Who Must License as a Food Manufacturer? Firms that manufacture food for sale to the public in the following manner are required to have a Food Manufacturer licensewith DSHS. This includes any firm that engages in the following activities:
Processing and/or packaging any food product, including dietary supplements, ice, and water, for wholesale distribution or for sale via retail customer self-service.
Selling vended or bottled water or bagging ice.
Repackaging 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.
Packaging food and displaying the packaged food for customer self-service. This includes all retail food service operations that package and display food in this manner.
Examples of Businesses Requiring Food Manufacturer Licenses Examples include but are not limited to the following food manufacturing operations:
Bakeries
Bottling/Canning plants producing sauces, salsa, condiments, jams, jellies, canned vegetables and fruit
Bottling/Canning plants producing water, soft drinks, fruit juice, vegetable juice
Dietary supplement manufacturing and distributing (see the Dietary Supplements page)
Grocery stores with meat markets, delicatessens, or bakeries that package and display food for retail customer self-service
Packaging cut produce/vegetables, shelling and packaging nuts, and firms washing/packaging produce in a separate location from the farm where it was grown
Restaurants and other food service operations providing food packaged on-site via a retail customer self-service display