Cottage food rules
Missouri Cottage Food Law: What Home Bakers Need
What Missouri's cottage food law actually says, in plain words, before you take your first order.
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What to remember
- You can sell baked goods, jams, jellies, and dried herb mixes made in your own kitchen.
- No permit, license, registration, inspection, or fee from the state or your local government.
- There is no annual sales cap written into the law.
- A local health department shall not regulate the production of food at a cottage food operation.
- Your label has to carry a statement that the product is not subject to inspection by the Department of Health and Senior Services.
If you have been putting off selling your bakes because you assumed a license came first, Missouri is a friendly place to start. The rules are short enough to read over one cup of coffee. Here is what the law says in plain words, so you know what you can sell and what your label has to say. If you bake across the line, our guide to Kansas cottage food laws covers how that state compares.
What you can sell from your home kitchen
The law names four things: baked goods, jams, jellies, and dried herb mixes made in a private kitchen. That is a shorter list than some states keep, so it is worth checking your product against it before you print labels or take a single order. A decorated cake, a loaf of sourdough, a jar of strawberry jam, and a bag of dried herb blend all sit inside the list. Anything outside those categories is not covered by this exemption.
No license, no inspection, no fee, no cap
You do not need a permit, license, registration, or inspection from the state or from your local government to run a cottage food operation. There is no fee to file and no annual sales cap to watch. The statute goes further and says a local health department shall not regulate the production of food at a cottage food production operation. That line matters the day someone tells you an inspector has to visit your kitchen first.
Complaints are the one thing the statute addresses on the enforcement side. It says each local health department and the department shall maintain a record of a complaint. Keep your workspace clean and your answers straight, because a report about your kitchen is written down.
What has to be on your label
Missouri’s cottage food label requirements include the statement that the product is not subject to inspection by the Department of Health and Senior Services. Put that line on your label, in a size a person can read without squinting. It is the sentence that tells your customer what kind of operation made the food. Our Oregon cottage food label requirements guide walks through the rest of a clean label layout if you want a second reference for spacing and wording.
When your bake falls outside the law
Not every food made at home fits the exemption. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services FAQ says that the majority of the foods that can be produced in a home setting are covered within the food code by a section of the definition of what a food establishment is. The state’s home-based kitchen food production guidance directs producers of food items that do not fall under one of the exemption categories to contact the Environmental Health program at their local public health agency. Do that before you sell, not after.
Laws move, and this one has already been amended once. RSMo 196.298 was amended in 2022 by HB 1697. Read the statute itself before you lean on a summary, including this one, and look again after a new session ends. Our walkthrough on how to research your state’s cottage food laws shows where the official text lives and what to check.
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- Research your state’s cottage food laws
- Kansas cottage food laws
- Oregon cottage food label requirements
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my home in Missouri?
No. RSMo 196.298 lets home producers sell baked goods, jams, jellies, and dried herb mixes from a private kitchen with no license, no inspection, no fee, and no annual sales cap.
Is there a sales limit on Missouri cottage food?
The law does not set an annual sales cap on cottage food production.
Can my local health department inspect my home kitchen?
The statute says a local health department shall not regulate the production of food at a cottage food production operation. It also says each local health department and the department shall maintain a record of a complaint.
What does my label have to say?
Missouri cottage food label requirements include the statement that the product is not subject to inspection by the Department of Health and Senior Services.
What if I want to sell something that is not baked goods, jam, jelly, or a dried herb mix?
The state's home-based kitchen food production guidance directs producers of food items that do not fall under one of the exemption categories to contact the Environmental Health program at their local public health agency.
When did the Missouri cottage food law last change?
The law is codified at RSMo 196.298 and was amended in 2022 by HB 1697.
Sources
- Missouri Revised Statutes section 196.298
- Missouri cottage food laws overview
- Missouri vendor guide to cottage food laws
- Cottage Food Law Library: Missouri
- Missouri cottage food label requirements
- Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services food safety FAQ
- Missouri home-based kitchen food production guidance
General information only, not legal advice. Rules can change, so read RSMo 196.298 yourself and check with your local public health agency before you sell.