operation into cottage food, and it is not a general farm exemption from sales tax. It is a fee and license-tax bar attached to a specific fact pattern: the farmer or producer, or their employee, selling their own fruits and vegetables direct to the consumer.

The answer becomes yes when you step outside that pattern into a retail food establishment or a packing facility. Then you need a permit to operate from the State Health Officer.

The federal layer applies on top. See the FDA Produce Safety Rule page.

Where the line falls

The person to ask is your parish State Sanitarian. They handle plans, pre-opening review and permit issuance for the parish where the facility will operate, which makes them the right first call rather than the central office. LDH's published central number is 225-342-9500.

What the fee bar does and does not do

This is the part of Louisiana law most likely to be misread in both directions, so it is worth being precise.

The distinction that trips people is the first row on the right. A statute that bars an inspection fee is not a statute that bars an inspection. Louisiana can still look at your product; it just cannot bill you for the permit or the visit in this fact pattern.

The second thing to hold onto is that the bar attaches to the sale, not to the grower generally. The same person, on the same day, can be inside the statute selling trays at a market and outside it delivering clamshells to a bistro.

New Orleans, and why parish matters here

Louisiana uses parishes rather than counties, and Orleans Parish is the verified example where local rules materially change what a grower can do.

Set that beside R.S. 3:3673 and it looks like a contradiction. It is not, quite, and understanding why will save you an argument at a counter.

The statute bars fees on the direct sale of a farmer's own fruits and vegetables. New Orleans's agricultural-use license and its zoning caps regulate land use, which is a different regulatory object, and its mobile vendor permit regulates street vending as an activity rather than the produce sale as such. So both can be true at once: the city cannot charge you a permit fee to sell your own greens direct, and the city can still regulate whether you may run an agricultural use on that parcel, how big your stand is, and what hours you keep.

Where exactly the boundary falls on a given set of facts is not something this page can settle for you, and it is not published as a general answer. Get it in writing from the city before you pay a fee you may not owe, and before you assume a statute exempts you from a zoning rule it does not touch. No exhaustive parish-by-parish inventory exists, so verify the actual location rather than reasoning from New Orleans to anywhere else.

Cottage food, and the cap that is not about you

Louisiana's cottage food statute at R.S. 40:4.9(E) lists the foods it covers: baked goods, candies, cane syrup, dried mixes, honey, jams and jellies and preserves, pickles and acidified foods, sauces and syrups, and spices. Raw living or cut microgreens appear nowhere on that list, and the statute is an exemption for listed home-prepared low-risk foods rather than a produce marketing law.

The cap is less than $30,000 in gross annual sales of those listed foods. It is a fixed statutory amount and is not inflation adjusted. Act 357 of the 2022 Regular Session, from HB 828, raised it from $20,000 effective 1 August 2022.

None of that reaches microgreens. It is worth knowing only because a grower who also sells a qualifying jam or baked good at the same stall is running two different legal regimes off one table.

Food safety, inspections and water

Louisiana adds its Sanitary Code where a facility is regulated. Part XXIII imposes permit, plan review, pre-operational inspection, employee health, approved source, sanitation and labeling duties on retail food establishments. Part VI applies to manufacturing, processing, packing or holding food, and its definition of a food processing plant excludes a commercial operation producing raw agricultural commodities whose end product remains raw.

That carve-out is genuinely useful to a microgreens grower. It is not a blanket exemption from Part XXIII, because the way you sell can still amount to retail food service even when the product never stops being raw.

One documentation note. The controlling compilation is the Office of the State Register's July 2026 Title 51. An older June 2002 LDH Part VI PDF circulates and is not current law. If someone quotes Part VI at you from a PDF, check its date.

Inspections. For a permitted retail establishment, the parish sanitarian runs the pre-opening inspection and later unannounced ones. LDH says retail establishments are risk-categorised and inspected one to four times a year, with published inspection types of routine, re-inspection, pre-opening and complaint. For a raw-produce farm, LDAF's produce safety work covers voluntary readiness reviews, training, educational visits and inspections appropriate to FSMA coverage, which is not a published annual schedule for every grower.

The certificate. LAC 51:XXIII:305 requires the owner or a designated employee of a Part XXIII food establishment to hold an LDH Food Safety Certificate, renewed every five years, with a $25 application and renewal fee. Listed exceptions include temporary and seasonal establishments but not an ordinary retail food operation. A generic online food handler card is not the same document.

Water. Louisiana publishes no microgreens-specific agricultural water test frequency and no state numerical standard. A Part VI permitted factory must have an ample potable supply under LAC 51:VI:113, which is a condition rather than a testing schedule. For a covered farm, the federal water requirements apply according to coverage. Ask LDAF Produce Safety, Kelly Hughes, 225-935-2159 for the farm-specific expectation.

The free review. LDAF runs a Produce Safety Program, encourages farmers to verify their farm, and expressly offers On-Farm Readiness Reviews as a voluntary, non-regulatory way to find improvements before an inspection. Kelly Hughes again, on 225-935-2159 or producesafety@ldaf.state.la.us.

Federal figures. Take them from FDA rather than from a state page. The current three-year 2023 to 2025 values are $34,324 for the not-covered farm test and $686,476 for the qualified exemption, from the column headed "Average 3 Year Value for 2023 - 2025". The single-year 2025 values beside them, $35,247 and $704,950, are a different measure.

Labeling

Louisiana writes its own label baseline into statute at R.S. 40:608:

A single-variety raw pack ordinarily carries no ingredient list beyond the product identity. Nutrition labeling of raw vegetables is voluntary unless you make a nutrient claim, at which point the full compliance analysis arrives with it.

A federally qualified-exempt farm must show the farm's name and complete address either on the label or at the point of purchase.

On "Keep Refrigerated": no Louisiana rule was found mandating those words on every package. Do not add a handling claim you cannot support. If you hold the product cold, you must actually control that and meet your sanitation and inspection duties, and buyers can require refrigeration specifications contractually. Ask the parish sanitarian whether your proposed packaging and handling need a specific statement.

Tax

Fresh fruits and vegetables sold for home preparation are generally exempt from Louisiana state sales tax. The important qualifier is the word state: local sales tax can still apply depending on where the sale happens, so do not advertise tax-free statewide.

You need a Louisiana sales tax account only when you are required to collect. LDR specifically warns businesses not to register merely because a business exists, or when it sells only non-taxable goods. That is a useful piece of advice to follow rather than over-comply with, because an unnecessary account brings filing obligations with it.

A resale certificate is a purchaser's document for claiming a resale exemption. It is not a permit that a direct fresh-produce seller must hold.

And to be precise about R.S. 3:3673 once more: it is a direct-producer exemption from permit fees, license fees and occupational license tax. It is not a universal farm sales-tax exemption, and describing it as one to a tax officer will not go well.

Business setup

A sole proprietor can sell under their own legal name without forming an entity. An LLC is a business decision, not a microgreens permit requirement.

GeauxBIZ coordinates state registration for a new business. Parish and city occupational registration is separate, and worth confirming in light of the occupational-license-tax bar above.

Selling channel by channel

Farmers markets. For a producer's own greens sold direct, R.S. 3:3673 is the statewide rule against permit and inspection fees. A market can still set private vendor terms: application, dates, proof of insurance, product list, cold-holding rules. A municipality can regulate its own site.

One point to get right, because it is commonly misunderstood: LDAF certification is free only for vendors who elect to accept FMNP, WIC and Senior benefit payments. It is a benefits-program registration, not a universal market permit, and you do not need it to sell at a market.

If the market is a New Orleans temporary market, city licensing and Department of Health approval are expressly required.

Restaurants. This is wholesale, not the direct-to-consumer sale R.S. 3:3673 protects. Restaurants need an approved source, and LDH's retail guidance tells food establishments not to buy consumables from unpermitted suppliers, so expect the question. A raw agricultural producer may fall outside the Part VI food processing plant definition, but the classification of a wash and pack operation, a commissary or a distribution setup is fact specific. Get the parish sanitarian's written answer before offering a restaurant a cut, packaged product.

Grocery. Buyers commonly want a certificate of insurance, product liability cover, invoice and lot traceability, a recall contact, cold chain specification, a UPC or barcode, and often a GAP or GHP audit or a buyer-specific food safety plan. These are commercial conditions, not Louisiana statutes. LDAF calls its GAP and GHP audits voluntary and says they verify practices that minimise microbial hazards, which is the credible route when a buyer asks for one.

Online. Ordering online does not change the product's legal category. A farm delivering its own raw crop to a consumer has a direct-sale case; shipping to a retailer or restaurant is wholesale. Interstate shipment adds federal misbranding and adulteration requirements and the destination state's produce, retail food, tax and plant rules, and Louisiana cannot license that sale for you. Where a package goes to a consumer under the Food Traceability Rule's farm-packaged-food exemption, FDA says the intact package must reach the consumer carrying the farm name, complete address and phone number.

Home growing and zoning

Louisiana has no statewide home occupation rule for microgreens. Zoning, building, nuisance, water and discharge, and business license rules are all local. Verify the parcel's parish and municipal zoning code before installing racks, greenhouse equipment, customer pickup, signage or a farm stand. New Orleans, above, is the concrete illustration of how specific that can get.

A commercial kitchen is not automatically triggered by growing raw microgreens. It becomes relevant when you conduct food preparation or a regulated retail activity that must meet Part XXIII. A dedicated permitted facility and plans review are triggered when a food establishment or retail food store is constructed, substantially renovated, or changes ownership or occupancy classification, and LAC 51:XXIII:307 requires approval before work begins.

Right to farm applies conditionally. Louisiana's Act defines an agricultural operation to include facilities used in the production and processing of crops, and defines agricultural product to include horticultural products, so a microgreens operation is a plausible fit on the definitions. R.S. 3:3603 then prevents a qualifying operation using generally accepted or traditional practices from being deemed a nuisance where the specified timing and changed-neighbourhood conditions are met.

It is a nuisance defense. It is not a food permit, a zoning permit, or an exemption from health law.

Insurance

No Louisiana statute was identified requiring a stand-alone microgreens grower to carry general or product liability insurance merely to sell raw produce. Cover is still prudent, because claims for alleged foodborne illness, premises injury, delivery accidents and recall expense can exceed a small grower's resources outright. Separate auto, workers' compensation, lease and local vendor requirements can apply on the facts.

Restaurants and grocers commonly make product liability cover and a certificate a contract condition, then add named-insured or waiver language, minimum limits, recall cooperation, invoice and lot coding, delivery temperature expectations, indemnity and notice of a regulatory issue. There is no published statewide Louisiana minimum for those contracts. Treat the buyer's vendor agreement as the source of truth, price the insurance before agreeing to indemnity, and never present a buyer's requirement to another buyer as state law.

What Louisiana does not publish

The market

Louisiana's July 2025 estimated population was 4,618,189, at a 2020 density of 107.8 people per square mile. That is a dispersed market, which favours concentrated weekly routes and named chef and retailer accounts in the metros over a statewide single-drop delivery promise.

Restaurant demand is real in scale terms. LDH lists 16,747 restaurants and 7,140 grocery stores among nearly 34,000 permitted food establishments. Those are possible accounts rather than proof of demand, and certainly not proof that microgreens are scarce.

Competition is real too: Louisiana had 25,006 farms in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, and LDAF maintains a farmers market directory. Validate price, variety and delivery competition market by market before buying capacity.

The strategic read here follows from the statute. Because the fee bar covers direct sales at every level of government, Louisiana is unusually cheap to start in provided you stay direct: no permit fee, no license fee, no occupational license tax, no inspection fee. The cost arrives the moment you go wholesale, and it arrives as plan review, a permit, a Food Safety Certificate and an inspection cycle. So the sensible sequence is to build a direct book of business first and cross into wholesale deliberately, with the parish sanitarian's classification already in hand.

On funding, LDAF runs a Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. Its 2026 request-for-proposals deadline was 30 April 2026, so check the page for the next cycle rather than assuming anything is open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Louisiana? A: Not for your own crop sold direct to the consumer. R.S. 3:3673 lets a farmer sell direct at roadside, at a farmers market or by other direct means without a state, parish or municipal permit fee, license fee, occupational license tax or inspection fee.

Q: So nobody can inspect me? A: No, and this is the most important misreading to avoid. The statute removes the fee, including the inspection fee. It does not remove the inspection, and it does not exempt your crop from food safety law.

Q: Does it really bind my parish and my city? A: That is what it says, for the direct sale of a farmer's own fruits and vegetables. It does not stop a city regulating land use, stand size, hours or street vending, which is why New Orleans can charge a street-vending fee and cap a residential farm stand at 200 square feet without contradicting it.

Q: Can I sell to a restaurant on this? A: No. A restaurant is not the final consumer, so wholesale sits outside 3:3673. Ask your parish sanitarian to classify your wash and pack setup before you offer a restaurant a cut, packaged product.

Q: Can I use the cottage food law? A: No. R.S. 40:4.9 lists nine low-risk foods and raw greens are on none of them. The $30,000 cap you may have read about belongs to that law, not to you.

Q: Do I charge sales tax? A: Fresh fruit and vegetables sold for home preparation are generally exempt from state sales tax, but local sales tax can still apply, so do not promise tax-free. LDR also tells businesses not to register for an account when they sell only non-taxable goods.

Q: Do I need the LDAF market certification? A: Only if you elect to accept FMNP, WIC or Senior benefit payments. It is free, and it is a benefits registration rather than a permit to trade at a market.

Final thoughts

Louisiana gives a direct-selling grower something no other state in this series does: a statute that tells the state, the parish and the city alike that they may not charge you for this. That is a real head start, and it is worth using deliberately rather than discovering later.

Three things to carry. Read the fee bar as a bar on fees, not on inspection, because a grower who thinks they are unreachable will be unpleasantly surprised. Keep the direct and wholesale halves of your business mentally separate, since the same greens change legal category depending on who receives them. And if you are anywhere near New Orleans, treat the city's land-use rules as a live and separate question from the fee bar, and get the answer in writing before you build a stand or pay a permit.

If something here does not match what LDH or your parish sanitarian 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 7 August 2026.