Do You Need a License to Sell Microgreens in Maryland?

No, if you are selling your own raw, uncut microgreens as a raw agricultural product. Maryland put that exclusion in the statute rather than leaving you to infer it.

Health-General 21-301(h)(3)(iii) expressly excludes a farmers market or event location selling raw agricultural products from the definition of a "food service facility". That is a clean, named carve-out for the setting most small growers actually sell in.

The answer flips to yes if you commercially process, pack, repack, store, distribute or otherwise handle the greens in a way that makes your premises a food processing plant. Maryland defines that term broadly, and the license in that case is a Food Processing Plant license with plan review.

One shortcut people reach for is closed. Maryland has an On-Farm Home Processing version of the processing license, but COMAR 10.15.04.15(C) lists what it permits: baked goods, specified acidic foods, honey and herb mixtures, and dried fruit and vegetables. Fresh microgreens are not on that list.

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

Where the line falls

The agency split matters here. MDH Office of Food Protection handles food processing licenses and permits on 410-767-8400. Retail food questions go to your local health department, which MDH says on its own licensing page. Farm produce safety support comes from MDA Food Quality Assurance on 410-841-5769.

The sales tax trap

This is the part of Maryland most likely to catch a grower out, and it is not a licensing issue at all.

You would expect fresh produce to be exempt from sales tax, and food often is. But Maryland's exemption for off-premises food turns on who is selling it: food is exempt when sold by a substantial grocery or market business at that location, which means at least 10 percent of food sales at that location are grocery or market items. Other food vendor sales are generally taxable.

A stand selling nothing but microgreens is not obviously a substantial grocery or market business. That does not mean you owe tax, but it does mean you cannot assume you do not. Ask the Comptroller for your precise registration and collection treatment before you open a farm stand or an online shop, not after your first quarter.

Note too that a resale certificate is for buying items for resale. It is not a blanket produce exemption and it does not answer this question.

Cottage food, which moved twice this year

Cottage food is a statutory category for a nonhazardous food specified by regulation and produced and packaged in a residential kitchen. Fresh microgreens are raw agricultural produce and are not a listed cottage product, so none of this is your route. It is worth knowing anyway, because both changes are recent enough that people will quote them at you:

• 2026 Chapter 320, HB 535 raised the cottage food cap from $50,000 to $100,000 in annual revenue.
• SB 838, 2026 session, changes the cottage food product definition to "nonpotentially hazardous" food and makes a limited home bakery licensing change, effective 1 October 2026.

Neither makes raw microgreens a cottage product. Treating fresh greens as cottage food confuses two legal categories and gains you nothing.

Food safety and inspections

A raw produce grower is not subject to a routine MDH food processing plant inspection simply for selling uncut microgreens. A licensed processing plant is inspectable by MDH and must make its records available, and MDA conducts Produce Safety Rule inspections for covered farms. No fixed statewide inspection frequency for a small raw microgreens grower is published.

If you do end up licensed, COMAR 10.15.04 sets the controls, and Maryland flags several as critical items: approved source, protection from contamination, handwashing, exclusion of ill staff, potable hot and cold water, sewage compliance, safe packaging and labeling, and allergen identification.

The free review. MDA runs Produce Safety Rule implementation and outreach, is compiling farm inventory registrations, and offers free On-Farm Readiness Reviews that are educational and non-regulatory. Molly Gillingham is the Food Quality Assurance Program Manager on 410-841-5769.

Water. For a covered farm, agricultural water must be safe and of adequate sanitary quality for its intended use, and the federal compliance timetable has changed, so do not assume a universal annual test. A processing plant needs a potable supply, with potable defined by the Safe Drinking Water Act and COMAR standard. No Maryland-specific microgreens testing frequency is published; confirm your source and coverage with MDA.

Training. No universal Maryland food handler card requirement was found for a raw microgreens grower. Inside a licensed processing plant, COMAR requires a qualified individual with education, training or experience adequate for their assigned safe-handling duties, and local retail rules can add more.

Labeling

For packaged microgreens handled in a regulated processing operation, work from the federal baseline:

A note on sourcing, because it matters here. Maryland previously published a processing plan submittal checklist setting these out, and that document is no longer at its published address, checked 6 August 2026. The elements above are the federal label baseline rather than a current Maryland-specific list, so treat them as the floor and get your actual artwork confirmed. MDH reviews proposed labels as part of its plan review process, which is the right place to settle it.

For a single-ingredient package, say "microgreens" and identify the variety or mix honestly. An ingredients panel is meaningful only when there are ingredients to declare, so do not manufacture one. Labels must not be false or misleading.

No Maryland source imposes a universal "keep refrigerated" statement. That is not permission to skip temperature control: if you sell cut ready-to-eat greens, establish handling, temperature and shelf life with MDH or local health and with your buyer, and do not print a handling claim your operation cannot actually support.

Sampling, which is its own problem

Worth pulling out because it surprises people. Raw uncut produce can be offered at a Maryland farmers market without a health department license. Sampling is different. Counties may create a seasonal Farmers Market Sampling License, obtained from the county health department. Where a county has not created one, University of Maryland guidance is that sampling is not permitted at all.

So "can I let people taste them" has three possible answers in Maryland depending on your county: yes with a license, no, or ask. Check before you plan a tasting into your stall.

Business setup

A sole proprietor may sell under their own legal name without forming an entity. An LLC, corporation, partnership or trade name is filed through SDAT: domestic LLC Articles of Organization $100, trade name $25, each with an optional $50 expedited fee. Entity choice is liability planning and is not a food license.

Selling channel by channel

Farmers markets. The statutory exclusion covers raw uncut produce. The market itself can still require a vendor application, insurance, attendance, product origin and cooler rules, and sampling is the separate question above.

Restaurants. Wholesale does not turn raw microgreens into cottage food or into sprouts, and it does not by itself create a license. It does raise the practical bar: traceability, delivery temperature control, invoice and lot records, and GAP or GHP evidence. If you are running a packing facility rather than simply selling farm produce, MDH licensing and plan review apply.

Grocery. MDA states plainly that wholesale buyers now require GAP and GHP certification, and that audits cover hygiene, farm review, harvest and pack, storage, transportation, food security and trace-back. Expect a food safety plan, audit certification, recall capacity, specifications, liability insurance, barcodes, delivered temperature controls and consistent case packs.

Online. Ordering within Maryland does not change the underlying classification: raw farm produce stays raw farm produce, and a processed product follows its license and label controls. Interstate adds federal rules and the destination state's requirements, and Maryland cottage food rules have no application to interstate commerce.

Home growing, zoning and right to farm

Home growing is not a statewide zoning permission. County and city zoning and home occupation codes control commercial production, greenhouse and shed structures, customer visits, signs, parking, deliveries, drainage and setbacks. Extension's advice is practical: find your parcel on the county zoning map, because the zone decides what structures and uses are allowed. Check with the planning office before commercial sales.

A commercial kitchen or dedicated facility is triggered by processing food, not by growing raw microgreens. For a processing plant, MDH requires plan and process review before construction, remodelling or material alteration, with hand sinks, protected potable water, cleanable food contact surfaces, pest control, appropriate refrigeration and records.

Maryland's right-to-farm statute, Courts and Judicial Proceedings 5-403, covers on-farm production, harvesting and marketing of an agricultural product grown, raised or cultivated by the farmer. After one year, a compliant and non-negligent operation cannot be deemed a nuisance on account of sight, noise, odors, dust or insects. It expressly does not override federal, state or local health, environmental, zoning or permit requirements.

Insurance

No Maryland statute was found requiring general or product liability insurance for a raw microgreens grower. Both are prudent, along with recall cover and commercial auto if you deliver. Workers' compensation becomes a separate employment law question once you hire; confirm with the Workers' Compensation Commission and your insurer rather than relying on a market's rule of thumb.

Buyer contracts require what they require: a certificate naming them as additional insured, specified limits, product liability, indemnity, traceability and recall cooperation, delivery temperature terms, audit proof and vendor and lot documentation.

What Maryland does not publish

The market

Maryland is a realistic direct-market state for a structural reason: the Baltimore and Washington population centers put restaurants, groceries, institutions and farmers markets within a short delivery radius of a great many growers. Short shelf life is much less of a problem when the drive is thirty minutes.

It is also competitive, and Maryland's institutions say so. MDA supports statewide GAP and GHP audits and reports that wholesale buyers now require certification. UMD runs a Maryland Retail Products Producer Program specifically for growers targeting groceries, co-ops, food hubs, foodservice, chefs, restaurants and institutions.

Win on reliable weekly volume, mix and variety, same-day harvest, clean packaging, delivery discipline and documented safety. There is no special microgreens license to claim as a differentiator, because there isn't one.

On funding, UMD lists Maryland's Urban Agriculture Water and Power Infrastructure Grant and DHCD Opportunity Zone Microgrants of $50,000 to $100,000 when available. Availability is opportunity-dependent, so check current rounds rather than planning around a listing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Maryland? A: Not for your own raw, uncut greens. Health-General 21-301(h)(3)(iii) excludes a farmers market or event location selling raw agricultural products from food service facility status.

Q: What about the On-Farm Home Processing license? A: Not available to you. COMAR 10.15.04.15(C) lists baked goods, specified acidic foods, honey and herb mixtures and dried fruit and vegetables. Fresh microgreens are not there.

Q: Is there a sales limit? A: Not on the raw produce exclusion; it is category based. The $50,000 you may see in COMAR is a ceiling on certain processed foods under a license you cannot use anyway.

Q: Do I charge sales tax? A: Check, do not assume. Maryland's off-premises food exemption depends on the seller being a substantial grocery or market business at that location, at least 10 percent grocery or market items. A microgreens-only stand should get this confirmed by the Comptroller.

Q: Can I hand out samples at the market? A: Only if your county has created a Farmers Market Sampling License and you hold it. Where a county has not created one, sampling is not permitted.

Q: Maryland just raised its cottage food cap to $100,000. Does that help? A: No. That change, and the SB 838 definition change effective 1 October 2026, both apply to actual cottage food products. Raw produce is not one.

Q: Does right to farm protect my indoor operation? A: It protects on-farm production, harvesting and marketing of what the farmer grew, after one year, against certain nuisance claims. It overrides no health, environmental, zoning or permit requirement.

Final thoughts

Maryland is a good state to sell microgreens in and a slightly awkward one to get set up in, and the awkwardness is not where people look for it. The licensing answer is clean and written into the statute. The two things most likely to cost you are a sales tax rule that turns on what kind of business you are rather than what you sell, and a sampling regime that varies by county and may simply not exist where you are.

Three things to carry. Get the Comptroller's answer on tax before you open, in writing. Ask your county about sampling before you build a tasting into your market plan. And remember the On-Farm Home Processing license is not the back door it looks like, because your product is not on its list.

If something here does not match what MDH, MDA or your local health department 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.