Confita
What Wisconsin actually decides
The Wisconsin exemption came out of a lawsuit. Kivirist v. DATCP made food licensing unenforceable against home bakers, and that history explains the shape of the rule better than any list would. The exemption covers baked goods, and the definition is literal: food exposed to dry heat transferred through air above 140 degrees Fahrenheit in a closed chamber, such as an oven. DATCP publishes no list of items, so that definition is the boundary.
Which means the line falls in places that make no commercial sense. A waffle maker counts. A Dutch oven counts. A dehydrator does not, so dried fruit stays licensed. Chocolates, fudge, candies and rice cereal treats are named examples that remain under licensing, because none of them go in an oven. If your product is not baked, this exemption does not reach it however harmless it is.
The appeals history matters if you find older advice. A December 2022 order had extended the exemption to all non-hazardous homemade foods; it was stayed in May 2023 and reversed in November 2024, holding that licensing is constitutional as applied to unbaked non-hazardous foods. Kivirist itself was not on appeal and remains good law, so the baked-goods exemption survived while everything else went back under licence. Anything written in 2023 describing a broad Wisconsin exemption is describing an order that no longer stands.
Home canning is a separate track under the pickle bill, capped at under $5,000 a year, and sold only at a farmers market or a community or social event in Wisconsin. No sales from home, no online, no delivery, no shipping, no retail, no restaurants. Above that cap you need a food processing plant licence.
One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the training requirement or the date a recent change took effect, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 9, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.
The short version
What you can sell in Wisconsin
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, meaning food exposed to dry heat transferred through air above 140 degrees Fahrenheit in a closed chamber such as an oven. DATCP publishes no list of items, so the boundary is this definition
- Items made in a waffle maker or a Dutch oven, which DATCP counts as baked goods
- The finished, ready-for-sale product must not be potentially hazardous
- Produced in your own home, not a commercial kitchen
- Sold directly to consumers only
- Baked by someone of good character whose kitchen hygiene is not in question. That is the language of the expanded order
- On the separate canning track: pickles, or other processed vegetables or fruits, at an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower, prepared and canned by you at home in Wisconsin
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.
- Anything not baked in an oven. Chocolates, fudge, candies and rice cereal treats are the named examples and stay licensed
- Items dried in a dehydrator, which DATCP says are not baked goods
- Any finished baked good that is potentially hazardous, such as cream, custard or meringue fillings, or cheesecake
- Anything baked in a commercial, rented or shared kitchen, which puts you back under ATCP 70 or ATCP 75 licensing
- Anything wholesaled rather than sold direct
- On the canning track: anything above pH 4.6, low-acid canned goods, meat, dairy, and any potentially hazardous food
