Michigan Cottage Food Law: What Changed in 2026 and What You Need to Know

The Overhaul Nobody Expected

Michigan's cottage food law sat mostly untouched for fifteen years. Then House Bill 4122 passed as Public Act 51 of 2025, took effect on March 24, 2026, and rewrote the playbook for anyone selling food from a home kitchen in the state.

The old law capped gross annual sales at $25,000 and banned online sales outright. The new framework doubles the standard cap to $50,000, introduces a $75,000 tier for high-unit-value products priced at $250 or more each, and legalizes in-state online ordering, mail-order fulfillment, and third-party delivery for the first time.

If you ran a cottage food operation under the old rules, or you're just starting out, here's what the updated law actually requires.

The New Sales Caps

Under the reformed statute, Michigan enforces a dual-tier gross annual sales limit calculated per person, not per household. That distinction matters — multiple family members in the same residence can each run a separate cottage food operation with their own $50,000 cap, as long as they keep separate financial records and production logs.

The two tiers work like this:

• Standard cap: $50,000 in gross annual sales
• High-unit-value cap: $75,000, available only when every product the operation sells is priced at $250 or more per unit (think multi-tiered custom wedding cakes)

Starting October 1, 2026, both caps adjust annually for inflation based on a three-year average of the Detroit Consumer Price Index. MDARD publishes the adjusted figures each fall.

Online Sales Are Legal — With One Big Catch

The most consequential change in PA 51 is that cottage food producers can now sell through websites, social media, and mail order within Michigan. But the law attaches a "direct two-way communication" requirement to every online or mail-order transaction.

Before processing payment, you must offer the buyer a chance to interact with you in real time — a voice or VoIP call, video call, or face-to-face meeting. A static checkout page with no interaction option violates the statute. The buyer can decline the interaction, but you must demonstrably provide it.

Standard e-commerce setups need modification. Adding a required pre-checkout step — a scheduling link for a brief voice or video call, a VoIP option, or a video booking form — keeps the transaction compliant. Text messages and static email exchanges alone do not satisfy the requirement; the interaction must occur through a real-time voice or video channel before the sale closes.

All shipping, delivery, and fulfillment must stay within Michigan's borders. Cottage food products cannot be shipped interstate or sold outside the state.

Label Privacy Through MSU Registration

Under the old law, every cottage food label had to display the producer's full home address. PA 51 created a voluntary registration program through the MSU Product Center that solves the privacy problem.

For a one-time $50 fee, you register and receive a unique code (formatted as C-000000000). Your labels can then show that code plus your business phone number instead of your street address. MSU registration records are exempt from Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, so your home address stays private.

You'll need to re-register (and pay again) if your home address, business name, or primary contact person changes. A phone number change just needs an email to [email protected].

What Hasn't Changed

PA 51 expanded how and where you can sell, but the core restrictions on what you can sell stayed the same. Cottage food products must still be non-potentially hazardous — shelf-stable items that don't need refrigeration. Baked goods, dry mixes, hard candies, fruit-only jams, and roasted coffee are in. Cheesecakes, fresh pasta, pickled vegetables, salsas, meat products, and dairy are out.

Production must still happen in the kitchen of your primary single-family residence. Detached garages, barns, and outbuildings don't qualify. You're still exempt from routine MDARD inspections, though the department retains authority to inspect and seize products in response to consumer complaints.

And the labeling requirements remain strict: product name, net weight in US and metric units, full ingredient list in descending order, allergen declarations, and the mandatory MDARD disclaimer in at least 11-point font.

What This Means for Your Business

The 2026 changes removed the two biggest constraints that kept Michigan cottage food businesses small — the low sales ceiling and the ban on online sales. A home baker who previously had to turn away online orders can now build a legitimate e-commerce channel. A wedding cake decorator bumping against the old cap has room to grow before needing a commercial kitchen.

But the expanded freedom comes with expanded compliance obligations. The two-way communication mandate, the per-person sales tracking, and the CPI adjustment mechanism all require more careful record-keeping than the old law demanded.

The Michigan Cottage Food & Home Food Business Guide walks through each of these requirements step by step — compliant label templates, two-way communication workflows, revenue tracking logs, and the exact triggers that push a cottage food operation into commercial licensing territory.

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