Cottage Food Q& A

  A:  Acid and acidified canned foods (such as pickles, salsa, sauerkraut, BBQ sauce) cannot cross state borders due to federal restrictions on interstate movement of these foods. Minnesota's Cottage Food Law includes language requiring that acid and acidified canned products be made in Minnesota.  Baked items, dried items, high-sugar items like fruit-based jams and jellies, and other low water activity items allowed as cottage foods can cross state borders if both states' laws are followed: the state where the product is made, and the state where the product is sold. A producer bringing baked or other low water activity foods into Minnesota from another state must be registered with the MN Department of Agriculture as a MN Cottage Food Producer. Source: Jane Jewett, Associate Director, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, September 8, 2021

  A: Garden produce for sale falls under the product of the farm exclusion from licensing that is established by Minnesota's Constitution ( Article 13, Section 7 ); and Minnesota Statute 28A.15, Subdivision 2 . A food product is excluded from licensing requirements if it is sold by the farmer or gardener who produced it on their own or leased property. The product of the farm exclusion does not allow for the addition of any off-farm ingredients. As soon as any purchased or acquired ingredient, even a grain of salt, is added - that takes the product outside of the product of the farm exclusion. Whole, raw garden produce comes under the product of the farm exclusion and there is no need for the grower to get a license or a cottage food registration in order to sell it.   If a whole food is processed, like honey, you cannot process that product in your home kitchen using the farm exclusion. You must use a facility that would meet the good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to process the