Special Category Foods
in Minnesota

Pure honey produced from hives that you own or rent is classified as a "product of the farm or garden" under Minnesota law. This means it can be sold from your home, at farmers markets, at community events, online, shipped anywhere, and even wholesaled to businesses — all without requiring a cottage food registration or a food establishment license.

This exemption is broader than the cottage food exemption in several ways: it allows shipping and wholesale, which cottage food does not (currently). It also has no annual sales cap.

Pure maple syrup processed from trees you own or rent — using sap from those trees only — is also a farm product exempt from cottage food registration. Minnesota's maple syrup heritage in the north woods makes this a significant product for many rural producers.

The same rules apply as honey: no purchased ingredients, no supplementing with sap or syrup from other producers. If you add cinnamon, infuse vanilla, or blend in another producer's syrup, you must register as a cottage food producer before selling that product.

Lacto-fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, fermented dill pickles, and kimchi can qualify as cottage foods if the final product, upon completion of fermentation, has a pH at or below 4.6. Natural lactic acid fermentation typically drives pH well below 4.6 in properly fermented products — but you must test to confirm.

The distinction between "fermented pickles" and "home-canned pickles" is important: both require pH ≤ 4.6, but home-canned pickles (vinegar-brined) cannot be sold outside Minnesota, while fermented (lacto-fermented) pickles in their final form are treated as non-canned cottage foods — which currently cannot be shipped but are not restricted to in-state sales under the canned goods provision. Contact MDA for guidance on your specific product.

Minnesota cottage food producers can make and sell non-potentially hazardous cat and dog treats from their home kitchens. The same NPH standard applies — the treats must be safe at room temperature without refrigeration. Baked treats and fully dehydrated treats generally qualify. Raw treats or treats requiring refrigeration do not.

Pet treats have one major advantage over human cottage foods: they can be shipped by mail or commercial delivery service right now — including out of state, as long as the destination state permits it. This shipping allowance for pet treats predates the 2027 expansion of shipping rights for human foods.

Dried, uncooked wild rice — whether hand-harvested or commercially produced — has very low water activity and is clearly shelf-stable. Selling dried wild rice itself does not require a cottage food registration (it is an unprocessed grain product). Dry wild rice mixes, wild rice soup mixes (dry ingredients only), and wild rice blended with other dry ingredients (spices, dried mushrooms, etc.) qualify as cottage food dry mixes.

The line is drawn at prepared or cooked wild rice products. Wild rice hotdish, wild rice soup, wild rice pilaf in a jar with a sauce — these involve cooking and moisture and are potentially hazardous foods requiring a licensed facility.

The MDA's NPH Foods List explicitly references items "flavored with alcohol" as examples of allowed products in the baked goods category. The key is that the alcohol must function as a flavoring — not as a significant liquid ingredient that creates a potentially hazardous food safety situation or produces an alcoholic beverage product.

When alcohol is baked into a product (rum cake, bourbon pecan pie, beer bread), most of the alcohol evaporates during the baking process. What remains is flavoring. When alcohol is used as a glaze or soak applied after baking (e.g., a boozy bundt cake soaked in rum syrup), there may be residual alcohol, but if the final product is shelf-stable and meets water activity standards, it can still qualify.

No meat, poultry, or game products can be sold under Minnesota's cottage food exemption — regardless of how the animal was harvested. This includes venison jerky, smoked duck, wild boar sausage, pheasant pâté, and any other wild game product.

Minnesota has a separate Venison Donation Program that allows hunters to donate venison to food shelves, but this is a charitable program unrelated to cottage food sales. Commercial sale of wild game meat requires state meat inspection licensing through the MDA.

Minnesota has a separate exemption for certain nonprofit and community food events that may allow food sales without a cottage food registration or food license. The Minnesota Department of Health and local health departments often administer exemptions for bake sales, church suppers, and community fundraisers under different provisions than the MDA cottage food law.

These exemptions are jurisdiction-specific and event-specific. If you're selling baked goods at a PTA bake sale, church fundraiser, or community charity event where all proceeds go to a nonprofit, the rules may be different than standard cottage food law. Contact your local county health department to determine whether a specific fundraising event qualifies for an exemption in your area.

Note: If you are a registered cottage food producer selling products at a fundraiser, you should treat it like any other sales event — your registration, labeling, and point-of-sale signage requirements still apply to your portion of the sales.

Minnesota cottage food law permits producers to bring bulk containers of qualifying products to a market or event and package them per customer order — for example, displaying a tray of cookies and bagging a dozen for each buyer. This is distinct from sampling (see below) and is governed by different rules.