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Wisconsin 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

Wisconsin has no cottage food law — and that single fact explains everything confusing about this state. A food processing plant or retail food establishment license "is generally required to produce and sell food products in this state". What a home baker can do rests on narrow exceptions in statute and, unusually, on two court decisions that went in opposite directions.

Shelf-stable baked goods: legal, because of a circuit court injunction the state chose not to appeal. Candy, fudge, chocolates and rice cereal treats: not legal — the Court of Appeals held in 2024 that requiring a license for those is constitutional, and the Supreme Court declined to review it. Home-canned acidified foods: legal up to $5,000 a year, with no internet sales and nothing sold out of your home. If your product is in none of those boxes, Wisconsin expects you to be licensed.

The baseline: a license is the rule, not the exception

Start here, because it is the opposite of how the other states on this site work. In Wisconsin the Legislative Council's own description is that a food processing plant or retail food establishment license "is generally required to produce and sell food products in this state", with narrow exceptions in statute and case law. Legislative Council issue brief, June 2025

There is no registration tier, no sales cap to stay under, and no label disclaimer that makes you exempt — because there is no exemption to qualify for. There are only the three specific holes below. Everything outside them is a licensing question, and the answer is a licensed kitchen.

One more exception worth naming: nonprofit organizations are exempt when they sell at 12 or fewer events a year. That is a charity-bake-sale rule, not a business route.

Baked goods are legal — by court order

In Kivirist v. DATCP, a circuit court issued an injunction against enforcing the license requirement against home bakers. Its terms were extended to cover anyone selling nonhazardous baked goods that are shelf stable, where "the bakers are of good character" and the "hygiene" of their kitchens are not in question.

DATCP did not appeal. That is why this is not a legal curiosity but the operating reality: the injunction stands, and selling home-baked cookies, breads, cakes and pies in Wisconsin is lawful today.

Two things follow from the fact that your permission comes from an injunction rather than a statute, and both are worth understanding clearly:

Candy, fudge and chocolates are not — and that was settled in 2024

This is the part that online guides get wrong most often, usually by repeating the Kivirist headline and stopping there.

In Wisconsin Cottage Food Association v. DATCP, 2024 WI App 69, decided 19 November 2024, the Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and held that the licensure laws, as applied to unbaked goods — chocolates, fudge, rice cereal treats and candies — are constitutional. The Supreme Court denied review.

So the line in Wisconsin is baked versus unbaked, and it is a live, recently litigated line rather than a technicality. If you make fudge or dip chocolates at home in Wisconsin, the law expects you to be licensed, and a court has said so in the last two years. That is a very different position from Minnesota or Missouri, where candy is squarely inside the exemption.

Home-canned foods: the Pickle Bill, and its $5,000 ceiling

Wisconsin's one true statutory cottage-style exemption is for home-canned acidified food — the provision everyone calls the Pickle Bill. It covers food with a pH of 4.6 or below, and it is hemmed in on every side:

Sales cap
$5,000 a year in total — the lowest single figure on this site. Colorado's $10,000 is lower per product, but it is per product rather than a total.
Where
Retail only, direct from producer to consumer, at community or social events, flea markets, or farmers markets in Wisconsin.
Not allowed
Sales out of your home, wholesale, consignment, over the internet, and out of state. Exempt products also may not be sold alongside licensed foods.
Disclosure
A statement on the jar and a sign at the point of sale.

Read the "not allowed" row again if you were planning to take orders online. The internet prohibition is explicit for this category, and selling from your own home is out too — which means market days, not pickups. DATCP, Selling Home-Canned Foods

Separately, statute exempts a short list of farm products: fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, cider, and unprocessed maple syrup.

Putting it together: what you can actually do today

Shelf-stable baked goods
Legal under the Kivirist injunction. No statutory cap, no registration.
Candy, fudge, chocolates, cereal treats
License required. 2024 WI App 69.
Home-canned acidified food
Legal to $5,000/year, in-person at events only, no internet, not from home.
Fresh produce, honey, cider, unprocessed maple syrup
Exempt by statute.
Anything refrigerated, meat, dairy
License required.
Nonprofit at 12 or fewer events a year
Exempt.

Because the baked-goods permission comes from an injunction rather than a statute, this is the one state on this site where we would say plainly: talk to DATCP before you scale up, and do not assume a rule that applies to your cookies also applies to the next product you add.

Labels

For home-canned foods the requirement is concrete: a statement on the jar and a sign at the point of sale. Get the current wording from DATCP's publication, linked in the sources below, and copy it exactly.

For baked goods there is no statutory cottage food label, because there is no cottage food statute — your permission is an injunction, not a labeling scheme. Federal food labeling still applies to packaged food, and identifying yourself, listing your ingredients and declaring allergens is both ordinary good practice and what any customer with an allergy needs from you. We are not going to invent a Wisconsin label statement to print here.

The bill that would have changed this — and failed

Wisconsin came close. AB 748 of the 2025 session would have created a general cottage food exemption: register with DATCP, label your products, carry liability insurance, stay under $40,000 a year.

It failed to pass on 23 March 2026, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1. Wisconsin's position is unchanged. 2025 AB 748

We mention it because you will find articles written while it was moving that describe it as though it had arrived. It did not, and if a future session takes it up again, the numbers on this page change.

Official sources

Last verified: 31 October 2026. Every number on this page is linked to the official page it comes from.

Questions people actually ask

Does Wisconsin have a cottage food law?

No. Wisconsin has no general cottage food exemption. A food processing plant or retail food establishment license is generally required to produce and sell food products in the state, and what a home baker may sell rests on narrow statutory exceptions plus two court decisions. That is why Wisconsin reads so differently from every other state on this site.

Can I sell home-baked cookies in Wisconsin?

Yes. A circuit court injunction in Kivirist v. DATCP bars enforcement of the license requirement against people selling nonhazardous baked goods that are shelf stable, where the bakers are of good character and the hygiene of their kitchens is not in question. DATCP did not appeal, so the injunction stands and home baking for sale is lawful today.

Can I sell fudge, chocolates or candy?

No, not without a license. In Wisconsin Cottage Food Association v. DATCP, 2024 WI App 69, decided 19 November 2024, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court and held that the licensure laws as applied to unbaked goods — chocolates, fudge, rice cereal treats and candies — are constitutional. The Supreme Court denied review. The line in Wisconsin is baked versus unbaked, and this side of it was settled recently.

How much can I sell in a year in Wisconsin?

It depends which exception you are using. The Kivirist injunction that makes baked goods lawful contains no sales cap, because an injunction stops the state enforcing a rule rather than writing a new one with conditions. Home-canned acidified foods under the Pickle Bill are capped at $5,000 a year in total.

Can I sell my home-canned pickles online?

No. The Pickle Bill exemption explicitly prohibits internet sales, along with wholesale, consignment, out-of-state sales and sales out of your home. Home-canned food may be sold retail, direct from producer to consumer, at community or social events, flea markets or farmers markets in Wisconsin — and it may not be displayed alongside licensed foods.

What label do I need on home-baked goods in Wisconsin?

There is no statutory cottage food label, because there is no cottage food statute — your permission comes from an injunction. Federal labeling rules still apply to packaged food, and identifying yourself, listing ingredients and declaring allergens is what any customer with an allergy needs from you. Home-canned foods are different: those require a statement on the jar and a sign at the point of sale, and you should take that wording from DATCP rather than from us.

Did not Wisconsin just pass a cottage food bill?

No. AB 748 of the 2025 session would have created a general exemption with DATCP registration, labeling, liability insurance and a $40,000 cap, but it failed to pass on 23 March 2026 pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1. Articles written while it was moving sometimes read as though it arrived. Wisconsin's position is unchanged.

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