Foods Group

Firms that manufacture food for sale to the public in the following manner are required to have a Food Manufacturer license with DSHS:

• Process and/or package any food product, including dietary supplements, ice, and water, for wholesale distribution or for sale via retail customer self-service.
• Sell water or ice via a vending machine.
• Repackage food products (eg. repacking candy into smaller or larger packages), for wholesale distribution or for sale via retail customer self-service.
• Any Texas firm that places their name and address on a product label, even though another firm (co-packer) actually produces the product.  This is called “private labeling.”  A private labeler is required to obtain a Food Manufacturer license.
• Package food and display the packaged food for customer self-service.   This includes all retail food service operations that package and display food in this manner.

Examples include but are not limited to the following food manufacturing operations:

• Bakeries
• Wineries
• Bottling/Canning plants producing sauces, salsa, condiments, jams, jellies, canned vegetables and fruit
• Bottling/Canning plants producing water, soft drinks, fruit juice, vegetable juice
• Ice plants
• Cut produce packers of fruits, vegetables, and nuts  
• Water and/or ice vending machines
• Seafood processors
• Grocery stores with meat markets, delis, or bakeries that package food and display it for retail customer self-service.
• Restaurants and other food service operations providing food packaged on-site via a retail customer self-service display.
• Dietary Supplements
• Mail-order and internet-order food manufacturing/packaging operations based in Texas

To obtain a Food Manufacturer license application, go to the Applications/Forms page.