republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-1144.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Cottage food operations."
description: "Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, as defined, and requires local health agencies to enforce these provisions. The code defines \"cottage food operation\" to mean an enterprise that does not have more than one full-time employee within the registered or permitted area of a private home where the cottage food operator resides and where cottage food products are prepared or packaged for direct, indirect, or direct and indirect sale to consumers, and prohibits the operation from having more than $50,000 in gross annual sales in the calendar year. Existing law requires a \"Class A\" cottage food operation to register with the local enforcement agency in accordance with specified provisions, and to renew its registration annually. Existing law requires a \"Class B\" cottage food operation to obtain a permit from the local enforcement agency, as specified, and authorizes the operation to engage in the indirect sales of cottage food products within the county in which the operation is permitted. Existing law requires a registration or permit to be valid only for the person, location, type of food sales, and distribution activity specified by that registration or permit. A person who violates any provision of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided, and violations of the California Retail Food Code are enforced by local health officers."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 1144"
citation: "California AB 1144 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Cottage food operations."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert Rivas"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 27
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-18"
last_action: "2021-09-16"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a1757c9d-7c2c-4661-b594-c4d526c6e5c0"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144"
source_hash: "b92e453baa5eaef4e29e577acb24838576cd9a8d69436df2000a7c9f585a3618"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1144 (20212022) — Cottage food operations.

Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, as defined, and requires local health agencies to enforce these provisions. The code defines "cottage food operation" to mean an enterprise that does not have more than one full-time employee within the registered or permitted area of a private home where the cottage food operator resides and where cottage food products are prepared or packaged for direct, indirect, or direct and indirect sale to consumers, and prohibits the operation from having more than $50,000 in gross annual sales in the calendar year. Existing law requires a "Class A" cottage food operation to register with the local enforcement agency in accordance with specified provisions, and to renew its registration annually. Existing law requires a "Class B" cottage food operation to obtain a permit from the local enforcement agency, as specified, and authorizes the operation to engage in the indirect sales of cottage food products within the county in which the operation is permitted. Existing law requires a registration or permit to be valid only for the person, location, type of food sales, and distribution activity specified by that registration or permit. A person who violates any provision of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided, and violations of the California Retail Food Code are enforced by local health officers.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/18/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114499INT)
2. **04/21/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114498AMD)
3. **04/29/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114497AMD)
4. **06/28/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114496AMD)
5. **08/23/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114495AMD)
6. **09/16/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114493CHP)
7. **AB1144** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144)
8. **09/03/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1144&version=20210AB114494ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1144 Robert Rivas Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB1144 Robert Rivas By Eggman — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1144 Robert Rivas Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Robert Rivas — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2021-03-04** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-22** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-28** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 27). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-29** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-03** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-12** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 12). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-13** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1471.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-20** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-03** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-11** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2021-06-28** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 7). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-16** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2021-08-17** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-23** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-08-24** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2230.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-08-31** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 2 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-09-01** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Ayes 58. Noes 17. Page 2625.)
- **2021-09-01** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 2650.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-08** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2021-09-16** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-09-16** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 178, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a1757c9d-7c2c-4661-b594-c4d526c6e5c0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).