South Dakota cottage food law: selling food from home

General information, not legal advice. Rules change, and counties add their own. Check with your state and county before you start selling.

"Cottage food" is the term most states use for food made in a home kitchen and sold directly to customers. What it covers, and whether your state uses the phrase at all, differs by state.

The short answer

Yes, with no sales cap, and with a product list that is unusually generous at the perishable end. Baked goods, non-temperature-controlled food and home-processed canned goods are outside the licensing provisions altogether. And if you complete the state-approved food safety training, South Dakota lets you sell cheesecake, soft pies, custard and cream fillings, fermented foods and frozen produce — things most states in this guide forbid outright.

What South Dakota asks in return is your physical presence. The exemption requires that the food be sold in the seller's physical presence, and that you — or someone living at your home — personally deliver the food to the buyer when the sale completes. There is no shipping and no drop-off by courier.

No license, no cap, and the training that unlocks the good list

South Dakota does not license home producers. SDCL 34-18-35 says the licensing provisions of the chapter simply do not apply to a person selling non-temperature-controlled food prepared at a residence, home-processed canned goods, baked goods prepared at a residence, or any food authorized under the two sections below.

License: None. The licensing provisions do not apply.
Sales cap: None in any of the five sections.
Training for baked goods and non-TCS food: Not required.
Training for canned goods: Required, and again every five years.
Training for the perishable list: Required — that is what unlocks it.

So the training is not a gate on starting, it is a gate on scope. Sell cookies and bread and you need no course. Sell canned goods, or anything on the refrigerated list, and you do.

The statute says the training must be approved by the department and available online, and that you must retain records verifying you completed it on time. SDSU Extension runs the state-approved course. Sources report it costs $40 and is valid five years; the statute sets the five years but no price, so treat the figure as worth checking.

South Dakota Cottage Home Processing Food Safety, SDSU Extension · SDCL 34-18-35, sale of homemade foods and food products

The refrigerated list, and the recipe shortcut for canning

Without training you may sell non-temperature-controlled food prepared at a residence and baked goods prepared at a residence.

With verified training, SDCL 34-18-36.1 adds a list that is genuinely rare:

Any non-heat-processed fermented food, provided it is consistently held at or below 41°F;
Kuchen and baked goods that require time and temperature control for safety — including soft pies, cheesecake, and baked goods having a custard or cream filling — and sauces and pesto that require time and temperature control, all held at or below 41°F;
Home-processed frozen fruit and produce, held consistently at or below 0°F.

Read that list against the rest of this guide. Rhode Island allows baked goods only and bars anything needing refrigeration. Mississippi says that if it needs refrigerating it is not allowed. South Dakota says: take the course, keep it at 41°F, and sell the cheesecake.

And kuchen is in the statute by name — fitting, since it is the state dessert.

Canned goods have a number and an alternative. Under SDCL 34-18-36, no canned good may be sold unless the pH is 4.6 or less, or the water activity is 0.85 or less. The training route is the five-year course. But there is a second path most guides never mention: in lieu of the training, you may maintain written verification of each recipe from a third-party processing authority — someone with knowledge of the thermal processing required for food in hermetically sealed containers, who verifies the processing method and that your pH or water activity thresholds are met.

SDSU Extension reviews recipes, and sources say it does so free and in about a week. If you have two or three canned products and no appetite for a course, that alternative is worth knowing about.

You have to be there — the presence rule

This is the condition that shapes a South Dakota business, and it is written into the exemption itself. Under SDCL 34-18-38, you are exempt from the licensing and license fee provisions only if:

The food meets the labeling requirements of SDCL 34-18-37;
The food is sold in the seller's physical presence at one of:
- The seller's primary residence;
- A farmer's market;
- A roadside stand; or
- Another temporary sale venue;
And the seller, or a person residing at the seller's primary residence, personally delivers the food to the buyer at the completion of the sale.

So: no shipping, no mail order, no courier, no shelf in a shop, no unattended pickup box. The sale and the handover happen with a person there — you, or someone who lives with you.

That last clause is worth noticing, because it is more generous than it first appears: a household member can do the handover. For a family operation, that matters.

What the statute does not address is taking the order. Nothing here stops a customer from finding you, choosing and arranging a pickup through a website or a phone; the requirement attaches to the sale and delivery being in person at one of the named venues. If your plan depends on where that line falls, that is a question for the Department of Health rather than for a guide.

Nine things on the label, including the date

South Dakota's label is one of the most detailed in this guide. Food prepared at a residence may not be sold unless the label includes:

Name of the product;
Name of the producer;
Physical address of production;
Mailing address of the producer;
Telephone number of the producer;
The date the product was made or processed;
Ingredients;
For food sold under the refrigerated list, a directive to keep refrigerated or frozen;
And this disclaimer:

This product was not produced in a commercial kitchen. It has been home-processed in a kitchen that may also process common food allergens such as tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk, fish, and crustacean shellfish.

Two of these are unusual. South Dakota wants two addresses — where the food was made, and where you receive mail. And it wants the date it was made or processed, which very few states in this guide require. If you batch-bake on Thursdays and sell on Saturdays, your labels have to carry a real date, which means printing or writing them per batch rather than ordering a thousand identical stickers.

Note also how the allergen sentence works: rather than listing your product's allergens, it declares that the kitchen may process the common ones. That is a different kind of statement, and it is the one the statute prescribes.

Sales tax and local rules

South Dakota taxes sales broadly and municipalities add their own rate, so your own obligation is a question for the Department of Revenue and your accountant rather than something a guide should put a number on.

On the food side, remember that the state exemption is from licensing, not from everything. The chapter still applies to anyone outside the exemption's conditions, and if you step past the presence rule or the labeling requirements, the exemption is what you have stepped outside of.

Local rules — zoning for a business at home, what a particular farmers market requires of its vendors — sit on top of the state scheme and are worth asking about before you book a stall.

Official sources

SDCL 34-18-35 to 34-18-38 — sale of homemade foods, canned goods, labels and the licensure exemptionSouth Dakota Legislature
South Dakota Cottage Home Processing Food Safety — the state-approved trainingSouth Dakota State University Extension

Last verified: 1 November 2026. Every number on this page is linked to the official page it comes from.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need a license to sell food from home in South Dakota?

No. SDCL 34-18-35 says the licensing provisions of the chapter do not apply to a person selling non-temperature-controlled food prepared at a residence, home-processed canned goods, baked goods prepared at a residence, or food authorized under SDCL 34-18-36 or 34-18-36.1. You do need to meet the labeling and presence requirements to stay inside that exemption.

How much can I sell in a year in South Dakota?

There is no cap. We read all five sections of the home-processed food statute and none of them sets a sales limit. If you have seen a $5,000 figure, it is historical.

Can I really sell cheesecake and cream pies?

Yes, if you hold the state-approved food safety training. SDCL 34-18-36.1 allows kuchen and baked goods requiring time and temperature control for safety — including soft pies, cheesecake, and baked goods with a custard or cream filling — plus sauces and pesto that need temperature control, all held at or below 41°F. Most states in this guide ban exactly these.

Do I need the food safety course?

Only for part of the list. Baked goods and non-temperature-controlled food need no course. Canned goods require department-approved training, available online, retaken every five years, with records kept. The refrigerated and frozen list requires it too — that is what unlocks it. SDSU Extension runs the state-approved course; sources report $40 and five years of validity.

Can I ship my food, or leave it for pickup?

No. The exemption requires that the food be sold in the seller's physical presence, at your primary residence, a farmer's market, a roadside stand or another temporary sale venue, and that you or a person residing at your primary residence personally delivers it to the buyer at the completion of the sale. No shipping, no courier, no unattended pickup box. A household member may do the handover.

What exactly does my label say?

"This product was not produced in a commercial kitchen. It has been home-processed in a kitchen that may also process common food allergens such as tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk, fish, and crustacean shellfish." Plus the product name, your name, the physical address of production, your mailing address, your phone number, the date the product was made or processed, the ingredients, and a keep-refrigerated or keep-frozen directive for anything on the refrigerated list.

Is there a way to sell canned goods without taking the course?

Yes, and most guides miss it. In lieu of the food safety training you may maintain written verification of each recipe from a third-party processing authority — someone with knowledge of the thermal processing required for food in hermetically sealed containers, who verifies the processing method and that your pH is 4.6 or less or your water activity is 0.85 or less. SDSU Extension reviews recipes, reportedly free and in about a week.

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