Missouri Cottage Food Packaging and Delivery Rules

What Missouri Requires on Every Package

Every packaged cottage food product sold in Missouri must carry a label with six mandatory elements — no exceptions, no matter how small the batch or how local the sale. The label is your substitute for health department oversight, and getting it wrong is one of the few things that can trigger enforcement action against an otherwise exempt cottage food operation.

The six required label elements:

1. Your business name and home address — the physical street address where the food was produced. A P.O. box doesn't satisfy this requirement.
2. Product name — the common name of the food ("Chocolate Chip Cookies," not a marketing name like "Grandma's Favorites")
3. Complete ingredient list — all ingredients in descending order by weight. Multi-component ingredients (like chocolate chips or margarine) must list their sub-ingredients in parentheses.
4. Allergen declaration — a plain-language statement identifying any of the nine major allergens: milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts (specify the nut), soybeans, fish, crustacean shellfish, and sesame
5. Net weight or count — displayed in both English and metric units (e.g., "Net Wt. 12 oz / 340 g"). Bakery items sold by count rather than weight can use a numerical count if it's unambiguous.
6. The uninspected-kitchen disclaimer — the exact language: "This product is prepared in a kitchen that is not subject to inspection by the Department of Health and Senior Services."

Some county health departments require their name inserted into the disclaimer instead of the generic DHSS reference. Check with your county before printing a large label run.

Packaging for Direct Home Sales and Pickup

For customers picking up orders at your home, packaging requirements are straightforward — the product must be individually packaged and labeled before the transaction. You can't hand someone a loose cookie and call it cottage food. The package doesn't need to be fancy (clamshell containers, cellophane bags, and mason jars all work), but it must be sealed or enclosed so the label stays attached.

If you sell unpackaged items — for example, whole loaves of bread at a farmers market — you don't need individual packaging, but you must display a visible placard at your booth with the uninspected-kitchen disclaimer. The placard serves the same consumer-notification function as the package label.

Local Delivery Rules

Missouri's cottage food law explicitly permits local delivery for in-state transactions. You can take orders online, by phone, or through social media and deliver them directly to the customer's door.

For delivery, the same labeling rules apply — every product must be individually labeled before it leaves your kitchen. The delivery itself doesn't create a separate state cottage-food permit, but applicable local business licensing and Missouri sales-tax requirements still apply.

Practical considerations for delivery:

• Insulated containers protect baked goods from temperature extremes during transit — summer heat can soften chocolate and frostings, even on shelf-stable products
• Rigid containers prevent crushing, especially for decorated items
• Delivery receipts or order confirmations create a paper trail for your records and for the customer's reference

Common Carrier Shipping (In-State Only)

One of Missouri's most valuable cottage food provisions, added by HB 1697 in 2022, is the explicit legalization of shipping via common carriers — USPS, FedEx, UPS, and similar services. This opens up online sales to customers anywhere in Missouri.

The critical limitation: both the producer and the buyer must be in Missouri. Interstate shipments are not covered by the cottage food exemption and require a different compliance path.

Shipping packaging requirements go beyond what you need for local sales:

• Primary packaging (the labeled container holding the food) must be sealed and labeled with all six required elements
• Secondary packaging (the shipping box) needs enough padding and insulation to prevent crushing and temperature damage during transit
• Fragile items like decorated cookies or glass jars of jam need extra protection — bubble wrap, packing peanuts, or foam inserts
• Labeling on the outer box should include "Perishable" or "Fragile" markings as appropriate, though this isn't a legal requirement for shelf-stable cottage food

Shipping costs eat into margins quickly. Costs vary by carrier, service, package size, and current rates, plus the cost of inner packaging materials. Most cottage food sellers build shipping into their product pricing or set a minimum order threshold that makes shipping economically viable — selling a single $5 bag of cookies for $15 shipping doesn't work, but a $40 variety box with $10 shipping does.

Packaging You Should Avoid

A few packaging choices create problems:

• Vacuum sealing can imply a preservation process that cottage food products don't undergo and can create unrealistic shelf-life expectations for customers
• Canning jars with sealed lids for anything other than traditional jams and jellies can suggest the product has been through a canning process, which cottage food sellers aren't licensed to perform
• Clear packaging without UV protection for items sensitive to light (like dried herbs) can degrade product quality before the customer opens it

The safest approach is packaging that clearly presents the product as a handmade, uninspected home-kitchen item — because that's exactly what the label says it is.

For the complete labeling specification, packaging templates, and a shipping cost calculator, the Missouri Cottage Food & Home Food Business Guide covers the full process from label design through delivery logistics.

See more Missouri guides →