Minnesota Cottage Food Law: Registration, the $78,000 Cap and What You Can Sell

If you want to sell food made in your home kitchen in Minnesota, you do not need a state license. You do need to register with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) before your first sale, and the cottage food rules are narrow: a $78,000 yearly sales cap, a short list of allowed products, direct sales only and a required label statement. This guide covers how Minnesota cottage food law works in practice, what each step costs, and where the rules still reach you after you register.

Is there a Minnesota cottage food license?

No. Minnesota issues no general statewide business license, and cottage food does not get one either. What sellers call a "cottage food license" is an annual registration with the MDA. It is a regulatory filing, not a license. It sits alongside several other filings that people often confuse with it:

• MDA cottage food registration: required before you sell food you produced at home, unless your product falls under an exemption described below.
• Secretary of State filings: Articles of Organization if you form an LLC, or a Certificate of Assumed Name if you sell under a business name.
• Department of Revenue registration: a Minnesota Tax ID and a Sales and Use Tax account, required before you make taxable sales.

To see which licenses and permits apply to your activity, search the state's central lookup at License Minnesota. Minnesota licensing is set by trade and activity, not by a general business category.

The $78,000 sales cap and the two tiers

Cottage food sales are capped at $78,000 in gross sales per year. The cap is the ceiling for these rules, not a target. Minnesota places sellers in one of two tiers based on gross sales, and the tier decides what you pay and how much training you need.

Tier	Annual gross sales	Registration cost	Food-safety training
Tier 1	$7,665 or less	Free	Free annual online training
Tier 2	$7,666 to $78,000	$50 a year	MDA-approved training every 3 years

Tier 1 costs nothing to register and nothing to keep, but you must complete the free online training every year. Tier 2 costs $50 a year and requires MDA-approved food-safety training every 3 years. Because the tier depends on gross sales, track every sale from the first day. Once you pass $7,665, you move into Tier 2 and the cost and training obligations change with it.

Confirm with the MDA what happens to a seller whose sales exceed $78,000 in a year. The cap changes which rules apply to you, so plan for it before you reach it.

How to register, step by step

1. Check each product against the allowed list in the next section. If an item is not on it and not exempt, do not sell it until the MDA confirms it fits.
2. Register with the MDA before your first sale. Registration expires each March 31, so put the renewal on your calendar and renew every year before that date.
3. Complete training for your tier. Tier 1 training is free and online, and you repeat it annually. Tier 2 requires MDA-approved food-safety training every 3 years, plus the $50 annual fee.
4. Register with the Department of Revenue if you will make taxable sales. Get a Minnesota Tax ID and a Sales and Use Tax account before that first taxable sale.
5. Check city and county rules for home businesses and home food. These are separate from the state registration.
6. File a Certificate of Assumed Name if you sell under any name other than your own legal name.

Find the current registration form and training courses on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture website. Do not rely on a third-party summary for the form, the training schedule or the fees, because those change.

What you can sell

The list is short. Under Minnesota cottage food law, products fall into three groups: products that need MDA registration, products that need no registration, and products that are not allowed at all.

Products that need MDA registration

• Non-potentially-hazardous foods. These are foods that do not need time or temperature control to stay safe. Many baked goods, dry mixes and candies fall here, but MDA rules decide whether a specific item qualifies, so confirm each recipe before you sell it.
• Home-canned pickles, vegetables and fruit with a pH of 4.6 or below.

Products that need no registration

• Honey and maple syrup from your own hives or trees, with no outside ingredients added.
• Other products of your own farm or garden.

Exempt products skip the MDA registration. City and county rules can still apply to them, so check those before your first sale.

What the cottage food rules do not allow

• Potentially hazardous foods that need refrigeration or time and temperature control, outside the canned pH exception above.
• Shipping human cottage food. Under current rules, human cottage food cannot be shipped. The 2025 rewrite changes this on August 1, 2027, as explained below.

Pet treats are handled differently. Under current rules they can be shipped, but confirm their requirements with the MDA before you sell them.

The 2025 rewrite: what changes on August 1, 2027

The 2025 rewrite of the cottage food law, found in Minn. Stat. 28A.152, brings one tier, one $30 fee, in-state shipping and advanced training requirements. Those changes take effect only on August 1, 2027. Until then, the current two-tier structure and the no-shipping rule for human food apply. Do not build a shipping plan around 2027 until the rules are in effect and you have read the MDA's final guidance.

How you are allowed to sell

Minnesota limits where and how cottage food can change hands:

• Direct to consumers only. Sell from your home, at farmers' markets or at community events.
• Not in stores. Placing your product on a store shelf or selling it through a retail shop is outside these rules.
• The producer or an employee must be present at the sale.

Online orders raise a direct-sale question, and human cottage food cannot be shipped until the 2027 change. Ask the MDA how the direct-to-consumer rule applies to online orders before you take any.

Label requirements

Every package needs these items on its label:

• Your name or business name, plus either your address or your MDA registration number
• The date (confirm with the MDA whether it wants a production date, a best-by date or both)
• A complete ingredient list
• Allergen information
• The statement "These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection."

Build the label into your process from the first batch. Retrofitting labels after a farmers market season is where most sellers get caught short.

Local rules still apply

State registration does not override local zoning. Minnesota has 87 counties and about 853 cities, and cities and counties set their own zoning and home-food ordinances, so the rules differ from place to place. Check with your city or county planning office before you start. Minneapolis and St. Paul both license by category, and neither issues a general business license. A food activity there may need a city license in addition to the state registration.

Business names and entities

Cottage food registration does not require a business entity. Many home sellers operate as sole proprietors. Two Secretary of State filings are worth knowing about:

• Certificate of Assumed Name (DBA): $50 online or in person, or $30 by mail. After filing, the certificate must be published for two consecutive issues in a qualified legal newspaper in the county of your principal place of business. Failure to publish may make the certificate invalid. The certificate must be renewed annually at no charge. Details are at the Secretary of State's assumed name page.
• LLC Articles of Organization: $155 online or in person, or $135 by mail. In-person and online filings are expedited. No publication is required. The annual renewal costs $0 and is due December 31.

A seller with modest sales often does not need an LLC. Talk to an attorney or CPA before forming one, and file through the Minnesota Business and Lien System or the Secretary of State's main site.

Sales tax and your Department of Revenue account

Minnesota's state sales tax rate is 6.875 percent, and local taxes are added on top. Register with the Department of Revenue before you make taxable sales through its new business registration page. The MDA registration and the Revenue registration are separate, and one does not replace the other. Whether a particular food product is taxable is a question for the Department of Revenue or a CPA, so do not assume the answer from the cottage food list.

Common mistakes that cost sellers

• Selling through a store, which the direct-sale rule does not allow.
• Shipping human food before the rules change on August 1, 2027.
• Letting Tier 2 training lapse. The training is required every 3 years.
• Printing labels without the required statement or allergen information.
• Treating the state registration as a zoning approval.
• Letting sales drift past $78,000 without a plan for what comes next.

Next steps

1. List every product you plan to sell and check each one against the allowed list.
2. Estimate your gross sales for the year to find your tier, and track actual sales from the first sale.
3. Register with the MDA and complete your tier's training.
4. Check your city or county rules on home businesses, home food and zoning.
5. Register with the Department of Revenue if any of your sales will be taxable.

If your plans include a storefront, wholesale accounts, shipping or sales above the cap, those fall outside the cottage food rules. Talk to the MDA about the licensing they require. The Minnesota Small Business Development Center Network offers business advising if you want help weighing the options.

Disclaimer

This guide is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Fees, deadlines and rules change, and the 2025 rewrite takes effect on August 1, 2027. Confirm current requirements with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Department of Revenue and the Minnesota Secretary of State before you sell or file. For complex situations, consult a qualified attorney or CPA.