Selling and marketing
Sell Baked Goods From Home in Illinois: 2 Requirements
What Illinois actually asks of you before your first sale, and the order to do it in.
On this page
What to remember
- Register with your local health department before you take money.
- You and anyone who helps prepare or package food need the food protection manager certificate.
- Sell to the person who eats the food, not to a shop that resells it.
- Price above ingredients, your hours, and your monthly costs.
Illinois keeps the list short, but none of it is optional. You can sell baked goods from home illinois rules allowing, and the two requirements below are what make it legal. Get them out of order and you are taking money for food you are not registered to sell.
What Illinois lets you sell, and to whom
Illinois calls this a cottage food operation. The state defines it as a home based food business run by a person who produces food or drink in a kitchen in their primary domestic residence, or another appropriately designed kitchen on a farm. Foods and drinks that Illinois law lists as prohibited sit outside that definition.
Sales have to go directly to the consumer. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, that includes sales made by the owner, a family member, or an employee. What it does not include is resale, and it does not include retail food establishments.
The two requirements, in order
Two things stand between you and your first legal sale. Both take time, so start them before you have orders waiting. The full checklist is in requirements to sell baked goods from home.
Register with your local health department
All eligible cottage food operations must be registered with their local health department, according to University of Illinois Extension. Call your county office and ask what it needs from you and how long it takes.
Get the food protection manager certificate
Every cottage food operator must have completed the Certified Food Protection Manager certification. So must anyone who helps you prepare or package food. Do this before your first sale, not after.
Check that your kitchen qualifies
The kitchen has to be in your primary domestic residence, or an appropriately designed kitchen on a farm. If you rent, ask your landlord before you register.
Plan for direct sales only
Build your plan around selling to the person who eats the food. Leave resale and retail shelves out of it entirely, because those sales are not allowed for cottage food products in Illinois.
What one batch actually earns
Say you bake a batch of 24 muffins to order. Ingredients come to $12, and boxes and liners come to $4. Two hours of your time at $15 an hour is $30. Your Brevl shop is $20 a month, and you run about eight batches a month, so $2.50 of that lands on this batch.
That is $48.50 for the batch, or about $2.02 a muffin. Price them at $3.50 and the batch brings in $84. Take off the $48.50 and you keep $35.50, roughly 42 percent. Drop the price to $2.50 and you keep $11.50, which is $5.75 an hour for your two hours.
Run the same math on your own best seller before you set a menu. The batch that looks popular can be the one that pays least. How to price baked goods from home walks through the whole calculation.
Mistakes that cost you money
The expensive mistakes are rarely about baking. They are about who you sell to and what you forget to count. Before you spend on packaging or a market table, register, book the certificate, and confirm your kitchen qualifies.
Where the money comes in
Direct sales suit a home kitchen. You take the order, you bake it, you hand it over, and you get paid. That also means you handle the messages, the reminders, and the money yourself, usually from your phone.
A shop of your own keeps that in one place. Brevl is $20 a month with no cut of your sales, and it takes card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. It works on your phone at the market and on a computer at the kitchen table.
Keep a simple record of what each order brought in and what it cost. When you raise a price, you will want last month’s numbers, not your memory.
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Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my Illinois home?
Illinois registers cottage food operations rather than licensing them the way it licenses restaurants. You register with your local health department, and you and anyone helping you must hold a Certified Food Protection Manager certificate. Call your county office to ask how it handles registration and how long it takes.
Can I sell my bread to a coffee shop or a grocery store?
No. Illinois cottage food products may not be sold for resale or in retail food establishments. A cafe cannot buy your muffins and resell them, and a store cannot put your jars on a shelf. Sell to the person who will eat the food.
Can my family help me bake and sell?
Yes. Sales may be made by the owner, a family member, or an employee. Anyone who helps prepare or package the food must also have completed the Certified Food Protection Manager certification. Plan the course and the time for each helper before you accept a large order.
Does my kitchen have to be inspected?
The state defines a cottage food operation as one run from a kitchen in your primary domestic residence, or another appropriately designed kitchen on a farm. Registration runs through your local health department, so ask that office what it requires of your kitchen before your first sale.
Sources
This is general information about Illinois cottage food rules, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your own situation with your local health department.