Cottage Food Labels in Wisconsin: A Court Order, Not a Law

The short version

Wisconsin has never passed a cottage food law. What it has instead is a court order.

Under Wis. Stat. 97.29 and 97.30 you need a food processing plant licence or a retail food establishment licence to make and sell food, and both require a commercial-grade kitchen. In 2017 a Lafayette County court held that those licensing requirements were unconstitutional as applied to home bakers. The state did not appeal, so the order stands and Wisconsin home bakers sell without a licence, without registration, and without a sales cap.

The order covers baked goods. It does not cover anything else, and a second case tried to extend it and lost.

The line that actually matters: baked or unbaked

This is the thing to get right before you plan a product.

Kivirist v. DATCP (Lafayette County, No. 16-CV-06) was decided in May 2017 and expanded that September to cover anyone selling shelf-stable, non-hazardous baked goods, not just the named plaintiffs. DATCP did not appeal. Its current guidance confirms the position: the department will not enforce licensing against home bakers making baked goods that are not potentially hazardous and selling them directly to consumers.

Wisconsin Cottage Food Association v. DATCP (No. 21-CV-13) tried to extend that to unbaked homemade foods: chocolates, fudge, rice cereal treats, candy. The circuit court agreed in December 2022. The Court of Appeals reversed in November 2024 (2024 WI App 69), holding the licensing laws constitutional as applied to unbaked goods, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to review it.

So the state of play is:

• Cookies, breads, cakes, brownies, muffins, pies that are shelf stable. No licence needed.
• Fudge, chocolates, candy, no-bake bars, rice cereal treats. Licence needed. These are exactly the things a bake sale table sells next to the cookies, and they fall on the other side of the line.

DATCP's fact sheet ties "baked" to the process: food exposed to dry heat above 140°F in a closed chamber such as an oven, producing a finished product that is not potentially hazardous, as defined in Wis. Stat. 97.29(1)(hm) and 97.30(1)(bm). Wholesale is out either way. The order covers direct sales to consumers, so selling to a shop to resell needs a licence.

What goes on a Wisconsin baked-goods label

Nothing, as a matter of state cottage food law, because there is no state cottage food law to require anything.

That is an unusual answer and worth stating plainly rather than filling with a statement borrowed from another state. Guides that tell you Wisconsin baked goods must carry This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection are quoting the pickle bill below, which applies to home-canned goods and not to your cookies.

What still applies is federal food labelling and the ordinary rules of not misleading a buyer. Plan on the product's common name, your name and address, an ingredient list in descending order by weight, allergen declarations, and net quantity. Market managers and event organisers frequently impose their own labelling conditions as a term of the stall, and those are enforceable against you as a contract even where the state is silent.

The pickle bill, if you can jars

Home-canned goods are a separate statutory exemption, Wis. Stat. 97.29(2)(b)2(b)), and unlike the court order it does spell out the label. Every condition has to be met:

• The products are pickles or other processed vegetables or fruits with an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower
• You sell them at a community or social event or a farmers' market in this state. Not from home, not online
• You receive less than $5,000 per year from those sales
• You display a sign at the place of sale reading These canned goods are homemade and not subject to state inspection.
• Each container carries your name and address, the date it was canned, the statement This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection., and a list of ingredients in descending order of prominence

Two details in there repay attention.

The sign and the label say different things. One is about canned goods and inspection, the other about a private home and licensing. They are separate sentences and both are prescribed. Do not print one and assume it covers the other.

The statute's allergen list is short. It names milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soybeans: eight. Sesame became the ninth major allergen under federal law in 2023 and the state text has not caught up. Declare sesame anyway. Federal labelling rules apply to your jar regardless of what the Wisconsin exemption lists.

$5,000 is a low ceiling and it is receipts from the canned goods, not profit. Past it, you need a licence.

The Nutrition Facts panel

No Wisconsin requirement, because Wisconsin is not the regulator for this. It is federal.

Most home producers are exempt under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(1): annual gross sales of $500,000 or less, or annual gross sales of food to consumers of $50,000 or less, with nothing to file. Because the Kivirist order sets no sales cap on baked goods, the federal thresholds are the only ceiling in the system, and nothing in the arrangement tells you when you have crossed one.

Any nutrient content or health claim ends the exemption at any sales level. Low sugar, high in fibre, a good source of protein, on the package or in the listing.

Past (j)(1), 21 CFR 101.9(j)(18) is the second route: fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees, fewer than 100,000 units sold in the US in 12 months, and an annual notice to the FDA. Both routes are covered in when nutrition labels are required in the US.

One caution

An arrangement built on litigation is less settled than a statute. The Court of Appeals decision in 2024 moved the line once already, bills to replace the court order with a licensed-and-capped scheme have been introduced more than once, and DATCP's own fact sheet carries the note that ongoing litigation may affect the information. If you are investing in packaging, check the department's current guidance before you print a long run.

Making the panel

Nutrifax builds it from your recipe against USDA FoodData Central, in the FDA 2016 format, rounded per 21 CFR 101.9. Import or build the recipe, check each ingredient match, set the serving size from the reference amount for your category, and export a print-ready PDF or PNG.

Related pages

• Cottage Food Label Requirements by State
• When Nutrition Labels Are Required in the US
• US FDA Nutrition Label Requirements for Small Producers
• Serving Size and Rounding Rules (US FDA)
• FDA nutrition label generator

Sources

• Wisconsin Legislative Council: Wisconsin cottage food law issue brief, June 2025
• DATCP: Licenses and homemade baked goods
• Wisconsin Legislature: Wis. Stat. 97.29
• FDA: Small business nutrition labeling exemption guide
• eCFR: 21 CFR 101.9 (Nutrition labeling of food)

Disclaimer

Educational content only; not legal advice. Wisconsin's position rests on court orders that have moved before. Confirm current requirements against DATCP guidance, and confirm the final label against current regulations for your product and jurisdiction.