Selling Eggs in Michigan: Licensing, Labeling, and Cage-Free Rules

Selling eggs in Michigan starts with one number: 3,000 hens. If your flock is that size or larger, you need a Retail Food Establishment License from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and must follow the full set of grading, labeling, storage, and cage-free rules. If you keep fewer hens and sell directly to the people eating the eggs, you can skip the license, but only if you hit every condition of the small-producer exemption.¹

Do You Need a License?

Michigan’s egg provisions sit inside the Michigan Food Law and draw the licensing line at 3,000 laying hens. At or above that number, you need a license from MDARD and must comply with the full range of grading, labeling, and facility requirements.¹

Below 3,000 hens, you’re exempt from licensing only if all four of these are true:¹

You produced the eggs yourself.
You sell only to consumers or to first receivers, such as a store buying directly from you.
Every container carries a label stating “packaged in a facility that has not been inspected by the department.”
You do not sell by internet, mail order, or consignment.

Miss any one of these and you need a license. The internet rule catches a lot of small producers; so does the labeling requirement. You cannot drop eggs into a carton, hand them over at a farmers market, and call it good. The uninspected-facility disclosure has to be on the container.

Labeling Your Cartons

If you’re licensed, every carton needs the name and address of the packer or distributor, the egg size spelled out in full (Jumbo, Extra-Large, Large, Medium, Small, or Peewee), the grade (AA, A, or B), a last date of sale, a lot code (the sell-by date can double as the lot code), and the USDA safe handling statement.²

MDARD recommends keeping the last date of sale within 30 days of the pack date, though that’s guidance rather than a hard statutory cap.² The size designation also has to appear in full in any advertising. “Lg” on a sign for Large eggs doesn’t fly.¹

Reusing Cartons

Michigan does not require new cartons. MDARD recommends them, but reused ones are allowed as long as the labeling on them isn’t false or misleading. If a reused carton shows another producer’s name or a grade your eggs don’t meet, the eggs inside are misbranded.²

Specialty Claims

Words like “cage-free,” “free-range,” and “organic” have specific meanings tied to federal rules. Cage-free hens must be able to roam freely in indoor houses with food, water, and enrichments such as perches and nesting areas. Free-range eggs require all of that plus continuous outdoor access during the laying cycle.³ “Organic” requires continuous organic management from no later than the hen’s second day of life, under USDA organic regulations.

Nutrition Facts

Most small sellers don’t need a Nutrition Facts panel. The FDA automatically exempts retailers with annual gross sales of $500,000 or less (or food sales of $50,000 or less), with no filing required. Businesses with fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees selling fewer than 100,000 units a year can also qualify but must file an annual notice. Any nutrient content claim on the label (such as “low cholesterol”) ends the exemption.⁴

Grading and Size Standards

Licensed sellers must grade eggs using the USDA consumer grades: AA, A, or B. When you market eggs with quality claims such as “fresh” or “Grade A,” they have to meet at least USDA AA or A quality.¹ Grade AA eggs show a thick, firm white and a round, well-centered yolk in a clean, unbroken shell. Grade A whites spread a bit more. Grade B eggs usually go into processed products, not retail cartons.⁵ Final grade determinations are made by a competent representative authorized by MDARD, and the inspector’s certificate is evidence in any enforcement action.

Size designations are tied to minimum weight per dozen. Large eggs, the most common retail size, must weigh at least 24 ounces per dozen, with no individual egg below 23 ounces per dozen. Jumbo must hit 30 ounces per dozen.¹

Keeping Eggs Cold

Licensed shell egg processors must keep eggs refrigerated at 45°F or below. That threshold applies in the processing facility, in storage, and all the way through the distribution chain, including transport vehicles, which must also stay clean and free of contaminants.²

Processing space needs potable water, approved sewage disposal, easily cleanable floors, walls, and ceilings, adequate lighting, and hand-washing stations with hot and cold running water, soap, and disposable towels. Eggs have to be processed promptly on the day they arrive. If you wash eggs, they must be dried before packaging; wet eggs cannot be packaged.² Distributors should keep supply chain records (sources, routes, delivery destinations) for at least two years to support traceability during food safety investigations.

Cage-Free Requirement

Since December 31, 2024, all shell eggs sold in Michigan must come from cage-free housing. Public Act 132 of 2019 amended the Animal Industry Act to impose the mandate on any farm with 3,000 or more laying hens producing eggs for human consumption.⁶

The law bans battery cages, colony cages, enriched cages, and similar confinement systems. Hens must be free to roam unrestricted indoors, and employees must be able to stand upright within the hens’ usable floor space. Hens need enrichments that allow natural behaviors and cannot be tethered or confined in a way that prevents them from lying down, standing up, extending their limbs, or turning around. Floor space per hen must meet the 2017 edition of “Animal Husbandry Guidelines for U.S. Egg-Laying Flocks” published by United Egg Producers.⁶

If you sell shell eggs in Michigan but don’t produce them yourself, MDARD expects you to get written confirmation from your suppliers that the eggs were produced in a cage-free environment meeting Michigan’s requirements, and to keep that documentation available for review.⁶

Farms with fewer than 3,000 hens are not subject to the cage-free housing mandate.⁷

Federal Egg Safety Rule for Larger Flocks

Once you reach 3,000 or more laying hens, you also fall under the federal Egg Safety Rule, which requires Salmonella Enteritidis prevention measures for shell eggs that aren’t pasteurized or otherwise treated.⁸

The rule requires environmental testing of the pullet environment when birds are 14 to 16 weeks old. A negative test means no additional testing is needed until the hens are 40 to 45 weeks old. A positive environmental test triggers egg testing within two weeks of the start of egg laying. Producers also have to clean and disinfect poultry houses before introducing new laying hens if any prior flock in that house tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis.⁹ Producers below the 3,000-hen threshold are exempt.

Taxes on Egg Sales

Income from selling eggs is farm income for federal purposes and goes on Schedule F (Form 1040), whether you’re running a commercial operation or a backyard flock with regular sales. Schedule F also captures deductible farm expenses: feed, equipment, veterinary care.¹⁰

Michigan does not charge sales tax on raw shell eggs sold to consumers. Raw eggs fall outside the state’s definition of “prepared food” and are treated as exempt grocery items.¹¹

What Happens If You Don’t Comply

MDARD’s enforcement is progressive. On a first violation, the inspector documents the problem and gives you a chance to correct it. Continued violations escalate to fines and other regulatory actions, which can include license suspension or revocation for licensed operations.⁷ Losing your license means you can’t legally process or sell eggs in the state until you resolve the underlying issues and get reinstated. Eggs carrying quality claims you can’t substantiate may be deemed misbranded, which can trigger seizure and disposal.

For small producers, the real risk usually isn’t a dramatic enforcement action. It’s quietly falling out of the exemption: taking an online order, skipping the uninspected-facility label, or reusing a carton that still shows another producer’s branding. Any one of those moves you from exempt to unlicensed and non-compliant.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws Section 289.7114
2
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Shell Egg Processor
3
Agricultural Marketing Service. Questions and Answers – USDA Shell Egg Grading Service
4
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Small Business Nutrition Labeling Exemption Guidance
5
Agricultural Marketing Service. Shell Egg Grades and Standards
6
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Michigan Cage-Free Egg Law Summary
7
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Cage-Free Egg Law
8
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Egg Safety Final Rule
9
eCFR. 21 CFR 118.4 – Salmonella Enteritidis Prevention Measures
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule F (Form 1040)
11
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws Section 205.54g