Guide

Michigan cottage food law (2026): what home bakers need to know

Michigan updated its cottage food law in 2026. You can now sell more, and you can sell online and by mail within the state, as long as customers get a chance to talk with you first. Here’s what changed and what stayed the same, written for people who bake from home.

What changed in 2026

The changes come from House Bill 4122, signed on December 23, 2025 as Public Act 51 of 2025. It took effect on March 24, 2026 (Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund). In short:

The yearly sales limit went from $25,000 to $50,000.
A higher limit of $75,000 applies to bakers who sell products priced at $250 or more per unit.
Starting October 1, 2026, MDARD may raise the limits each year for inflation.
You can sell by internet or mail order, or deliver through a third-party delivery platform, to customers in Michigan, if the customer has a chance to interact with you directly before the sale.
You can register, voluntarily, with the MSU Product Center and put a registration number and phone number on your labels instead of your home address.

Still true: no license, no inspection, no application. You make the food in the kitchen of your primary home, sell it directly to the person who will eat it, and label it properly.

The sales limit

You can make up to $50,000 a year in gross sales of cottage food. Gross means total sales, before ingredients, packaging or any other costs.

The law raises that to $75,000 “if the cottage food operation sells cottage food products at a price of $250.00 or more per unit” (PA 51, section 4102(5)). Think tiered wedding cakes. What the law doesn’t spell out is whether every product you sell must be $250 or more, or only some of them. MDARD’s own page repeats the law’s wording (MDARD FAQ), and Forrager reads it as requiring all of your products to be $250 or more. If you sell a mix of $12 loaves and $400 cakes, plan on $50,000 and ask MDARD before counting on the higher limit.

A few more details from MDARD’s guidance:

The limit applies per cottage food operator in a home. If two people in the same house each run their own cottage food business, each can sell up to the limit. Family members who don’t run one don’t add to it (MDARD FAQ).
Keep sales records. MDARD can ask for them in writing to check your total.
The law lets MDARD adjust both limits for inflation every October 1, starting in 2026, using a Detroit-area consumer price index. It “may” do this; it isn’t required to. When we checked on November 2, 2026, MDARD’s pages still listed $50,000 and $75,000. Check MDARD for the current number.

Selling online, by mail and with delivery

Since the 2026 update, you can take orders online, ship by mail, or use a third-party delivery service, with two conditions (MDARD, Selling and Samples):

The customer must be in Michigan. No sales or shipping to other states.
You must give the customer an opportunity to interact with you directly before the sale.

What “interact directly” means

The law says direct interaction “includes either a face-to-face meeting or a virtual meeting,” and that a virtual meeting includes communication that lets people “see or be seen and hear or be heard” (PA 51, section 4102(4)). MDARD’s summary puts it more simply: the customer “must have an opportunity to speak to the cottage food operator” (MDARD FAQ).

Two points are clear from the text:

It’s an opportunity. The customer doesn’t have to take you up on it.
It has to be offered before the sale, not after.

What isn’t clear is whether a phone call, a text thread or a DM counts, given the law’s wording about seeing and hearing. We haven’t found MDARD guidance that settles it. A careful approach: show your phone number on your order page, say plainly that customers are welcome to call or video chat with you before ordering, and answer when they do. If you want certainty for your setup, ask MDARD.

Delivery and pickup points

You can still deliver yourself, and customers can pick up from your home.
Third-party delivery platforms are allowed for customers in Michigan, with the same chance-to-interact rule.
A store, market or farm stop can’t act as a pickup point for your pre-orders. MDARD says holding orders at a retail location for customers to collect isn’t “delivering” (MDARD FAQ).

Where you can and can’t sell

Allowed: from home, at farmers markets, farm stands and roadside stands, by phone, online and by mail within Michigan. Not allowed: selling to stores, restaurants, wholesalers or distributors, consignment, or donating to a fundraiser auction or soup kitchen (MDARD). Farmers markets can set their own rules, and some require a food license even for cottage food vendors.

Registration

You don’t need to register, apply for a license or be inspected to sell cottage food in Michigan. MDARD can still investigate if someone files a complaint or gets sick.

The new law lets the MSU Product Center run an optional registration. If you register, you get a registration number and can print your name, phone number and registration number on labels instead of your home address. The law caps the fee at a one-time $50. Check with the MSU Product Center for the current fee and how to apply.

Training isn’t required, but MSU Extension offers a cottage food law course funded by MDARD that covers safe production, packaging, labeling and storage.

Labels

Every cottage food product must be packaged and labeled before sale (PA 51, section 4102(2) and (3); MDARD, Labeling). The label needs:

Your business name and the physical address of your home kitchen (no P.O. boxes), or, if you registered with the MSU Product Center, your name, phone number and registration number.
The name of the product.
Ingredients, in order from most to least by weight. If you use a prepared ingredient such as chocolate chips, list its ingredients too.
Net weight or volume. MDARD says to include the metric equivalent, for example “Net Wt. 3 oz (85 g)”.
Allergens, as federal law requires. MDARD’s page lists eight, but federal law added sesame as the ninth major allergen on January 1, 2023 (FDA). Name the specific tree nut, like “walnuts”, not just “nuts”.
Nutrition labeling only if you make a nutrition claim, such as “low sugar”.
This exact statement, in at least 11-point type (about 1/8 inch tall) in a color that contrasts with the background: “Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.”

Hand-written labels are fine if they’re legible, in permanent ink and big enough. For wedding and other large cakes that can’t carry a label, MDARD says to put all the label information on the invoice and deliver it with the cake. Smaller cakes go in a labeled box.

What you can bake

Cottage food has to be safe at room temperature. The legal term is food that doesn’t need “time/temperature control for safety” (TCS). MDARD keeps a searchable list. For bakers, the main points:

Allowed

Breads, including sourdough, quick breads and muffins.
Breads with herbs, spices, nuts, or dried or freeze-dried fruit and vegetables mixed into the dough.
Breads with shredded hard cheese mixed into the dough. Jalapeños must be chopped and dried, freeze-dried, or commercially pickled and patted dry before they go into the dough.
Cookies, cakes and cupcakes, including birthday and wedding cakes.
Cooked fruit pies and other shelf-stable pies.
Frostings made only from shelf-stable ingredients, and commercial shelf-stable frostings.
Buttercream, but only from one of two lab-tested recipes MDARD names (Kansas State University’s “Simple Buttercream Frosting” and Texas Come and Bake It’s “American Buttercream Frosting”), followed exactly, with only food coloring or flavor extracts added.
Candy, granola, dry baking mixes, and jams and jellies in glass jars.

Not allowed

Cheesecake.
Cream, custard, pumpkin and meringue pies, or anything else that needs the fridge to stay safe.
Cream cheese frosting, and any frosting or glaze that needs refrigeration.
Breads with fresh or frozen vegetables, soft cheese, or large chunks of hard cheese.
Confections made with real alcohol (flavor extracts are fine).
Dried or freeze-dried sourdough starter.
Meat, dairy products, drinks, and canned or pickled foods other than standard jams and jellies.

If something isn’t on the list, ask MDARD before selling it. To sell refrigerated items, you’ll need a food license and a licensed kitchen.

Where you make and store it

Only in the kitchen of your primary home in Michigan, whether you own or rent. Not a second home, a rented commercial kitchen or an RV.
Store ingredients and finished products inside the home, not in a garage, shed or barn.
If you’re on a private well, MDARD recommends testing the water at least once a year.

Sales tax and local rules

MDARD’s answer to “do I collect sales tax?” is “possibly.” It notes that “in general, sales tax is not charged on prepackaged foods that are not for immediate consumption,” and recommends asking the Michigan Department of Treasury which of your products are taxable, and a CPA for anything beyond that (MDARD FAQ). We won’t go further than that here.

The cottage food exemption covers state food licensing only. Your city or township may have zoning or home business rules, and your county may require a DBA if you use a business name. Check with your local government.

A quick checklist

Every product is on MDARD’s allowed list, or you’ve asked about it.
Labels have all the required parts, including the home kitchen statement in 11-point type and sesame where it applies.
Your order page offers customers a chance to talk with you before buying, and you only sell to customers in Michigan.
You keep a record of every sale and know your running total for the year.
You’ve checked local zoning and any farmers market rules.
You’ve asked Treasury or a tax professional about sales tax for your products.

Where Doughdate fits

Doughdate is a pre-order platform for home bakers, opening to bakers in January 2027. Customers can message you from your shop and at checkout before they order, and ask for a call or video chat; you get an email and reply from your phone. Customers pay you directly, by card into your own Stripe account or by cash or Zelle, and every order is recorded with its total, which makes your yearly sales easy to add up. Whether a message thread is enough of a chance to interact is a question for MDARD; offering a call when someone asks is the safer habit. Labels and staying within the law are still up to you.

Sources

Last checked November 2, 2026. Against the sources above.