Cottage food laws · Wisconsin

Selling homemade food in Wisconsin

Wisconsin doesn’t have a cottage food law — and yet home bakers here sell cookies, breads, and cakes with no license, no fee, and no sales cap. The reason is unusual: in 2017 a court ordered the state to stop requiring a license for home bakers selling non-hazardous baked goods directly to neighbors, and that order still stands. The catch is that the freedom is baked-goods-only — it came from a courtroom, not the legislature, so it covers exactly what the judge said and nothing more. Candy, fudge, cheesecake, and anything that isn’t baked still need a state food license. Here’s the whole picture, in plain English.

A friendly guide, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers. Always confirm the details with your own city and state before you sell.

A sunlit front porch with fresh loaves on a table and an OPEN sign

The 2-minute version

Three cards, the whole story. Everything below is detail — with the actual sources linked, so you never have to take our word for it.

Selling baked goods?

Shelf-stable baked goods — cookies, breads, cakes — are license-free, sold directly to neighbors. No registration, no fee, no inspection, and no required label. The freedom comes from a 2017 court order, not a statute.

$0 to startNo licenseNo inspectionNo sales cap

Canning pickles or salsa?

High-acid home-canned goods (pH ≤ 4.6) are covered by the statutory “Pickle Bill” — also free, but capped under $5,000 a year and sold only at a community/social event or a Wisconsin farmers’ market, with a required sign and jar label.

$0Under $5,000/yrMarkets & events onlypH ≤ 4.6

Cheesecake or fudge?

Cheesecake needs refrigeration, so it’s potentially hazardous and falls outside the baked-goods order; fudge and candy are unbaked — a court refused to add them in 2024. Both need a full DATCP food license.

Needs a licenseRefrigerated = outUnbaked = out
Sound doable? Show me the steps ↓Meet the Wisconsin porch bakers already doing it

Two ways to sell from home in Wisconsin — pick your path

In shortMost states hand you a single cottage food statute. Wisconsin has none — instead two narrow doors out of the food-license requirement, from two different places: home-baked goods (free, uncapped, won in court) and high-acid canned goods (the statutory “Pickle Bill,” capped, markets only). Which one you use depends on what you make.

Most states hand you a single “cottage food” statute. Wisconsin is stranger: there is no cottage food law at all. Instead there are two narrow doors out of the state’s food-license requirement, and they come from two completely different places — one from a court, one from the statute books. Which one you use depends entirely on what you make.

Path A · the court-won freedom$0 · no cap

Home-baked goods

The big one, and unusually generous: $0, no license, no registration, no sales cap. It exists because in 2017 a Lafayette County court ruled it unconstitutional to require home bakers to get a food license, and ordered the state to stop enforcing that requirement. DATCP didn’t appeal, so the order still binds the state today.

The freedom covers shelf-stable baked goods that are not potentially hazardous, sold directly to consumers. There’s no paperwork to file and no agency to notify. The boundary is sharp, though: it’s baked goods only, because that’s exactly — and only — what the court ordered.

Pick this path if: what you make comes out of an oven and is shelf-stable — cookies, breads, muffins, cakes.

Path B · the one actual statuteUnder $5,000/yr

Home-canned high-acid goods (the “Pickle Bill”)

The one actual statute: Wis. Stat. § 97.29(2)(b)2, often called the Pickle Bill. It lets you sell home-canned pickles or other processed vegetables or fruits with a pH of 4.6 or lower — also $0, no license.

But it’s tightly fenced: under $5,000 a year, and sold only at a community or social event or a Wisconsin farmers’ market, with a required point-of-sale sign and jar label.

Pick this path if: you can pickles, ferment kraut, or put up high-acid salsa or jam (pH ≤ 4.6) for the local market.

Anything else — cheesecake, fudge, chocolates, rice-cereal treats, candy, anything refrigerated, anything you want to wholesale — neither path covers it; you need a full DATCP food license. Why the line is drawn there isn’t an accident of wording: the court that freed home bakers was later asked to extend the same freedom to unbaked goods like chocolates and fudge, and in November 2024 the Wisconsin Court of Appeals said no — the state can keep requiring a license for “unbaked, not potentially hazardous, homemade foods.” A court drew the baked/unbaked line on purpose, and an appeals court confirmed it (see “What changed”).

Sources: Wis. Legislative Council brief (Kivirist v. DATCP) · Wis. Stat. § 97.29 (Pickle Bill) · DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods

Where you can sell

In shortBaked goods: direct to consumers only — porch, neighbors, markets — but no wholesale, and no venue fence beyond that. Canned goods: only at a community/social event or a Wisconsin farmers’ market. Online ordering and shipping are an honest gray area the sources don’t resolve.

Path A (baked goods): direct to consumers only. The court order, by its own terms, applies to “a home baker that sells baked goods directly to consumers” — and DATCP states plainly that “businesses wholesaling baked goods must be licensed.” Selling from your porch, to neighbors, and at a farmers’ market are all direct-to-consumer on their face. What you cannot do under the order is wholesale — no selling to grocery stores, restaurants, or distributors who resell your goods; that needs a license. Note that baked goods carry no venue restriction beyond the no-wholesale line — the order doesn’t limit you to markets or events the way Path B’s Pickle Bill does.

One honest boundary — online orders and shipping. No primary Wisconsin source — not the court orders as summarized, not DATCP’s pages — addresses whether home bakers may take orders online or ship baked goods, including across state lines. The order speaks only of “direct” sales to consumers. We won’t tell you online or interstate shipping is allowed when the source doesn’t say so, and crossing state lines also pulls in federal (FDA) rules. If selling online or shipping matters to your porch shop, ask a DATCP licensing specialist before you build on it ((608) 224-4923 / datcpdfslicensing@wisconsin.gov).

Path B (canned goods): markets and events only. The Pickle Bill is explicit — you may sell only “at a community or social event or a farmers’ market in this state.” Sales from home, online, shipped, to stores, or wholesale are not within this exemption. (DATCP’s home-canned-foods page also lists “flea markets” as an allowed venue — that’s agency guidance broader than the statute’s words; the statutory text names only community/social events and farmers’ markets.)

Wholesale and stores: licensed path only. For every homemade food, selling to a store, restaurant, or distributor for resale is wholesale, and wholesale needs a DATCP license — there’s no home-based wholesale option in Wisconsin.

Sources: DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods fact sheet · Wis. Stat. § 97.29 (Pickle Bill venues) · DATCP — Home-Canned Foods

What you can sell

In shortBoth home paths share one rule: the food must not be potentially hazardous — meaning shelf-stable, no refrigeration to stay safe. Path A is baked goods only; Path B is high-acid canned goods only. Cheesecake fails both.

Path A — baked goods only, not potentially hazardous

DATCP’s working definition: “Baked goods are generally exposed to dry heat, transferred via air, at a temperature above 140°F, to a food in a closed chamber such as an oven.”

  • Cookies & breads
  • Rolls, muffins & biscuits
  • Most cakes & pastries
  • Pies that don’t need refrigeration
  • Even waffle-maker & Dutch-oven items

DATCP says even a waffle maker or Dutch oven qualifies. But items dried in a dehydrator are not baked goods, and “the finished, ready-for-sale product must not be potentially hazardous” — so a baked good that needs refrigeration to stay safe (a cream-filled or cheesecake-type product) falls back outside the order.

Path B — high-acid canned goods only (pH ≤ 4.6)

The statute: “pickles or other processed vegetables or fruits with an equilibrium pH value of 4.6 or lower.” (Not refrigerator pickles.)

  • Pickled fruits & vegetables
  • Salsas & chutneys
  • Sauerkraut & kimchi
  • Fruit jams & jellies
  • Cherries, peaches, applesauce

DATCP’s list of what always needs a license, even canned: “Processed fruits or vegetables with a pH higher than 4.6. Other processed products regardless of pH level: fish, meat, pickled eggs, lemon curd, pesto, or dressings.”

Prohibited from both home paths (needs a license)

  • Candy, fudge & chocolates
  • Rice-cereal treats
  • Anything refrigerated
  • Meat, dairy, fish & seafood
  • Anything wholesaled

Cheesecake test: FAIL. Cheesecake needs refrigeration, so it’s a potentially hazardous finished product — it falls outside the baked-goods order (which covers only baked goods that are not potentially hazardous) and isn’t a high-acid canned good either. It needs a full DATCP food license. (DATCP doesn’t name cheesecake on its baked-goods page; this follows directly from its rule that “the finished, ready-for-sale product must not be potentially hazardous” and the § 97.27(1)(dm) definition.) Candy, fudge, chocolates, and rice-cereal treats were the exact products a court refused to add to the bakers’ freedom in 2024.

Sources: DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods · DATCP — Home-Canned Foods · Wis. Stat. § 97.27(1)(dm) (potentially hazardous)

The rules that actually matter

In shortThe baked-goods freedom is a court order, not a permit you earn — nothing to apply for, no cap, no inspection. The Pickle Bill is capped under $5,000/yr and markets-only. Every home path is an exception to a license requirement that snaps back the moment you step outside it.

  • The baked-goods freedom is a court order, not a permit you earnThere’s nothing to apply for, no fee, no registration, no card to carry. The 2017 orders extended the exemption to home bakers “of ‘good character’” whose kitchen “‘hygiene’… [is] not in question” — but there is no mechanism, paperwork, or inspection attached to that language; it’s the court describing who the ruling covers, not a checklist the state administers.
  • No sales cap on baked goodsNothing in the order or in DATCP guidance sets a dollar limit. (The court’s reasoning described home bakers as selling “at a low volume,” but no numeric cap is on record.)
  • The Pickle Bill IS capped — under $5,000 a year, per personCross that and the canned-goods exemption no longer applies; you’d need a license. (The statute caps it at “less than $5,000 per year”; the per person qualifier is DATCP’s guidance.) Markets/events only, plus the sign and jar label below — the five Pickle-Bill conditions are all required together.
  • No state kitchen inspection for either home pathNeither the baked-goods order nor the Pickle Bill requires a pre-sale inspection, license, or DATCP approval. (Licensed paths are inspected.)
  • It’s all an exception to a license requirement that otherwise appliesWisconsin’s baseline is that no one may run a food processing plant (§ 97.29) or retail food establishment (§ 97.30) without a DATCP license; every home path here is a carve-out from that baseline, so step outside the carve-out and the license requirement snaps back.

Sources: Wis. Legislative Council brief · Wis. Stat. § 97.29 · Wis. Stat. § 97.30 · DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods

Getting set up

In shortPath A is one of the lightest-touch setups in the country — no application, no fee, no inspection; just confirm your product fits and sell direct. Path B has no fee either, but you must meet all five Pickle-Bill conditions. Path C is the licensed route when you outgrow both.

Path A — home-baked goods (nothing to file)

  1. Confirm your product is a baked good that’s not potentially hazardousComes out of an oven (or waffle maker / Dutch oven), shelf-stable, no refrigeration needed.
  2. Sell directly to consumersPorch pickup, neighbors, farmers’ markets; no wholesale.
  3. Mind the edges the state hasn’t blessedOnline ordering and shipping aren’t addressed by any Wisconsin source; ask DATCP before relying on either.
  4. Housekeeping (not a food rule)Ordinary business formalities — a seller’s permit for taxable items, local zoning — are separate questions this page doesn’t resolve; check with your municipality and the Department of Revenue.

That’s it — Path A is one of the lightest-touch home-baking setups in the country, because a court, not a permitting office, drew the line.

Path B — home-canned goods (Pickle Bill): all five conditions

  1. ProductPickles or other processed vegetables/fruits with an equilibrium pH ≤ 4.6.
  2. VenueSell only at a community or social event or a Wisconsin farmers’ market.
  3. VolumeKeep total sales under $5,000 per year.
  4. Point-of-sale signExact wording in the Labels section.
  5. Container labelOn every jar — exact wording in the Labels section.

Path C — when you outgrow both (the licensed route)

  1. Get a DATCP licenseIf you make anything unbaked or refrigerated, want to wholesale, or pass the Pickle Bill’s $5,000 cap: either a food processing plant license (§ 97.29) or a retail food establishment license (§ 97.30), with a commercial-grade kitchen, inspections, and ATCP 70/75 standards.
  2. Budget the food-processing-plant fee by volume$40 under $25,000 of production, up to $270 at the top tier for hazardous/canning operations, with an additional $195 surcharge for canning. (Retail-food-establishment fees under § 97.30 sit in the rule/agent-county schedules and aren’t quoted here — confirm with DATCP.)

Sources: DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods · Wis. Stat. § 97.29 (Pickle Bill + fees) · Wis. Stat. § 97.30 (retail food establishment)

Labels

In shortWisconsin’s two paths split sharply on labeling — get the path right first. Path A (baked goods) carries NO required label and no disclaimer at all, because the freedom is a court order, not a statute. Path B (Pickle-Bill canned goods) carries a statutory point-of-sale sign AND a jar label, both verbatim.

Path A — home-baked goods: no required label, no disclaimer

  • No required label and no disclaimer. Because the baked-goods freedom is a court order rather than a statute, it imposes no labeling requirement — neither DATCP’s home-baker page nor its fact sheet requires home bakers to put any statement, disclaimer, or registration number on baked goods
  • There is no “made in an uninspected home kitchen” line to print — that line does not exist in any Wisconsin source for baked goods, so don’t add one
  • Voluntarily listing ingredients and allergens is good practice and good neighboring — but it’s practice, not Wisconsin law
Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread
Ingredients (voluntary): flour (wheat), water, honey, butter (milk), yeast, salt.
Contains: wheat, milk.
No state-required label or disclaimer for Wisconsin baked goods.
Path A — no label is required by Wisconsin law; ingredients shown voluntarily.

Path B — home-canned goods: a statutory sign AND label

  • Point-of-sale sign (displayed at the place of sale), verbatim: “These canned goods are homemade and not subject to state inspection.”
  • On every container, the name and address of the person who prepared and canned the product
  • The date on which the product was canned
  • This exact container statement: “This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection.”
  • A list of ingredients in descending order of prominence
  • Allergen call-out — if any ingredient originates from milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, or soybeans, the list shall include the common name of the ingredient. (Note: sesame is not in this statutory list — Wisconsin’s Pickle-Bill allergen list predates sesame’s addition as the federal ninth major allergen, so the statute names eight. Federal labeling rules still reach sesame.)
Dill Garlic Pickles
Ingredients: cucumbers, water, vinegar, dill, garlic, salt.
Jane Doe · 123 Maple Lane, Madison, WI 53703
Canned: June 12, 2026
This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection.
Sign at point of sale: “These canned goods are homemade and not subject to state inspection.”
Pickle-Bill jar label + point-of-sale sign — both statutory, both verbatim.

Whose name goes on the canned-goods label: the statute requires “the name and address of the person who prepared and canned the food product” — that’s the individual maker’s name and a physical address, not a business or brand name (a shop name is optional branding, not required). If the label maker ships Wisconsin, it ships the Pickle-Bill spec only — baked goods have no required label.

Sources: Wis. Stat. § 97.29(2)(b)2 (Pickle Bill sign + label) · DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods (no label requirement)

What changed recently

In shortWisconsin’s home-food picture is driven by court decisions and one failed bill, not a moving statute — which is why the 2017 orders are still the source of truth. A 2024 appeals ruling kept unbaked goods out; a 2025–26 reform bill that would have created a real cottage food law died at session end.

  • Nov. 19, 2024 — the unbaked-goods expansion was reversedIn Wisconsin Cottage Food Association v. DATCP, 2024 WI App 69, the Court of Appeals reversed a December 2022 circuit court order that had tried to extend the bakers’ freedom to all not-potentially-hazardous homemade foods (chocolates, fudge, rice-cereal treats, candies). Unbaked goods went back to needing a license; the state “could enforce the law on sellers of ‘unbaked, not potentially hazardous, homemade foods.’” The Wisconsin Supreme Court then denied review. Crucially, the original Kivirist baked-goods order was not on appeal and “remains good law.”
  • March 23, 2026 — the reform bill diedCompanion bills 2025 SB 739 and 2025 AB 748 would have created an actual two-tier registered cottage food law (covering pickled goods, baked goods, and other shelf-stable non-hazardous foods, with home/delivery/event/market sales and a new label statement). Both “Failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1” when the 2025–26 session ended on March 23, 2026. Nothing in statute changed — the injunction-based regime described on this page is still current law.
  • Net effect as of June 12, 2026Baked goods are free under the 2017 court order; high-acid canned goods are free-but-capped under the Pickle Bill; everything else needs a license. No general cottage food statute exists. If a future reform bill passes, this page changes — that’s the one to watch.

Sources: Wis. Legislative Council brief (WCFA v. DATCP) · 2025 Senate Bill 739 · 2025 Assembly Bill 748

Common questions

Does Wisconsin have a cottage food law?
No — and that’s the surprise. There’s no cottage food statute. Home bakers sell license-free because of a 2017 court injunction (Kivirist v. DATCP), and high-acid canned goods are covered by a narrow statute (the “Pickle Bill”). Anything else homemade needs a state food license.
What does it cost to start?
Nothing for either home path — no license, fee, or registration for home-baked goods, and none for Pickle-Bill canned goods.
Do I need a license to sell cookies from my home?
No — not if they’re shelf-stable baked goods sold directly to consumers. The court order bars the state from requiring one.
Can I sell cheesecake from home in Wisconsin?
No — cheesecake needs refrigeration, which makes it potentially hazardous; it’s outside the baked-goods order and isn’t a high-acid canned good. It needs a DATCP food license.
What about fudge, chocolates, or rice-cereal treats?
No — those are unbaked confections, and a court specifically declined to extend the home-baker freedom to them in 2024. They need a license.
Can I sell pickles or salsa?
Yes, under the Pickle Bill — if they’re high-acid (pH ≤ 4.6), you keep total sales under $5,000 a year, and you sell only at a community/social event or a Wisconsin farmers’ market, with the required sign and jar label. Note that fish, meat, pickled eggs, lemon curd, pesto, and dressings always need a license, regardless of pH.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell?
Home-baked goods: no cap. Pickle-Bill canned goods: under $5,000 a year.
Can a store or restaurant carry my baked goods?
No — that’s wholesale, and wholesaling baked goods requires a license. The home-baker freedom is direct-to-consumer only.
Can I ship my baked goods, or take orders online?
Wisconsin’s sources don’t say. The court order speaks of “direct” sales to consumers and doesn’t address shipping or online ordering, and shipping across state lines also brings in federal rules. We won’t claim it’s allowed when no source resolves it — ask a DATCP licensing specialist first ((608) 224-4923 / datcpdfslicensing@wisconsin.gov).
Do I have to put a “made in a home kitchen” disclaimer on my baked goods?
No. Because the baked-goods freedom is a court order rather than a statute, there’s no required label or disclaimer for baked goods at all. (Canned goods under the Pickle Bill do carry a required jar statement and a point-of-sale sign — see Labels.)
Will the law change?
It nearly did — a 2025–26 bill would have created a real cottage food law, but it died when the session ended in March 2026. For now the court-order-plus-Pickle-Bill regime stands. If a future bill passes, this page changes — that’s the one to watch.

Sources: Wis. Legislative Council brief (Kivirist v. DATCP) · Wis. Stat. § 97.29 (Pickle Bill) · DATCP — Homemade Baked Goods

You won’t be doing this alone

31 porch bakers are already selling across Wisconsin under these exact rules. Browse their pages and learn from people two steps ahead of you — what they sell, how they price, how they talk about their bread. Home bakers are famously generous with what they’ve learned, and most are a DM away on Instagram.

See all 31 in the directory →List your porch shop — always free to list

This page is educational, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers, just neighbors who read Wisconsin’s official sources and wrote down what they say (every claim above links to its source). Wisconsin regulates homemade food through a 2017 court injunction for baked goods and the statutory “Pickle Bill” for high-acid canned goods, with no general cottage food law. The baked-goods freedom rests on a court order whose exact scope (and whether it reaches things like online sales and shipping) is not spelled out in any state document, so this page flags those edges honestly rather than guessing. Local zoning, business-name, and sales-tax rules are separate and set locally — check yours. Always double-check the details with your own city and state before you sell. When something here and the law disagree, the law wins; if you spot that happening, tell us and we’ll fix it.