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Checked 2026-09-08 · Source linked below

Cottage food laws in Minnesota

What you can sell from your home kitchen in Minnesota, how much of it, where you can sell it, and what has to go on the label — with the government source for every line.

Blake Boykin

Researched and maintained by Blake Boykin, Founder, Boykin Web Management. Last checked 2026-09-08.

We are not lawyers. Confirm anything here with Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) before you produce or sell. Fields marked Not confirmed are open questions, not zeros. How we source this.

Minnesota

Moderate

Cottage Food Exemption (Cottage Food Producer Registration) · Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA)

The limits

Sales cap
Two-tier system — Tier 1: up to $7,665/year (adjusted annually for inflation); Tier 2: $7,666–$78,000/year. Overall program ceiling is $78,000.
You can sell
Non-potentially-hazardous foods (baked goods, certain jams/jellies), home-canned pickles/vegetables/fruits with pH ≤4.6 or water activity ≤0.85, and home-processed pet treats for dogs and cats
You cannot sell
Potentially hazardous/perishable foods requiring refrigeration, low-acid canned foods outside the specified pH/water-activity limits, and other TCS foods not meeting the safety parameters above

Getting set up

Permit / registration
Yes — annual registration with MDA is mandatory before selling, regardless of sales volume, for both tiers
Cost
Tier 1: free (after completing required online training/exam); Tier 2: $50 registration fee (with an approved food safety course required once every three years)
Training
Yes — Tier 1 requires a free MDA online training/exam annually; Tier 2 requires a University of Minnesota Extension (or approved) food safety course once every three years
Kitchen inspection
No — MDA states cottage foods are "not subject to state inspection"
Labeling
Full name or business name, address or cottage food registration number, date the food was produced, ingredient list, allergen declarations (including sesame), and the required statement: "These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection."

Where you can sell

Permitted venues
From the producer's home, farmers markets, and community events; pet treats may additionally be shipped by mail or commercial carrier
Online sales
Yes with restrictions — for human food, online orders are allowed but delivery must be made in person by the registered producer/employee (no shipping of human food); pet treats may be shipped
Delivery in state
With restrictions — direct/personal delivery of human food is allowed; mail/commercial shipping is currently allowed only for pet treats, not human food
Shipping out of state
No — human cottage foods may not be shipped across state lines under the current exemption

The fine print

Statute
Minn. Stat. § 28A.152 (Cottage Food Exemption); § 25.391 (pet treats)
Recent changes
House File 2446, passed during the 2025 legislative session (94th Legislature), will substantially change Minnesota's cottage food program effective August 1, 2027: it consolidates the current two registration tiers into a single tier, sets a flat $30 annual registration fee for all registrants, allows shipping of cottage foods (not permitted today), and requires advanced training for all registrants. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) states it will begin implementation planning in 2026. These changes are not yet in effect as of this verification date.
Notes
Minnesota's tiered structure is a genuine two-tier cottage food program (not to be confused with a MEHKO law); Minnesota does not currently have a separate home-kitchen-restaurant/MEHKO pathway identified in our research. The HF 2446 changes described above are forward-looking (2027 effective date) and should be flagged to readers as "coming changes," not current law.

Questions that apply in every state — pricing, insurance, labeling, pet treats, sales caps — are answered in the full FAQ.

Knowing the rules is the easy part

The harder part is selling without a place of your own to sell from.

  • Your buyers are Messenger threads, not customers

    There is no export and no list, so there is no way to tell 400 past buyers that holiday pre-orders open Friday. Every season starts from zero.

  • Marketplace listings do not rank on Google

    Three years of posting can leave you with no searchable presence at all, while the people searching for what you make land on whoever does have a page.

  • Every order costs you a conversation

    Price, pickup time, allergens, payment, three follow-ups — by hand, per order. That is the real ceiling on how much you can sell, and it has nothing to do with how fast you bake.

The longer version, plus what to run your business on, is on the main reference page.

Free, before you decide anything

Stop selling through Messenger threads

Minnesota lets you take orders online. A Marketplace listing cannot take an order, hold a pickup window, or collect an email address — a page of your own does all three, and it keeps showing up in Google long after the listing expires.

Tell me what you make and I will build you a sample site — real and clickable, not a mockup. You see it first, and owe nothing if it is not right for you.

  • Built around Minnesota's labeling and disclosure rules
  • Order cutoffs and pickup windows, so nothing oversells
  • Yours to keep — your domain, your customer list

No cost and no obligation. You see the sample first and decide from there.