Confita
What Mississippi actually decides
Mississippi is generous about paperwork and strict about how you sell. There is no state permit, registration or fee, because the statute is itself the exemption from the food establishment permit. There is also no training requirement, though the health department strongly encourages it, especially for acidified canned foods, because improper acidification causes botulism.
The channel rule is the thing to plan around. The statute bans selling over the internet, which makes Mississippi the most restrictive of its neighbours on this point. Direct sales and farmers markets are what you have. If your business model starts with an order form, this regime does not support it.
The cap is $35,000 of annual gross sales, and the counting rule is broad: across every location, every product type and every person involved. Above it the exemption from the food establishment permit falls away, and the health department may demand written documentation of the figure.
One storage rule catches people who scale up. Products are made in the kitchen of your private home and stored in your single-family domestic residence. An outbuilding such as a shed or a barn does not qualify, and neither does a rented kitchen.
The short version
What you can sell in Mississippi
Straight from the official record. Read these as categories rather than a menu, because one recipe can cross the line on its own: a filling that needs refrigeration, a pH that needs testing, or a process that needs an authority to sign it off.
- Baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, such as breads, biscuits, cookies, pastries and tortillas
- Candy
- Chocolate-covered nonperishable foods such as pretzels, nuts and fruit, but not melons. Whole uncut fruit dipped in chocolate or a sweet coating also qualifies, as long as it is not punctured with a stick before sale
- Dried fruit other than melons, dried pasta, dried spices and dry rubs
- Dry baking mixes
- Granola, cereal and trail mixes
- Fruit pies
- Jams, jellies and preserves meeting the standard in 21 CFR part 150
- Nut mixes and popcorn
- Vinegar and mustard
- Waffle cones
- Acidified products meeting the 21 CFR part 114 definition, with a water activity above 0.85 and a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below
What is outside the rule
If your product is on this list, the answer is not "ask nicely". It is a different licence, a different kitchen, or both.
- Meat, fish, poultry and smoked fish
- Dairy products, custard pies included
- Eggs, other than air-dried hard cooked eggs with the shell intact
- Cooked vegetables, cooked potatoes, legumes, beans and rice
- Raw seed sprouts, sliced melons, and garlic or other fresh herbs in oil
- Nut butters, and fruit or vegetable juices
- Low-acid canned foods above pH 4.6, and canned fruits or vegetables that are not acidified
- Beverages and other liquid foods, sugar-free or reduced-sugar jams and jellies, and catering
