Last verified: October 23, 2026. I’m a Texas home baker, not a lawyer — laws change, so always confirm with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services before you sell.

MISSOURI COTTAGE FOOD AT A GLANCE

Annual sales cap: None — Missouri removed its old $50,000 cap on August 28, 2022. There is no longer a limit on how much a cottage food producer can earn

License or permit: Not required — no license, no permit, no registration, and no food handler certificate. A cottage food production operation is not a food service establishment under Missouri law

Kitchen inspection: None — and your local health department is specifically barred from regulating cottage food production. The state can still investigate a foodborne illness complaint or outbreak

What you can sell: Only three categories — baked goods, canned jams or jellies, and dried herbs or herb mixes. This is one of the shortest cottage food lists in America

Shipping: Internet sales are allowed only when both you and the buyer are in Missouri. No sales across state lines

Wholesale: Never under the Cottage Law — the moment food is wholesaled, the exemption ends and the state’s manufactured food rules apply

WHY MISSOURI IS THREE FOODS AND ZERO PAPERWORK

Missouri’s Cottage Law (§196.298 of the Missouri statutes) is a trade-off, and it’s worth understanding both halves. The restrictive half: the law covers exactly three kinds of food — baked goods, canned jams or jellies, and dried herbs or herb mixes — made in your home, sold directly to consumers. That’s the whole menu. The generous half: in exchange, Missouri asks almost nothing of you. No license, no permit, no registration, no required course — and since August 28, 2022, no sales cap, either (the old $50,000 limit was repealed; any website still quoting it is describing old law). Your local health department can’t regulate your cottage production at all — state law says so in plain words — though it does keep a record of complaints, and health officials can always investigate a foodborne illness outbreak. One more Missouri quirk: your food has to be sold by you personally, or by a member of your household who knows the product well enough to answer customer questions. You can’t hand your cookies to a neighbor to sell at their booth.

WHAT YOU CAN (AND CAN’T) SELL

Missouri’s allowed list fits in one sentence — but the details inside it matter.

Allowed: Baked goods — cookies, cakes, breads, danish, donuts, pastries, pies, and anything else baked in an oven, as long as the finished item is not a potentially hazardous food; canned jams or jellies; and dried herbs and dried herb mixes.

Prohibited: Anything potentially hazardous, plus the Department of Health and Senior Services’ named exclusions: freeze-dried foods; baked goods garnished with fresh fruit; cut produce; salsa; pickles; sauces like BBQ sauce and hot sauce; sprouts; wild mushrooms; meats; dairy; eggs; and pet foods. Meringue pies and cream pies are specifically called out as not exempt — they need an inspected facility. And watch the jam exception: “no sugar added,” “sugar free,” and hot pepper jams and jellies are excluded from the Cottage Law, because changing the sugar can change the acidity and water activity enough to make the product potentially hazardous.

Buttercream — the honest answer: Missouri’s law and the DHSS guidance never mention buttercream by name. The rule that decides it is the definition itself: a baked good stops counting as a “baked good” if it’s a potentially hazardous food. So a frosting that needs refrigeration takes your cake outside the Cottage Law — and unlike some states, Missouri has published nothing that affirmatively clears shelf-stable frostings. If buttercream is your signature, ask the DHSS or your local health agency about your specific recipe before you sell; don’t assume.

Freeze-dried — a clear no (with one local maybe): The DHSS guidance lists freeze-dried foods among the items that cannot be sold under the Cottage Law, and its Q&A is blunt: freeze-dried foods are not exempted by the Cottage Law, and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables must be made in an approved, inspected facility. The one maybe: a freeze-dried non-potentially-hazardous food like candy might fit the separate Missouri Food Code exemption described below — but only where local law allows it, and your local health agency decides. For freeze-dried candy sellers in Missouri, that local conversation is the whole ballgame.

MISSOURI LABELING REQUIREMENTS

Missouri’s statute (§196.298.4) requires labels to carry your name and address and a statement that the food is not inspected; the Department of Health and Senior Services’ guidance spells out the full label as six elements. Every cottage food label must be legible and include:

  1. Your full name and address — the name and address of your cottage food production operation
  2. The common name of the food, like “Chocolate Chip Cookies”
  3. All ingredients, in descending order by weight
  4. The net weight of the food
  5. A list of any allergens in the food
  6. A statement that the product is prepared in a kitchen that is not subject to inspection by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

One thing Missouri does differently from most states: there is no state-mandated verbatim statement. The law requires a statement saying the food isn’t inspected — the DHSS phrasing in item 6 is the wording the department itself uses to describe it, and it’s the sentence Missouri producers model theirs on — but the statute doesn’t put the sentence in quotation marks or set a minimum font size. What matters is that the statement is there and says what the law requires it to say. (If you see a website insisting Missouri mandates some other exact sentence, that’s a template site guessing — it isn’t in the statute or the DHSS guidance.)

WHERE YOU CAN SELL IN MISSOURI

Directly to the end consumer — that’s the Cottage Law’s core condition. Sell from your home, at farmers markets and stands, person to person. Since August 28, 2022 you can also sell online, with one firm limit in the statute: both you and the purchaser must be located in Missouri. Never sell across state lines under this exemption, and never wholesale — selling to a store or distributor ends the exemption and puts you under the DHSS manufactured food program, which means inspection. Remember the seller rule, too: the food must be sold by you or by a household member who knows the product well.

The second lane — the Food Code exemption: Missouri has a separate exemption inside its Food Code that can cover other low-risk foods sold from an individual stand — the DHSS names examples like fruit butters, sorghum, cracked nuts, packaged spices and spice mixes, and dry soup mixes. This lane exists only where local law allows it, and your Local Public Health Agency decides what qualifies in your county. Foods sold this way need the same six label elements plus a clearly visible placard at the sales location stating the food is prepared in a kitchen not subject to inspection by the DHSS. This is why one Missouri county allows a food the next county doesn’t — it’s this exemption, not the Cottage Law, that varies by county. When in doubt, call your local health agency and ask which lane your product fits.

KEEP EXPLORING

Comparing states, or working out what to charge? See how all 50 states stack up in the Cottage Food Laws by State hub: https://cottagebakersupply.com/cottage-food-laws-by-state/ — and price your bakes with the free tools on the Tools page: https://cottagebakersupply.com/tools/

YOUR 3 STEPS TO START

  1. Check your menu against the three categories. Baked goods (non-potentially-hazardous only), canned jams or jellies (never the sugar-free or hot pepper versions), dried herbs or herb mixes. If your product isn’t one of those three, the Cottage Law doesn’t cover it — ask your local health agency about the Food Code exemption lane instead.
  2. Label all six elements. Full name and address, product name, ingredients by weight, net weight, allergens, and the not-inspected statement in DHSS’s phrasing. Legibility is the only formatting rule the guidance gives — make it easy to read.
  3. Sell direct, sell in-state. You or a knowledgeable household member makes the sale; online orders only to Missouri buyers; no wholesale, ever. Then keep an ear out for rule changes — Missouri rewrote this law as recently as 2022.

OFFICIAL MISSOURI SOURCES

This guide is for informational purposes only and isn’t legal advice. Cottage food laws change — I last verified this page on October 23, 2026. When in doubt, ask the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Just add sprinkles!