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According to Michigan Cottage Food Law, YES, you can sell certain safe and shelf-stable foods prepared in your home kitchen, when you sell directly to customers at farmers markets, farm markets, roadside stands, or other direct markets.” (Source: MDARD)
For Michiganders with a clean and capable kitchen in their homes who don’t have the budget to open a restaurant or even rent a kitchen, then Michigan Cottage Food law is your leg up to sell up to $25,000 worth of shelf-stable homemade food products each year.
$10,000 to $20,000 profit per year, depending on your cottage food product profitability could put you ahead of inflation.
Michigan’s Cottage Food Law encourages both kitchen magicians and entrepreneurs to see if operating a food business makes a delicious profit. (Source: MDARD, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development)
Yes, anyone in a Michigan home kitchen who can produce safe, non-hazardous food that’s shelf-stable and doesn’t require temperature control qualifies to sell cottage food in Michigan.
Whether you own or rent the home you’re living in, a kitchen inside a single family domestic residence in Michigan is qualified space to produce cottage food.
You must sell cottage food directly to customers at a farmers markets or a roadside stand. Cottage food must be sold face-to-face. You cannot ship cottage food to anyone.
You shouldn’t intend to sell over $25,000 worth of cottage food per year.
As a Michigan Cottage Food business operator, you can prepare food in the kitchen of your primary residence without inspection, and on an honor code to keep cleanliness and food safety first while not required to meet NSF (an Ann Arbor company) food equipment standards.
You are required to individually label your Cottage Foods products before selling them direct to customers.
You cannot sell cottage foods over the Internet, by mail order, to wholesalers, or to other food distributors who resell food.
No, there is no registration process to start a cottage food business because individuals operating a cottage food business are exempt from food licensing requirements. You don’t need to register a business. You do not need to apply for a food license or permit. You don’t need to fill out any paperwork at all!
Some localities may require additional registration. In special Michigan locations a DBA (Doing Business As) or LLC (Limited Liability Company) may be required in order to run your home business. But that’s rare.
After you’ve sold cottage food and it’s tax season, however, you may need to pay cottage food sales tax, so keep your cottage food sales receipts.
Remember, not all food products can be sold as cottage foods in Michigan. Check with the MDARD and MSU Cottage Food Law centers for the most reliable facts on safe, shelf-stable cottage foods which you are allowed to sell.
If you already know what you want to sell, and you want to check if it fits into cottage law, I recommend you check the MSU quick guide to selling food in Michigan, and click into the type of food product you’re planning to peddle local.
You can sell cottage food directly to customers at farmers markets, farm markets, roadside stands, or other direct markets.
You can sell cottage food in a retail space you rent, such as at an antique shop or flea market. That’s one interpretation of another direct markets.
Refer to MDARD’s Section 3 for complete Michigan cottage food labeling requirements.
Here’s an example label of how my imaginary freeze-dried Michigan blueberry cottage food business might package and label our products:
MADE IN A HOME KITCHEN THAT HAS NOT BEEN INSPECTED BY THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Freeze Dried Michigan Blueberries
ACME Blueberry Company
123 Main Street
City, MI 00000
Ingredients: Blueberries
Contains: Freeze-dried blueberries and no other allergens
Net Wt. 8 oz (226 g)
If you’d prefer that as a checklist, here you go:
Packaging and labeling enables direct sales of cottage foods to customers, and also aids in transportation from your home kitchen to the farmer’s market where you sell homemade foods.
Remember, food safety starts in the kitchen. Packaging and covers original intent was to keep food safe to eat for the hungry end customer.
An individual like you can bake cottage food in your kitchen and sell it today, no problem. You can continue to run your business as an individual, and report income from cottage food sales with your SSN during tax season.
The answer is yes. You can also operate a cottage food business under an LLC business entity, and report taxes alongside the LLC’s business income.
Creating an LLC limits liability when selling food. For example, what happens when somebody gets sick and sues you? Having an LLC that intends to make less than $25,000 from cottage food sales per year to protect your personal assets may exempt you from liability for damages or hospital bills from a negligent customer who takes legal action against you.
Graycare is NOT a lawyer.
