read before you sell

Minnesota cottage food rules, in plain English

A starting point for cooks — not legal advice. Updated August 2026.

Minnesota lets people sell certain homemade foods without a commercial kitchen or a food license. That's the cottage food exemption (Minnesota Statutes §28A.152). It's one of the more generous cottage food laws in the country — but it covers a specific kind of food, and a lot of classic meal prep isn't in it. Here's the honest picture.

The basics

You register, you don't license. Cottage food producers register annually with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). Registration is free if you sell under about $5,000 a year; above that there's a small annual fee.
There's a sales cap — up to $78,000 per year in gross cottage food sales.
You take a short food-safety course as part of registering. It's online and genuinely useful.
Sales are direct to the person eating the food, within Minnesota — which is exactly what a curbside pickup is.

What cottage food covers

Foods that are shelf-stable — they don't need refrigeration to stay safe. For example:

Breads, cookies, cakes, bars, and other baked goods (no cream or custard fillings)
Jams, jellies, and preserves
Home-canned pickles, salsas, and other acidified foods with a pH of 4.6 or lower — Minnesota allows these where many states don't
Granola, trail mix, dry soup and baking mixes, spice blends
Candies and confections

What it doesn't cover

This is the part that matters for meal prep. Anything that needs refrigeration to stay safe is not cottage food: cooked meats and proteins, rice and cooked vegetables, soups and stews, casseroles and hotdish, dairy-based dishes, cut melons and leafy-green salads. A classic burrito-bowl or lasagna drop falls in this category.

Selling those foods legally in Minnesota means operating as a licensed food business — typically by renting time in a commissary or shared commercial kitchen and getting the appropriate MDA food license.

Practical paths for a meal-prep cook

Stay in cottage-food territory. Build drops around shelf-stable items: breads, bars, granola, jams, pickles, salsa, spice kits, dry soup mixes. Register with the MDA and you're set.
Use a shared commercial kitchen. Commissary kitchens rent by the hour. Cook there, get licensed, and you can sell refrigerated meals legitimately.
Cook for your circle. Sharing food with friends and neighbors without selling it isn't regulated — some cooks start there while they sort out a license.

Labeling, if you sell cottage foods

Minnesota cottage food products must be labeled with your name and the address where the food was made (or your MDA registration number), the date the food was prepared, the ingredients — including major allergens — and this statement:

"These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection."

Masking tape and a marker technically count — but a printed label looks better on your drop.

Allergens, always

Whatever you sell, tell buyers about the big allergens in your food: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. The app's meal description and tags are the place; buyers' order notes will tell you about their allergies too.

Where to verify

Minnesota's cottage food statute: Minn. Stat. §28A.152
MDA cottage food producer registration: mda.state.mn.us — including the training course and how to get licensed if you outgrow cottage food

Curbside Kitchens connects neighbors; it doesn't prepare food, process payments, or verify compliance. Selling food is your business — literally — so when in doubt, ask the MDA or a local attorney.