Selling food from a small kitchen still counts as selling a regulated product. The scale of the business changes the process, not whether registration applies.
The short answer for most food sellers
If you package food for sale, NAFDAC's rules apply to you, whatever the size of your operation. What changes for a small producer is the route, not the requirement itself.
NAFDAC built a micro-scale registration specifically so a small kitchen is not stuck using the same process as a large factory.
What counts as micro-scale for food
The micro-scale route covers a producer with up to 5 products. Staff numbers matter too, but NAFDAC's own pages disagree: the general FAQ says not more than 5 employees, while the food FAQ says not more than nine.
Treat it as a handful of staff either way, rather than a fixed line, and confirm directly with NAFDAC if your team size is close to either number.
Products the micro-scale route excludes
A handful of categories cannot use the micro-scale route regardless of how small the business is. Milk and dairy products, beverages, and most meat and fish products, aside from dried ones, all sit outside it.
Products built around an allergen source, such as stockfish, also cannot share a production room with other items under the micro-scale rules. Check your specific product line against this list before assuming the lighter process applies to you.
Documents to have ready
NAFDAC's micro-scale process asks for CAC registration, a vetting sample with three labels, the registration payment receipt and staff medical fitness tests. Your CAC registration is not optional here: it is a required part of the application, not paperwork you can add later.
If your business is not yet registered with the CAC, that step needs to happen first. Everything else on the list follows once the company itself exists on record.
For the wider list of what NAFDAC regulates beyond food, see which products need NAFDAC registration.
What happens if you skip registration
Selling an unregistered food product is a risk to the business, not a shortcut that saves time. Products can be pulled from sale, and a business built around a single product line has the most to lose from that happening.
Registering before launch, even through the lighter micro-scale route, costs ₦36,737.50 and protects the product from that risk from day one.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a home kitchen is automatically exempt. The size of the operation changes the route, not whether registration is required.
- Missing that dairy and most meat or fish products are excluded from micro-scale. These need the full registration process instead.
- Applying without CAC registration in hand. It is a required document, not something to submit later.
- Waiting for sales to grow before registering. Registering early avoids a forced pause once the business is already trading.
For the full registration steps, see how to register a product with NAFDAC. The rest of this series is on the SME regulators hub.