Wisconsin cottage food law (2026): what you can sell and label

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.

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

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets.

One channel being open does not open the rest. Shipping, delivery and wholesale each turn on the product and where it is going, so check the route you actually plan to use.

Paperwork, training and inspections

The researched record does not list a general permit for this tier. No licence, permit, registration, fee or renewal for home-baked goods. The separate canning track is capped at less than $5,000 a year from the sale of the food products; above that you need a food processing plant licence, $40 a year under $25,000 of production plus a canning surcharge. That track may be 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 and no restaurants.

No training is recorded as universally required. No training is required. DATCP never states the absence.

No inspection is what the record says about inspections. Confirm what that means for your product and your local authority, because the two can differ.

Kitchen rules people miss

None of these fit on a label, which is exactly why they get skipped. Read them before the first batch, not after.

• The kitchen must be your home. A commercial, rented or shared kitchen puts you under ATCP 70 or ATCP 75 and back into licensing.
• The exemption reaches bakers of good character whose kitchen hygiene is not in question.
• The finished product must not be potentially hazardous, whatever it was before baking.
• Commercial kitchens must confirm that every food business using them holds a licence.
• There is no dollar cap, but the expanded order is worded around selling at a low volume, and no official source attaches a number to that. A baker scaling up here has no line to stay under and no line telling them they have crossed one.

What changed, and when

A dated change means an older checklist can be confidently wrong. Read the instrument itself at the official source before you trust anything written before these dates.

• 2023-05-30: The Court of Appeals stayed the December 2022 circuit court order that had extended the exemption to all non-hazardous homemade foods, pending appeal.
• 2024-11-19: The Court of Appeals reversed the 2022 order: licensing is constitutional as applied to unbaked, non-hazardous homemade foods. Kivirist was not on appeal and remains good law, so the baked-goods exemption survives while candy, fudge and chocolate stay licensed. Supreme Court review was later denied; DATCP's page dates that denial 10 April 2024, which cannot be right because it predates the decision under review, and a secondary source puts it in April 2025.
• 2026-03-23: A statutory replacement failed to pass. It would have created a home food exemption with DATCP registration and a registration number, direct sale at your business address, by delivery, or at a community event or farmers market, container labelling including the date prepared and the statement "This product was made in a private home", mandatory liability insurance, a $40,000 gross sales ceiling, a point-of-sale sign under $10,000, and a DATCP food protection certificate plus rule-required home inspection above it. None of it is law.

Start this weekend

In this order, so the label is the last thing you check and not the first thing you guess.

• Ask one question about your product: was it baked in an oven? That is the whole test here.
• Do not rely on advice written in 2023. The broad exemption it describes was reversed in November 2024.
• Keep the kitchen your own home. A commercial, rented or shared kitchen puts you back under licensing.
• Treat home canning as a separate thing: under $5,000, markets and community events only.
• Check that the finished product is not potentially hazardous, whatever it was before it went in the oven.