What has to be on a maple syrup label in Indiana?

The name and address of the producer (the state handbook says this must be your primary residence address — a PO box doesn't qualify) The common or usual name of the product ("maple syrup") The ingredients, in descending order by weight (the state's sample label reads "Ingredients: Maple Syrup") The net weight or volume (the state's sample label shows "12.5 FL OZ (370mL)") The date the product was processed In at least 10-point type: "This product is home produced and processed and the production area has not been inspected by the Indiana Department of Health. NOT FOR RESALE." If you sell online, the label of each product posted on your website

Indiana · selling rules

Selling maple syrup in Indiana

Yes — if you make the syrup at your primary residence and sell it yourself, straight to the people who'll eat it, Indiana's home-based vendor law needs no license, registration or inspection, just a food handler certificate and a specific label. Selling to stores, restaurants or anyone who resells it is wholesale, which means registering with the Indiana Department of Health first.

License needed?It depends

Home kitchen OK?Yes

Last checked

October 5, 2026

Some points to confirm with the agency

Licenses & registration

Indiana has no maple-specific license. Direct sales: a home-based vendor (HBV) is exempt from the state's food establishment requirements (IC 16-42-5.3-3), and local governments may not require any licensure, certification or inspection of a home-based vendor's food (IC 16-42-5.3-12). The conditions: the syrup is made at your primary residence, isn't resold, and you hold a food handler certificate from an ANSI-accredited issuer, with a copy given to your county health department. The Indiana Department of Health's 2025 Home-Based Vendor Handbook confirms honey and syrups are covered and lists maple syrup as an example. Wholesale: a manufacturer, processor, repackager or wholesale distributor of food must register with the Indiana Department of Health before opening (IC 16-42-1-6), with at least 30 days' notice (410 IAC 7-21-51); the department lists a "maple syrup operation" as a seasonal wholesale food processor. We found no fee stated for that registration. A sugarhouse that isn't at your residence falls outside the HBV law — see the caveats.

Official pageIndiana Department of Health, Food Protection Division — nothing to file for home-based vendors; Wholesale Manufactured Foods Program registration if you sell for resale

Where you can make it

Yes. A home-based vendor's product must be "made, grown, or raised by an individual at the individual's primary residence, including any permanent structure that is on the same property as the residence" (IC 16-42-5.3-4, as amended in 2024) — wording that takes in a backyard sugarhouse on your home lot. The law also requires proper sanitary procedures: hand washing, sanitized containers, safe storage, no animals in the preparation or packaging area, and cleaned and sanitized food-contact surfaces. Syrup made anywhere else — a sugarbush on other land, a rented kitchen — isn't home-based vendor food.

Grade & density

Golden

75% or more

Amber

50–74.9%

Dark

25–49.9%

Very Dark

under 25%

We found no Indiana statute or rule on maple syrup grades or density: "maple" doesn't appear in the food chapters of Indiana Code Title 16, and its only appearance in Title 15 (Agriculture) is in an unrelated definition. Grading therefore follows the voluntary USDA standards. The health department's 2006 maple guidance says syrup must meet the federal standard of identity and can't contain added ingredients such as coloring or preservatives and still be called maple syrup; the federal minimum is 66% soluble solids (see the national notes).

Syrup grades explained · check your density

What goes on the label

The name and address of the producer (the state handbook says this must be your primary residence address — a PO box doesn't qualify)
The common or usual name of the product ("maple syrup")
The ingredients, in descending order by weight (the state's sample label reads "Ingredients: Maple Syrup")
The net weight or volume (the state's sample label shows "12.5 FL OZ (370mL)")
The date the product was processed
In at least 10-point type: "This product is home produced and processed and the production area has not been inspected by the Indiana Department of Health. NOT FOR RESALE."
If you sell online, the label of each product posted on your website

Where you can sell

Home-based vendor syrup can be sold in person, by telephone or through the internet, and delivered in person, by mail or by a third-party carrier — but only to the end consumer, never for resale, and never shipped or delivered to a buyer outside Indiana. Shipped or delivered packages must be sealed so tampering shows, and you must keep each buyer's delivery address for a year. The handbook says the producer has to make the sale personally and that a farmers market can't require a food license from an HBV, though a market manager may ask for your food handler certificate or insurance. Stores, restaurants and distributors are wholesale: register with the Department of Health and meet the Wholesale Food Code (410 IAC 7-21); registered firms must also comply with the federal good manufacturing practice rule, 21 CFR 117 (IC 16-42-1-6). The 2006 maple guidance says the same rules cover wholesale sales in or out of state.

Food-safety requirements

Home-based vendors aren't routinely inspected, but the Department of Health can sample and inspect if a product is misbranded or adulterated or a consumer complains, and can stop production and sales over an imminent health hazard (IC 16-42-5.3-8). For wholesale processors, the department says water from a private system must be tested at least annually for bacteria, with records kept three years. The 2006 maple guidance for sugarhouses adds that food-contact surfaces must be food-grade, new equipment can't contain lead, lead solder or lead paint, and syrup may be sampled for lead at inspection.

Worth confirming: Three things to confirm. (1) Outbuildings: the statute (amended 2024) covers "any permanent structure" on the same property as your primary residence, but the state's 2025 handbook answers a question about sheds and barns by saying HBVs "are required to use their primary residence" — the statute is the law, but ask your county health department how it reads a backyard sugarhouse. (2) Sugarhouses away from home: the only state document we found is the Department of Health's 2006 maple guidance, which treats a sugarhouse as a food processing plant under IC 16-42-5 for retail sales and recommends contacting the local health department about inspection and permits; it predates the home-based vendor law and we found no newer version on the department's site. (3) Wholesale registration: no fee is stated in the statute, the rule or the department's page. The handbook's sample label says "State Department of Health" where the statute says "Indiana Department of Health" — use the statute's wording. The 2006 guidance cites 21 CFR 168.180 for maple syrup's standard of identity; the federal maple standard read for this guide's national notes is 21 CFR 168.140.

Across the US

There's no federal license to sell maple syrup in the US — whether you need a license, where you can boil and where you can sell are decided by your state. Federal rules still set the floor for every jar: the FDA defines what "maple syrup" is and what a food label must say, and USDA publishes grade standards that are voluntary at the federal level.

FDA standard of identity: "maple syrup" (or "maple sirup") is made by concentrating and heat-treating maple sap and must contain at least 66% soluble solids by weight (21 CFR 168.140).
Every packaged food label needs the product's name on the front panel (21 CFR 101.3), the net quantity of contents in fluid measure (21 CFR 101.7), and the name and place of business of the maker, packer or distributor, including city, state and ZIP code (21 CFR 101.5).
Nutrition Facts panels are often not required for small producers: direct-to-consumer sellers with $50,000 or less a year in food sales to consumers (or $500,000 or less in total sales to consumers) are exempt if the label makes no nutrition claims (21 CFR 101.9(j)(1)). A separate low-volume exemption covers firms with fewer than 100 full-time-equivalent employees selling fewer than 100,000 units, and firms under 10 employees selling under 10,000 units don't have to file a notice (21 CFR 101.9(j)(18)).
USDA's grade standards (2015) are voluntary at the federal level: Grade A comes in four color/taste classes — Golden (Delicate), Amber (Rich), Dark (Robust) and Very Dark (Strong) — at 66–68.9% solids (°Brix). Processing Grade must be packed in containers of 5 gallons or larger and can't go into retail-size containers. Some states make grade labeling mandatory under state law (in this guide: Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Wisconsin for licensed processors), while others leave it voluntary — see your state's page.
FDA facility registration: FDA treats boiling sap into syrup as "manufacturing/processing", so a dedicated sugarhouse generally has to register with FDA unless an exemption applies — for example, it's a retail food establishment, meaning its direct-to-consumer food sales are worth more than its sales to all other buyers (sales at roadside stands, farmers markets, CSAs, fairs and by mail or online from a farm or farm-operated business all count as direct), or the syrup is made in your home or in an outbuilding that's still used the way a normal home building would be (FDA facility-registration Q&A, 7th ed., 2018).
Licenses, home-kitchen rules and sugarhouse inspections are state matters, and federal rules apply on top of them — USDA's grade standards say they don't excuse failure to comply with state law. Rules move: Illinois, for example, requires a state permit for every wholesale food operation from July 1, 2026 (see the Illinois page).

Elsewhere

Other states & provinces

Getting ready for the season? When to tap in Indiana

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