Cottage food rules
New Cottage Food Laws Missouri: What Home Bakers Need
What Missouri lets you sell from your home kitchen, in plain words.
On this page
What to remember
- No license and no income limit to start selling cottage foods in Missouri.
- No dollar cap on sales, so your kitchen and your hours set the ceiling.
- Allowed items are non-perishable baked goods, standard-recipe jams and jellies, and dried herbs.
- The state still publishes home-based kitchen guidance for safe, quality food.
If you have been waiting for a clear sign that it is fine to take orders from your own oven, this is about as clear as it gets. Neighboring states have been moving too, and it helps to see how they compare: Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas each handle home bakers a little differently.
What Missouri law says about your kitchen
Missouri Revised Statutes section 196.298 puts it plainly: a cottage food production operation is not a food service establishment, and it is not subject to health or food code laws. That one sentence is what lets you bake at home and sell what you bake. The state health department has also published the Missouri Home-Based Kitchen Food Production Guidance, developed to provide standards, guidelines, and consistent information for people who provide safe and quality food to consumers.
In practice, that means you are not filing paperwork or waiting on an inspection before your first order. What you are doing is running a small food business out of a kitchen you already know well, so the habits you build now matter more than any certificate.
What you can sell, and why there is no cap
The allowed list is short and familiar to most home bakers: non-perishable baked goods, canned jams and jellies made from standard recipes, and dried herbs. Missouri sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, which means the thing that limits you is not a number in a statute. It is your oven, your counter space, and the hours you can actually work.
Records, labels, and the paper trail
Even with no license and no cap, a home bakery runs on paper: what you baked, what you sold, and what you charged. Keep those notes simple and repeatable, because they are what tell you whether a busy week actually made money. If you want a sense of how states handle labels, the Nebraska labeling guide is a clear example of what a cottage food label can carry.
Your shop should be just as easy to run. Brevl gives you your own web address, your photos and your colors, and card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. It works on your phone at the market table and on a computer at the kitchen table, and a real person answers, usually within minutes.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
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When you are ready to move off spreadsheets and text threads, we set the shop up with you and move your old one over: products, photos, reviews, and dates. You keep the customer relationships you built, and you keep every dollar of what you sell.
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my home in Missouri?
No. Missouri cottage food operations do not need a license, and there is no income limit.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell?
No. Missouri sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, so growth is limited by your own kitchen and time rather than a statutory cap.
What can I sell as a Missouri cottage food operation?
Non-perishable baked goods, canned jams and jellies made from standard recipes, and dried herbs.
Does a health inspector check my kitchen?
State law says a cottage food production operation is not a food service establishment and is not subject to health or food code laws. The state health department still publishes home-based kitchen food production guidance with standards for safe, quality food.
Where do I read the official rules myself?
The statute is Missouri Revised Statutes section 196.298, and the Missouri health department publishes the Home-Based Kitchen Food Production Guidance.
Sources
This is general information about Missouri cottage food rules, not legal or tax advice. Rules can change, so check the statute and the state health department guidance before you rely on them.