Missouri Cottage Food Law: Rules, Labels, and No License

Under the Missouri cottage food law, you can bake, jar, or dry three specific kinds of food at home and sell them directly to consumers without a license, a permit, a kitchen inspection, or a registration. The rule lives in RSMo 196.298, and since the August 2022 update there is no revenue cap and online sales within the state are allowed.¹ What the law does require is that your product fits one of the approved categories, your label carries the right information, and every sale goes straight from you to the person eating the food.

What You Can Sell

The statute covers three categories and no others: baked goods, canned jams or jellies, and dried herbs or herb mixes. Baked goods means anything prepared by baking in an oven, so cookies, cakes, breads, donuts, pastries, and pies all qualify. The catch is that none of it can be “potentially hazardous,” which is the food-safety term for anything that needs temperature control to stay safe. Banana bread is fine. A cheesecake, a custard-filled eclair, or a cream pie is not.¹

People often assume honey, fruit butters, candy, salsa, or dry soup mixes are covered. They aren’t. The Department of Health and Senior Services has said the statute reaches only the three listed categories. Honey is treated as a raw agricultural commodity under a separate framework. Fruit butters, sorghum, and dry soup mixes may be sellable under a different exemption in the Missouri Food Code, but only where local law permits and only from an individual stand direct to the consumer.²

The practical filter: if it doesn’t come out of an oven, isn’t a high-acid canned jam or jelly, and isn’t a dried herb mix, it isn’t a cottage food product. Meat, canned vegetables, and anything requiring refrigeration are out.

Who You Can Sell To and Where

Every sale has to be a direct transaction between you and the consumer. Farmers’ markets, roadside stands, special events, and sales from your own home all qualify. Delivery to the customer’s door and pickup at your house both work. Selling to a grocery store, a restaurant, or any other retailer who would resell your product is not allowed.¹

Online sales are permitted, but with a geographic limit. Both you and the buyer must be in Missouri. Shipping across state lines pulls the transaction out of the cottage food exemption and into federal food safety regulation.¹

There is no longer an annual revenue cap. The old $50,000 limit was removed in the 2022 amendment, so you can earn any amount from cottage food sales as long as you keep meeting the rest of the requirements.²

What Has to Be on the Label

Every package needs a label, and the label has to be legible and visible to the buyer before purchase. The statute itself requires your name and home address plus a statement that the food is not inspected by the Department of Health and Senior Services or any local health department.¹ The Department’s guidance fills in the rest, and the full list of what your label must contain is:

The common name of the product, such as “Chocolate Chip Cookie” or “Strawberry Jam”
Your full name and the physical address of the home where the food was made
Every ingredient, listed in descending order by weight
Net weight of the food in the package
Any major food allergens present
A statement that the product was prepared in a kitchen not subject to inspection by the Department of Health and Senior Services or a local health department²

Allergen Disclosure

Federal law recognizes nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. Sesame was added by the FASTER Act with mandatory labeling effective January 1, 2023. For most cottage food producers, wheat, eggs, and milk are the ones that show up most often. If an ingredient’s common name already identifies the allergen (like “butter” for milk), that satisfies the requirement; when it doesn’t (like “casein”), you have to call the allergen source out clearly.³

No License, Permit, or Registration

Missouri does not require cottage food producers to hold a license, permit, or registration at the state level. The statute says a cottage food operation “is not a food service establishment and shall not be subject to any health or food code laws or regulations of the state or department” beyond what Section 196.298 itself sets out. Local health departments are barred from adding their own regulation on top.¹

No food safety course. No kitchen inspection. No advance notice to any agency. Meet the food, labeling, and direct-sale rules and you are operating legally the day you start.

Local Zoning and HOA Rules Still Apply

The exemption is from food safety regulation, not from everything. Local zoning ordinances still apply to your address. Some cities and counties require a home occupation permit or a general business license, and some limit customer traffic, signage, or deliveries at a residential property. If you live in an HOA, the covenants may add restrictions of their own. A single call to your city clerk or county planning office usually clears this up before you bake the first batch.

When Health Officials Can Still Get Involved

Routine inspections are off the table. The statute preserves the authority of the Department of Health and Senior Services and local health departments to investigate a foodborne illness or outbreak, so if someone gets sick and the trail leads to your kitchen, an investigation can follow.¹ Both the state and local departments are also required to keep records of consumer complaints against cottage food operations. A pattern of complaints can draw scrutiny even without a formal investigation, so keep clean production practices and track your ingredient sources.

Sales Tax and Income Tax

The cottage food exemption doesn’t cover taxes. Missouri taxes most food at a reduced state rate of 1.225% plus applicable local rates. A separate exemption under RSMo 144.527 covers some farm products sold at farmers’ markets, but baked goods made mostly from purchased ingredients generally don’t qualify unless the producer is selling from their own agricultural output. Most cottage food sellers will need to register with the Missouri Department of Revenue, collect sales tax, and file returns. Confirm your specific obligations with the Department of Revenue before the first sale.

Federal income tax applies to your net earnings. You report revenue and expenses on Schedule C with Form 1040, and if your net earnings top $400 in the year, self-employment tax of 15.3% applies on top of regular income tax to cover the Social Security and Medicare share an employer would normally split with you.⁴ Deductible expenses include ingredients, packaging, and booth fees. A dedicated area of the home used regularly and exclusively for the business can qualify for the home office deduction, with a narrower exception for space used to store inventory. Most sole proprietors can use their Social Security number; an EIN is needed only if you hire employees, open certain business bank accounts, or form an LLC or corporation.

Insurance Is Worth Pricing

Nothing in the statute requires insurance, but the exposure is real. If a customer has an allergic reaction or claims your food made them sick, you are personally on the hook for damages, and a standard homeowner’s policy rarely covers business activity.

Product liability insurance covers financial losses tied to a defective product that causes injury. General liability covers broader risks like a customer getting hurt during a pickup at your house. Some insurers bundle both in a business owner’s policy. For the smallest operations, a home-based business rider added to your existing homeowner’s policy gives a baseline of coverage at modest cost.⁵

Steps to Start

Confirm the product qualifies. It has to be a baked good, a canned jam or jelly, or a dried herb or herb mix, and it cannot require refrigeration.
Check local zoning. Call your city or county planning office to confirm home-based businesses are allowed at your address, and read your HOA covenants if you have one.
Design the label. Include your name, home address, product name, ingredient list in descending order by weight, net weight, allergens, and the non-inspection disclaimer.
Register for sales tax with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Keep records of every sale, ingredient source, and expense. You’ll need them for taxes and for your own protection if a complaint comes in.
Price out product liability coverage or a home-based business rider before the first sale.

Once the label is compliant and zoning checks out, you can start selling. No state permit, registration, or food safety certification is required.

1
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 196.298 – Definitions, Operation Not Deemed Food Service Establishment, When, No State or Local Regulation
2
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Missouri Home-Based Kitchen Food Production Guidance
3
Food and Drug Administration. Food Allergies
4
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 334 (2025), Tax Guide for Small Business
5
U.S. Small Business Administration. Get Business Insurance