Michigan Cottage Food Law: The $50K Cap, the $75K Limit for $250+ Items, and What 2025 PA 51 Changed

If you have been hunting for what the Michigan cottage food cap actually is, you have probably found three different answers. Older summaries list $25,000, which was the law until March 24, 2026. Newer ones list $50,000. And a few describe a $75,000 figure as an extra allowance that stacks on top of the $50,000, which is not what the statute says. If your work is wedding cakes, tiered birthday cakes, or other custom baking where a single item routinely runs $300 or $400, the $75,000 figure matters — but it is worth reading exactly what it covers before you plan a year around it.

You are not bad at research. Michigan's rule changed recently, through 2025 Public Act 51, and the new $75,000 provision is worded in a way that leaves a real question open for producers who sell both inexpensive and high-priced items. This guide is the longer answer: what the $50,000 and $75,000 limits clearly cover, where the law is unclear and who to ask, where the rule still draws hard lines (acidified foods, out-of-state sales, the food list), the new conditions on online and delivery sales, and what the October 2026 inflation adjustment can and cannot do.

The short version: Michigan's cottage food framework lives in the Michigan Food Law of 2000 (opens in new tab), most recently amended by 2025 Public Act 51 (opens in new tab) (House Bill 4122, effective March 24, 2026). There is no state license, registration, fee, inspection, or required training. Gross sales may not exceed $50,000 a year, or $75,000 if the operation sells cottage food products priced at $250 or more per unit. The $75,000 is a higher ceiling, not an extra bucket, and the statute does not say how it applies to mixed sales — ask MDARD before relying on it. Products must be sold directly to the consumer. Internet, mail-order, and third-party delivery-platform sales are allowed only within Michigan and only if the customer has an opportunity to interact with the operator, face to face or by two-way video, before the sale. The food list is shelf-stable foods such as baked goods, fruit jams and jellies, candy, dry mixes, and dried herbs; acidified, pickled, and fermented foods, sauces, fruit butters, and beverages are excluded. MDARD may adjust the limits for inflation beginning October 1, 2026.

The $75,000 provision, and the question it leaves open

Michigan's cap is unusual because it depends on price. MCL 289.4102(5) reads:

"the gross sales of cottage food products by a cottage food operation must not exceed $50,000.00 annually until October 1,2026. If the cottage food operation sells cottage food products at a price of $250.00 or more per unit, the gross sales of the cottage food products by the cottage food operation must not exceed $75,000.00 annually until October 1, 2026."

MDARD's guidance repeats that wording: "up to $50,000 yearly in gross sales … However, $75,000 is allowable if the cottage food operation sells cottage food products at a price of $250 or more per unit." Two things follow directly from the text:

• The $75,000 is a ceiling on total gross sales, not a separate allowance. Nothing in the statute or in MDARD's guidance creates a $50,000 bucket for cheaper items plus a $75,000 bucket for expensive ones. The most any operation can sell under the exemption is $75,000 a year (before any inflation adjustment).
• An operation whose products are all priced at $250 or more per unit is within the plain terms of the $75,000 limit.

What the text does not settle is the operation in between: one that sells mostly lower-priced items plus some products at $250 or more. The sentence could be read to raise the whole operation's limit to $75,000 once it sells any $250-plus products, or to apply only to sales of those products. The statute does not define "unit," either. MDARD has not published guidance on either question. Until it does, a producer with mixed sales who wants to go past $50,000 should email MDARD at MDARD-CottageFood@michigan.gov, describe the actual product mix and prices, and keep the answer with their records.

The limit is also counted per person. PA 51 changed the calculation to "a per-person basis within or at a particular domestic residence," and MDARD's FAQ says two people in the same household who each run their own cottage food business each get the maximum limit. Household members who are not cottage food operators do not add to anyone's limit.

Three Michigan bakers, three different cap stories

The clearest way to see how the limits work is to walk through three composite Michigan producers whose books fall in different parts of the rule. They are illustrations, not real businesses.

Case 1: Maya, the everyday-cake baker in Lansing

Maya bakes birthday cakes, retirement cakes, and small custom orders out of her home kitchen in Lansing. Her typical cake is a single-tier, decorated round in the $65 to $110 range. She does roughly 350 cakes a year. Her per-cake average is $82. Her gross annual cottage food sales are about $28,700.

Maya is comfortably under the $50,000 cap, and the $75,000 provision is irrelevant to her — none of her items reach $250. The constraint that actually shapes Maya's year is her oven schedule. She has one home oven, weekend mornings are her highest-demand window, and she can decorate roughly seven to nine cakes per weekend. To grow meaningfully, she would have to raise prices, add weekday capacity, or move to a setup with more oven capacity.

For Maya, the question the rule answers is "what about a year where I get unusually busy and start to push toward $45,000?" The answer: she still has room under $50,000. If she starts taking occasional wedding cakes at $300 or more, she would become a mixed-sales producer, and whether that lets her go past $50,000 is the open question above — one to put to MDARD before she plans on it.

Maya's "this week" action: make sure her sales records show the unit price of each item, not just order totals. It costs nothing now and answers the question MDARD would ask if she ever needs to rely on the $75,000 limit.

Case 2: Priya, the wedding-cake decorator in Ann Arbor

Priya runs a custom wedding-cake practice out of her home kitchen in Ann Arbor. Her work is almost entirely large tiered cakes for weddings, anniversaries, and milestone events. Her average cake — three or four tiers, sugar flowers, custom flavor pairings — sells for between $380 and $620. She delivers about 95 cakes a year, with a per-cake average of $465 and gross annual cottage food sales of approximately $44,200.

Every one of Priya's cakes is priced over $250 per unit, so her operation is squarely within the $75,000 limit's wording. She has about $30,800 of room left, roughly sixty-six more cakes at her current average price. Under the pre-2026 $25,000 cap she would have been forced into a licensed kitchen; under the current rule she has room to grow.

What Priya should not assume is that she can add a separate $50,000 of lower-priced products on top. If she launched a line of $8 wedding favor cookies, her total gross sales would still be limited — the statute sets one ceiling, not two — and adding lower-priced items would make her a mixed-sales producer whose limit MDARD has not clarified.

Priya's "this week" action: keep invoices that show one price per cake (not a per-slice price), and if she is considering a lower-priced product line, ask MDARD in writing how it affects her limit before launching it.

Case 3: David, the mixed-shop baker in Traverse City

David runs a home-baked goods practice in Traverse City that spans a wide price range. He sells decorated cookie boxes at $24 to $48, sourdough loaves at $12, custom birthday cakes at $85 to $180, and a smaller line of large special-occasion cakes at $260 to $390. His annual production is roughly $32,000 in cookies, breads, and standard cakes, plus another $18,500 in items at $260 or more. His total cottage food sales are approximately $50,500.

David is the producer the statute does not clearly answer. He does sell cottage food products at $250 or more per unit, so one reading puts his whole operation under the $75,000 limit, leaving about $24,500 of room. Another reading limits the higher ceiling to those products, which could put him over. Neither reading gives him $50,000 plus $75,000.

The safe course for David is to stay at or under $50,000 until MDARD confirms how his mix is treated, or to get that confirmation in writing before his total passes $50,000. Either way, his books need to show what each item sold for, because "of your $50,500 in sales, how much was at $250 per unit or above?" is the first thing anyone reviewing his sales will ask.

David's "this week" action: add a unit-price column to his sales spreadsheet (or a per-sale tag in his inventory software), back-fill it for the year to date, and send MDARD a short description of his product mix and price points.

What the three vignettes tell us

Michigan's limit is one ceiling with a price condition attached, not two budgets. For a producer who sells only lower-priced items (Maya), the limit is $50,000. For a producer who sells only products at $250 or more per unit (Priya), the statute's words point to $75,000. For a producer in between (David), the answer is not settled, and the responsible move is to ask MDARD rather than to assume the most generous reading.

In every case, the record-keeping is the same: gross sales by item, with the price of each unit, so the question "which limit applies to you?" can be answered from the books.

What the Michigan statute actually says

The cottage food framework is part of the Michigan Food Law of 2000 (opens in new tab), the statute that governs food processing and food establishments in Michigan. Cottage food operations are exempt from its licensing and inspection provisions, but not from its adulteration and labeling standards.

The sections a producer should be able to point at:

• MCL 289.1105(1)(j)-(k) (opens in new tab) — the definitions. A "cottage food operation" is "a person who produces or packages cottage food products only in a kitchen of that person's primary domestic residence within this state." A "cottage food product" is a food that does not require time/temperature control for safety, such as jams, jellies, dried fruit, candy, cereal, granola, dry mixes, vinegar, dried herbs, and baked goods that do not require temperature control. It excludes foods regulated under 21 CFR parts 108, 113, and 114 (including salsa), canned low-acid fruits or acidified vegetables, other canned foods except standardized jams, jellies, and preserves, meat and poultry products, milk products, bottled water and other beverages, and home-produced ice.
• MCL 289.4102 (opens in new tab) — the exemption itself: prepackaging and labeling, direct sales and the conditions on internet, mail-order, and delivery-platform sales, the gross sales limits and inflation adjustment, storage only in the primary residence, and the MSU Product Center registration.
• 2025 Public Act 51 (opens in new tab) (House Bill 4122) — approved December 23, 2025, effective March 24, 2026. It raised the limit from $25,000 to $50,000, added the $75,000 limit for operations selling products at $250 or more per unit, allowed MDARD to adjust the limits for inflation beginning October 1, 2026, counted sales per person, opened internet, mail-order, and delivery-platform sales within Michigan with a direct-interaction condition, and created the optional MSU Product Center registration.

For program-level guidance, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) cottage food page (opens in new tab) and its subpages on labeling, allowable foods, and selling are the authoritative agency source.

What the law does not require is a state registration, an application, a fee, an annual renewal, a pre-operational kitchen inspection, or a food handler course. MDARD says "There are no application forms to complete, no registration process, and you do not need to obtain a food license or permit." MDARD does investigate complaints and foodborne illness reports, and may inspect production and storage areas during an investigation. The constraints come from the food list, the sales channels, the in-state-only rule, and the label.

What you can make under Michigan cottage food

Michigan's framework is limited to foods that do not need time or temperature control for safety — foods that can be kept at room temperature. MDARD's allowable food products list (opens in new tab) is more specific than the statute, and it is the list MDARD applies. Examples of what it allows:

• Breads, quick breads, muffins, and cookies, including breads with shredded hard cheese or dried vegetables mixed into the dough.
• Cakes, including wedding, birthday, and anniversary cakes, and shelf-stable fruit pies.
• Icings and frostings made with shelf-stable ingredients, commercially prepared shelf-stable frostings, and buttercream only from one of the 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.
• Fruit jams and jellies as defined in 21 CFR part 150, in glass jars.
• Candies and confections made without alcohol, including freeze-dried candy, maple candy, and chocolate-covered pretzels, marshmallows, or shelf-stable fruit.
• Dry herbs, dry baking, dip, and soup mixes, dried pasta, and granola.
• Whole and sliced dehydrated or freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, except melon, tomato, or leafy greens.
• Roasted coffee, dry tea mixes, and powdered drink mixes.
• Popcorn, coated or uncoated nuts, and nut butters made from ground nuts.
• Vinegar and flavored vinegars, and oils flavored only with dried herbs or spices (no garlic).

What you cannot make under Michigan cottage food

None of these qualify for the exemption, under either limit:

• Beverages of any kind — juices, apple cider, lemonade, concentrates, and kombucha. The statute excludes "bottled water and other beverages."
• Canned, acidified, and pickled foods — salsa, pickles, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, and canned fruits or vegetables. Only standardized jams, jellies, and preserves may be canned.
• Fermented foods — including kombucha, olives, and sourdough starter.
• Sauces, condiments, and salad dressings — barbecue sauce, hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, tomato and spaghetti sauces, hummus.
• Fruit or vegetable butters, vegetable or hot pepper jellies, and low-sugar or no-sugar jams and jellies.
• Pies, cakes, frostings, and glazes that need refrigeration — banana cream, pumpkin, lemon meringue, and custard pies, cheesecake, and cream cheese frosting.
• Meat, poultry, and fish — including jerky and smoked fish.
• Milk and dairy products such as cheese and yogurt, and freeze-dried dairy.
• Cut or dehydrated melon or tomato, cut leafy greens, raw sprouts, and foods made with cooked vegetables.
• Garlic in oil and oils flavored with fresh herbs, fruits, or vegetables.
• Caramel apples, fresh pasta, ice, and confections containing alcohol.
• CBD, cannabis, dietary supplements, tinctures, and pet food or treats (pet treats need a commercial feed license).

A producer who wants to make any of these for sale needs a license from MDARD, typically as a licensed food processor.

Where you can sell

MCL 289.4102(4) starts from one rule: "a cottage food product must be sold directly from the cottage food operation to the consumer." Within that rule:

• Direct in-person sales — farmers markets, farm stands, roadside stands, and similar venues where the producer sells to the consumer.
• Internet and mail order, with a condition. Since March 24, 2026, a cottage food product may be sold by internet or mail order "if the cottage food operation provides an opportunity for a consumer to directly interact with the cottage food operation before the cottage food product is sold." The statute says "directly interact with" includes a face-to-face meeting or a virtual meeting with two-way communication in which the participants can see and hear each other. The sale or delivery must be to a consumer in Michigan.
• Third-party food delivery platforms, with the same condition. Delivery through a third-party food delivery platform is allowed under the same direct-interaction and Michigan-only rules. MDARD says a farm stop or retail market may not serve as a pickup point or go-between for pre-sold cottage food.
• Phone orders delivered under the same conditions.

What is not authorized: consignment and wholesale ("Sales by consignment or at wholesale are prohibited"), sales to restaurants, grocery stores, brokers, or distributors, donations of products to a public auction or fundraiser for someone else to give away, and any sale or delivery outside Michigan. For sales into another state, MDARD says to check that state's requirements. Michigan is not in the Pennsylvania or Ohio category of cottage food states that authorize wholesale to retail establishments.

What goes on a Michigan cottage food label

MCL 289.4102(2) and (3), and MDARD's labeling guidance (opens in new tab), require every product to be prepackaged and labeled before sale with:

1. The name and address of the cottage food operation. MDARD says to use the physical address of the home kitchen; a post office box is not allowed. Or, for an operation registered with the MSU Product Center, its name, telephone number, and registration number. A registered operation must include the registration number.
2. The name of the cottage food product.
3. The ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight. MDARD says sub-ingredients of prepared ingredients must be listed, for example "soy sauce (wheat, soybeans, salt)."
4. The net weight or net volume. MDARD says to include the metric equivalent.
5. Allergen labeling as specified by federal labeling requirements, either in the ingredient list or in a "Contains:" statement.
6. Nutrition labeling as federal rules require, if the label makes any nutritional claim.
7. The statement "Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development." printed in at least the equivalent of 11-point type (MDARD: about 1/8 inch tall) in a color that clearly contrasts with the background. The statute prints the department name in lowercase; MDARD says all capital letters or upper and lower case are both acceptable, and hand-printed labels are acceptable if legible and in permanent ink.

For wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and other specialty cakes that are not easily packaged, MDARD says all labeling requirements must be on the invoice delivered with the cake. Smaller cakes must be boxed with the label on the box.

The MSU Product Center registration option

2025 PA 51 created an optional registration with the MSU Product Center for Food and Agriculture Business Development (opens in new tab) at Michigan State University. It exists for producers who do not want their home address printed on every label.

The mechanics, from MCL 289.4102(8)-(10) and MDARD's labeling page:

• The MSU Product Center may collect a one-time registration fee of up to $50 and issues a document with a registration number unique to the operation.
• A registered operation prints its name, telephone number, and registration number on the label instead of its name and address. MDARD's sample label shows the number in the format C-000000000 next to a phone number.
• Once registered, the operation must include the registration number on its labels.
• Registration information is exempt from disclosure under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act.

The registration is not a license and does not change what may be made or where it may be sold. Producers who do not mind their home address on labels do not need it.

How Ardent Seller helps with the Michigan label

Ardent Seller assembles this label. Pick a finished product, choose Michigan, and the cottage food label generator pulls together the statement "Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development." rendered at 11-point type or larger — the font minimum is enforced in the output, not left to the design — plus the operation name, the address (or, if you have registered with the MSU Product Center, your registration number and telephone number in its place), the product name, the ingredient statement in descending order by weight with sub-ingredients in parentheses, the net weight, and the federal "Contains:" allergen line. A validation checklist shows every element Michigan requires and blocks printing while a required one is missing. Output is a PDF sheet (Avery 5163, 4″×6″, or full page) or a direct print.

Generate your Michigan cottage food label with Ardent Seller free — the label generator is included on every plan, including the free tier.

What October 2026 can change: the inflation adjustment

2025 PA 51 sets the $50,000 and $75,000 limits "until October 1, 2026." After that, MCL 289.4102(5) says MDARD may adjust them:

• When: beginning October 1, 2026, and by each October 1 after that.
• How: by multiplying the limit in effect during the preceding fiscal year by an inflation adjustment factor, rounded to the nearest whole dollar. The factor is the 3-year average July-June Consumer Price Index for the current fiscal year divided by the same average for the preceding fiscal year, as determined by the Department of Treasury using the Detroit Consumer Price Index. The factor may not be less than 1.
• What: the gross sales amounts. The statute does not provide for adjusting the $250 per-unit price.

Because the statute says "may," an adjustment is not guaranteed in any given year. As of mid-September 2026, MDARD's pages still show $50,000 and $75,000. A producer close to either figure should check the MDARD cottage food page after October 1 for the limits actually in effect before booking the rest of the year.

Where Michigan sits in the cottage food map

For producers comparing Michigan against peer states, the table below sets the post-PA 51 Michigan framework against the most-discussed cottage food regimes elsewhere. Cells for other states reflect the Ardent Seller state reference data as of September 2026.

Two things stand out in the Michigan column.

First, Michigan's limit depends on price. The $75,000 figure for operations selling products priced at $250 or more per unit is written for high-value custom work such as wedding cakes. It raises the ceiling; it does not add a second one, and its application to mixed-price sales is a question for MDARD.

Second, Michigan opened online and delivery sales with a condition attached. Internet, mail-order, and third-party delivery-platform sales are allowed within Michigan only if the customer has an opportunity to interact with the producer, face to face or by two-way video, before the sale.

The trade-offs that come with both: Michigan does not authorize wholesale to retailers (Pennsylvania and Ohio do), does not authorize acidified foods (Pennsylvania does with pH testing), and does not authorize interstate sales (Pennsylvania and Florida do, with the federal layer applying on top). The $50,000 and $75,000 limits are real ceilings — well below Texas, California Class B, and Florida — and producers approaching them need to plan the transition to a licensed food processing operation before they cross.

What to do this week

The producers most affected by 2025 PA 51 are the ones who built their business under the old $25,000 cap and assumed the cottage food door had already closed. If you stopped taking orders in 2024 or 2025 because you expected to pass $25,000, the $50,000 limit doubles that room, and if your products are all priced at $250 or more per unit, the $75,000 limit applies.

If your sales mix both lower-priced items and products at $250 or more, and you expect to pass $50,000, write to MDARD before you do. Describe what you sell and at what unit prices, ask which limit applies, and keep the reply. Until you have an answer, plan around $50,000.

Whatever your mix, record the unit price of each sale. Most invoicing software treats sales as a single revenue stream; a per-line unit price makes the question "how much of your sales were at $250 per unit or more?" one filter away instead of an afternoon of forensic review. Inventory software built for makers — like Ardent Seller's bakery and cottage food tracking — records the price at the sale line, but a single spreadsheet column works just as well at the volumes most Michigan cottage food operations run.

If you sell online or take orders through a delivery platform, build the "opportunity to directly interact" into your process: a line on the order page offering a video call or in-person meeting before the sale, and a record that the offer was made. And if you are within a few thousand dollars of either limit, check the MDARD cottage food page after October 1, 2026 for any inflation adjustment.

Related reading

• Custom Cake Pricing for Cottage Bakers — three baker scenarios on tiered cakes, test bakes, and rush jobs. Useful for pricing custom cakes by the unit, which is how Michigan's $250 threshold is worded.
• Cottage Baker Glossary — the 32-term vocabulary every cottage food operator should know, organized by the four "rooms" of the business (kitchen, regulator, books, platform).
• Batch Tracking for Food Sellers — the lot-tracking spine that makes a recall a forty-pint problem instead of a four-hundred-pint problem. Worth setting up before sales grow.

Free resources

A few free downloads from the Ardent Workshop library that pair well with this post:

• Cottage Food Laws by State: The 50-State + DC Quick Reference — the PDF this blog series feeds, with the Michigan entry and the comparison framework against every other state.
• Cottage Food Revenue Cap Tracker — the interactive tool that calculates your remaining cap headroom under any state's rule. For Michigan it measures against the $50,000 limit.
• Home Bakers Order & Delivery Tracker — the workbook that walks each custom-cake order through ingredients, decoration time, delivery cost, and per-order margin, with the per-unit price recorded for each order.

Sources & methodology

Michigan statute, legislation, and agency guidance:

• Michigan Food Law of 2000 (Act 92 of 2000) (opens in new tab) — the statute that contains the cottage food framework.
• MCL 289.1105 (opens in new tab) — definitions of "cottage food operation" and "cottage food product."
• MCL 289.4102 (opens in new tab) — the cottage food exemption, as amended by 2025 PA 51.
• 2025 Public Act 51 (House Bill 4122) (opens in new tab) — enrolled text, approved December 23, 2025, effective March 24, 2026.
• House Bill 4122 of 2025 — bill history and analyses (opens in new tab) — Michigan Legislature bill page.
• Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development — Cottage Food (opens in new tab) — MDARD program page, with subpages on labeling, allowable foods, and selling.
• MDARD — Cottage Food Labeling (opens in new tab) — label elements, type size, and sample labels.
• MDARD — What Can I Make? (opens in new tab) — allowable and non-allowable foods list.
• MSU Product Center for Food and Agriculture Business Development (opens in new tab) — the optional registration program.

Comparison-state references (table cells reflect the Ardent Seller state reference data as of September 2026):

• Texas SB 541 (2025) (opens in new tab) — Texas cottage food cap.
• California AB 1144 (2021) (opens in new tab) — California Class A and Class B caps, adjusted annually for inflation.
• Florida HB 663 (2021) (opens in new tab) — Florida cottage food cap raised to $250,000.
• Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3715 (opens in new tab) — Ohio no-permit, no-cap framework.
• Pennsylvania Limited Food Establishment program (opens in new tab) — the registration-and-inspection framework that is Michigan's contrast on the inspection axis.
• Illinois Home-to-Market Act (PA 102-0633) (opens in new tab) — the Illinois no-cap framework.

Federal:

• FDA Food Facility Registration (opens in new tab) — the framework that picks up where cottage food ends for any food moving in interstate commerce.
• 21 CFR Part 101 (opens in new tab) — federal food labeling rules that apply to all foods in commerce regardless of cottage food exemption.
• FASTER Act of 2021 (H.R. 1202) (opens in new tab) — added sesame as the ninth major food allergen.

Note on data freshness: This guide reflects the Michigan Food Law of 2000 as amended through 2025 Public Act 51 and MDARD guidance, checked against the Michigan Legislature's MCL text and MDARD's cottage food pages on September 15, 2026. An earlier version of this guide attributed the 2026 changes to the wrong public act and described the $50,000 and $75,000 limits as separate stacking caps; both errors are corrected here. MDARD may adjust the limits beginning October 1, 2026, so check the MDARD page after that date. Producer scenarios in this guide are illustrative composites — Maya, Priya, and David are not real businesses. Where a secondary source conflicts with the statute, the statute controls.

---

This article is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, regulatory, food-safety, or tax advice. Michigan cottage food law — the gross sales limits, food categories, label rules, sales channels and delivery conditions, in-state-only sales rules, the inflation-adjustment schedule, and federal interstate-commerce rules — varies by product and changes with new legislation or departmental guidance. Consult the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Michigan Department of Treasury, your municipal zoning office, a qualified food regulatory consultant, or an attorney before making compliance, financial, or production decisions based on this content.