Michigan Food Law: Licensing, Cottage Food, and Penalties

Michigan food law, codified as the Food Law of 2000 (Act 92), governs almost every commercial food operation in the state and sets the ground rules for who needs a license, who inspects them, what labels and training are required, and which small home-based sellers can operate without a commercial license at all.¹ If you are opening a restaurant, running a mobile food truck, selling at a farmers market, or baking from your home kitchen, the Food Law decides what you can do and how.

Who Needs a License and Who Issues It

Two agencies share enforcement. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) licenses retail grocery stores, food warehouses, wholesale food processors, mobile food operations, and vending base locations.² Local county health departments license food service establishments, which means anywhere food is prepared for immediate consumption: restaurants, bars, school cafeterias, hospital kitchens, and catering operations.¹

So a dine-in restaurant applies through its county health department, while a grocery store that adds a deli counter and customer seating (what Michigan calls an “extended retail” establishment) gets its license from MDARD. Both agencies enforce the same underlying state law, so food safety standards do not change based on who holds the clipboard.

Home-based cottage food producers are the main exception. If you stay inside the cottage food rules described below, you do not need a commercial license at all.

License Types and Fees

MDARD divides commercial food licenses into categories, each with its own annual fee. Which one applies depends on what you do with food and how you sell it.²

Retail food establishment: $186 per year, for stores selling food directly to consumers where more than half of gross sales come from retail transactions.
Extended retail food establishment: $471 per year, for retail stores that also serve unpackaged food for immediate consumption and provide customer seating. New locations also pay a $197 plan review fee.
Wholesale food processor: $471 per year for operations with more than $25,000 in annual gross wholesale transactions; $186 for those under $25,000.
Mobile food establishment: $192 per year, plus $192 for the commissary that services it.
Temporary food establishment: $73 per event, limited to 14 consecutive days at a single location. This is the category for festival booths, craft shows, and fundraisers.
Transitory food unit: $159 per year for prepackaged food vendors operating statewide without the 14-day limit, plus a one-time $197 plan review fee and two $90 inspection fees per year.
Food warehouse: $186 per year for storing or distributing prepackaged food at wholesale.

Local health department fees for restaurants, bars, and catering kitchens are set independently by each county, so you need to contact your county health department directly for current amounts.

Applying and the Plan Review

The application goes to whichever agency licenses your type of operation. You submit ownership information, a proposed menu, standard operating procedures showing how staff will handle raw ingredients, control temperatures, and sanitize surfaces, plus your business contact details, operating hours, and the license category you want.

New construction, converting an existing building into a food establishment, or substantial remodeling triggers a mandatory plan review.³ You submit architectural drawings and equipment specifications showing the layout of sinks, refrigeration, cooking stations, and prep areas before any construction begins. The purpose is to catch design problems that would create contamination risks or code violations before you spend money building something that fails inspection. For MDARD-licensed extended retail and transitory food unit locations, the plan review fee is $197.²

Processing times vary. Some county health departments turn around complete applications in a few business days when no plan review is needed. A new-construction application involving a full plan review takes considerably longer. Incomplete paperwork is the most common cause of delay.

Michigan Cottage Food Rules

Michigan’s cottage food provisions, built into the Food Law and expanded since Public Act 113 of 2010, let you sell certain foods made in your home kitchen without a commercial license.⁴

What Qualifies

Only foods that do not need refrigeration to stay safe qualify. Baked goods, candies, dried herbs, granola, jams, and similar shelf-stable items are in. Cheesecakes, custard pies, and anything with cream cheese frosting that needs refrigeration are out. If you are unsure whether a specific product qualifies, MDARD is the agency to ask.

Sales Caps

The annual gross sales cap is $50,000 per household. If every product you sell is priced at $250 or more per unit, such as elaborate wedding cakes, the cap rises to $75,000.⁴ Cross either threshold and you need a commercial food establishment license.⁵

Labeling

Every cottage food product needs a label with:⁴

Your name and physical address. P.O. boxes are not accepted, but producers who complete the voluntary MSU Product Center registration can use an assigned registration number instead of a home address.
The product name.
Ingredients listed in descending order by weight. If you use a premade ingredient like a boxed cake mix, list its sub-ingredients too.
Net weight or volume, including the metric equivalent.
Allergen labeling identifying any ingredients from milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, or sesame, following federal allergen labeling rules.
The statement “Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development” in at least 11-point font, printed in a color that contrasts clearly with the background.

Hand-printed labels work as long as they are legible, written in permanent ink, and meet the font size requirement. For large specialty cakes that are hard to package, the required information can go on the invoice delivered with the cake.

Where You Can Sell

Cottage food can be sold at farmers markets, roadside stands, and directly from your home. Online sales, mail order, and delivery through third-party platforms are allowed, but you must give the buyer a chance to interact directly with you before the sale is finalized.⁴ All sales and deliveries must stay inside Michigan. Once food crosses state lines it becomes interstate commerce regulated by the FDA, and the state cottage food exemption no longer applies.

Certified Food Safety Manager

Most licensed food service and extended retail operations must have at least one employee who is a certified food safety manager, meaning someone who has passed an exam from a program accredited by the American National Standards Institute using Conference for Food Protection standards.⁶ ServSafe is the most widely used exam, though other ANSI-accredited options qualify.

The requirement applies to:⁷

Food service establishments including restaurants, bars, schools, hospitals, mobile food operations, and transitory food units, except licensed temporary food service operations.
Extended retail food establishments.
Food service operations inside a retail grocery.
Establishments that press apple cider, which can alternatively complete an approved safe cider production course.

Certification must be renewed every five years by passing the exam again, and current certification records must be kept on-site and available during inspections.⁷⁶ Michigan law also requires that food safety training include an allergen awareness component covering the major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, and sesame) and the symptoms of an allergic reaction.⁸

Inspections and Violation Categories

Every licensed establishment is inspected, and frequency tracks the risk of the operation. A full-service restaurant handling raw meat and seafood is inspected more often than a prepackaged snack vendor. Inspectors evaluate temperature control, sanitization, employee hygiene, food storage, and equipment condition.

Violations fall into three categories:⁹

Priority items directly eliminate, prevent, or reduce foodborne illness hazards. Improper cooking temperatures and inadequate handwashing are examples. These should be corrected during the inspection.
Priority foundation items support those controls, such as missing training records, absent HACCP plans, or faulty equipment. These should also be corrected on the spot when possible.
Core items are general sanitation, maintenance, and operational issues with no immediate safety threat, and typically must be corrected within 90 days.

When a priority or priority foundation violation cannot be corrected during the visit, the inspector must return within 30 days for follow-up.⁹ A written report lists every finding and the correction timeline. Operators must post a sign telling the public that the most recent inspection report is available for review on request.

Penalties for Violating the Food Law

Consequences escalate with severity and repetition. Administrative fines cap at $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for a repeat offense, plus the actual cost of the investigation. There are also aggregate caps: MDARD cannot impose more than $4,000 in total administrative fines per location in a 12-month period for a business with annual gross receipts of $500,000 or less, or $8,000 per location for larger operations.¹⁰

Criminal penalties apply when violations go beyond administrative issues. A general violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine between $250 and $2,500, up to 90 days in jail, or both. A knowing violation of certain provisions, such as selling adulterated food, is a felony carrying up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, plus double any economic benefit gained from the violation.¹⁰ In serious cases, the agency can initiate an administrative hearing to suspend or revoke the license.

If You Also Manufacture, Process, Pack, or Hold Food

A state license may not be the end of the paperwork. Businesses that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food (rather than serving it directly to consumers) generally must also register with the FDA under the Food Safety Modernization Act. Registration is free and has to be completed before you begin operations, with renewal every two years during the October-through-December window of each even-numbered year, submitted electronically through the FDA’s online portal.¹¹¹²

Restaurants, retail food establishments, farms, and nonprofit food operations are exempt from the federal registration requirement. The requirement targets facilities earlier in the supply chain: manufacturing plants, packing houses, and warehouses. Any change to the business, such as a new operator or new contact information, must be reported within 60 days, and if the business is sold the old owner cancels the registration and the new owner files fresh.¹¹ Facilities subject to the federal current good manufacturing practice rules must also keep required food safety records for at least two years from the date created, with the written food safety plan kept on-site at all times and other records producible within 24 hours.¹³

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code Act 92 of 2000 – Food Law
2
MDARD. License Type Guide with Associated Fees
3
MDARD. Plan Review
4
MDARD. Michigan Cottage Foods Information
5
Michigan Legislature. Senate Fiscal Agency Bill Analysis – HB 4122
6
Michigan Legislature. MCL 289-2129 – Certification of Managerial Employee
7
MDARD. Food Manager Certification
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws – Act 92 of 2000 – Section 289.2129
9
MDARD. Food Service Program Model Enforcement Guide
10
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code Act 92 of 2000 – Chapter V
11
eCFR. 21 CFR Part 1, Subpart H – Registration of Food Facilities
12
FDA. Registration of Food Facilities and Other Submissions
13
eCFR. 21 CFR Part 117, Subpart F – Requirements Applying to Records