Minnesota cottage food law for home bakers

The short version

Minnesota registers you every year with the Department of Agriculture, caps total sales at seventy-eight thousand dollars a year, and charges fifty dollars for that registration through July 31, 2027 once you clear a small sales floor, waiving the fee below it. From August 1, 2027 the fee falls to thirty dollars for everyone and the sales-floor waiver disappears.

You can take orders online and sell at your home, a farmers' market or a community event, but you have to hand the food over yourself. Mailing or a commercial courier is not allowed for human food through July 31, 2027, and a 2025 law opens that door, within Minnesota, starting August 1, 2027.

Registering

The rule is administered by Minnesota Department of Agriculture; the guide reads Minn. Stat. § 28A.152 (Cottage Foods Exemption, first enacted with an $18,000 cap by 1Sp2015 c 4 art 2 s 53, effective 2015-08-01 under the default effective-date rule in Minn. Stat. § 645.02 applied to the act's June 13, 2015 signing; cap raised to $78,000 by 2021 c 28 s 8, effective 2021-08-01 under the same default rule applied to the act's May 25, 2021 signing; further amendments enacted 2025 c 34 art 5 ss 14-19, effective 2027-08-01).

You register with the commissioner every year, and the registration counts as accepted 30 days after you file a complete one. Below seven thousand six hundred sixty-five dollars in yearly sales there is no fee and you take a free online course instead; above that line the fee is fifty dollars through July 31, 2027 and you need the longer safe food handling course, good for three years. From August 1, 2027 the fee is thirty dollars for everyone and the income-based exemption disappears.

Where you can sell, and whether online counts

Sales happen at your home, a farmers' market or a community event, and you can also take orders on a website as long as you personally deliver the food to the buyer. Mailing it or using a commercial delivery service is off the table through July 31, 2027 for human cottage food, even though Minnesota already lets a cottage pet treat producer ship that way.

What goes on the label

Every package needs your name and registration number or your address, the date you made it, the ingredients and allergens, and the homemade-and-uninspected statement above. That same sentence has to also show up at your sales table and on any web page where you take orders.

• Your name and registration number, or your address
• The date the food was prepared
• The ingredients and any possible allergens
• The statement above, also displayed at the point of sale and on any website that sells the food

What you can bake and sell

Non-potentially hazardous foods and a narrow list of home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruit qualify. Meat, most dairy on its own, tamales, egg rolls and chocolate-covered fruit are named exceptions that need a real food license instead.

• Allowed: Non-potentially hazardous food, plus home-processed and home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruit with a pH of 4.6 or lower or a water activity of .85 or less
• Not allowed: Meat and dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, butter and ghee (though dairy used as a baking ingredient is fine), tamales, egg rolls, chocolate-covered fruit, and anything else needing time or temperature control for safety

The sales cap

Minnesota caps cottage food sales at $78,000 a year, counted as total gross receipts for everything you sell under the exemption in a calendar year, not counted per product.

Work out how much room you have left this year with the cottage food sales cap checker.

What changed

August 1, 2015: The Cottage Foods Exemption was created (1Sp2015 c 4 art 2 s 53) with an eighteen thousand dollar cap, a fifty dollar registration fee waived under five thousand dollars in sales, and a safe food handling course requirement.

August 1, 2021: The cap rose from eighteen thousand to seventy-eight thousand dollars a year, and the commissioner was told to index the fee-exemption threshold to inflation starting from a five thousand dollar base figure.

August 1, 2027: The registration fee falls to thirty dollars for everyone and the income-based fee exemption disappears, human cottage food gains the right to ship within Minnesota by mail or commercial delivery, and who may qualify narrows to an individual, a sole proprietorship, or a one- or two-member LLC sharing one residence.

Questions people ask

Do I need to register to sell cottage food in Minnesota?

Yes, Minnesota requires registration before the first sale. Register annually with the commissioner; the registration is deemed accepted 30 days after a complete submission, expires every March 31, and must be renewed by April 1 to keep selling. The fee is $50. Fifty dollars a year once your calendar-year sales pass seven thousand six hundred sixty-five dollars, the commissioner's current inflation-adjusted line; at or under that figure you owe nothing.

What is the cottage food sales cap in Minnesota?

Minnesota caps cottage food sales at $78,000 a year, counted as total gross receipts for everything you sell under the exemption in a calendar year, not counted per product.

Can I take orders online in Minnesota?

Yes, you can take orders online. The handover has to happen in person.

Can I deliver or ship cottage food in Minnesota?

Delivery is not allowed. Shipping inside the state is not allowed.

What does my Minnesota cottage food label need to say?

The label must say: These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection.

Sources

Laws change; check the linked source before you sell.

• Minn. Stat. § 28A.152, Cottage foods exemptionrevisor.mn.gov
• Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Cottage Food Law Guidancemda.state.mn.us
• Laws of Minnesota 1st Special Session 2015, chapter 4, article 2, section 53 (original enactment, $18,000 cap)revisor.mn.gov
• Laws of Minnesota 2021, chapter 28, sections 8-10 (cap raised to $78,000, registration rewrite)revisor.mn.gov
• Laws of Minnesota 2025, chapter 34, article 5, sections 14-19 (2027 amendments)revisor.mn.gov
• Minn. Stat. § 645.02, effective date and time of lawsrevisor.mn.gov