Burritos, with eggs, meat, beans and cheese, are exactly the kind of food cottage food laws leave out: they need temperature control, and meat brings inspection rules. Michigan and Minnesota exclude them; California's cottage food list doesn't include them, but a microenterprise home kitchen operation permit lets a home cook sell meals, burritos included, the same day where the county has opted in. North Dakota allows foods that need refrigeration if they're labeled and kept frozen, but not uninspected meat, so frozen bean and cheese burritos fit and carnitas don't. In the example below, a North Dakota cook sorts out a frozen burrito line.
The short version
- Burritos need temperature control, and meat brings inspection rules.
- Michigan and Minnesota: no.
- California: not cottage food; a home kitchen operation permit where the county allows it.
- North Dakota: frozen, labeled burritos without meat, direct to the customer.
- Utah has a home kitchen permit for meals too.
- Otherwise: a licensed or shared kitchen.
- TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot. More below.
Burritos, state by state
| Product | Michigan | Minnesota | North Dakota | California |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnitas burrito | No: meat and poultry are excluded | No: potentially hazardous | No: uninspected meat | No: not on the list |
| Bean and cheese burrito, frozen | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
| Egg and potato breakfast burrito, frozen | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
Meals sold ahead are in meal prep business license, and Utah's home kitchen permit for hot food in can you sell pizza from home.
The rules
| State | Rule |
|---|---|
| Michigan | Food that isn't time/temperature control for safety, including jams, candy, dried fruit, granola, dry mixes, vinegar, dried herbs and baked goods; not meat or poultry, milk products, beverages, salsa, or canned foods other than standardized jams (MCL 289.1105(k)); prepackaged, labeled with the home kitchen statement, sold straight to the consumer (MCL 289.4102) |
| Minnesota | Food that isn't potentially hazardous, and home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruits at pH 4.6 or lower or water activity 0.85 or less; registration every year and approved food safety training (Minn. Stat. 28A.152) |
| North Dakota | No state license for cottage food sold directly to an informed end consumer; foods that need refrigeration labeled with safe handling instructions and as transported and maintained frozen; no uninspected meat, poultry only from the seller's own birds (N.D.C.C. 23-09.5-02) |
| California | Cottage foods are nonpotentially hazardous foods on the approved list, among them baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, candy, chocolate-covered nonperishables, dried fruit, dried pasta, granola, herb blends, honey, standardized jams, nut butters, popcorn, vinegar and mustard, roasted coffee and dried tea (HSC 114365.5); Class A sells directly, Class B also through shops and restaurants (HSC 113758) |
| California: home meals | A microenterprise home kitchen operation can cook and sell meals the same day, 30 a day and 90 a week, up to $100,000 a year, where the city or county has opted in (HSC 113825) |
| Utah: home meals | A microenterprise home kitchen permit from the local health department allows hot and cold meals sold directly to consumers, same day or within 72 hours with temperature logs (Utah Code 26B-7-416) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a frozen burrito line in North Dakota
Dakota Dawn Burritos, a made-up home cook in Fargo, North Dakota, makes bean and cheese and egg and potato breakfast burritos, rolls them, cools them fast, wraps and freezes them, and labels each one as kept frozen with safe handling instructions. Coworkers order online and pick up frozen on Mondays. The chorizo burrito they asked for is a meat product, so it waits for a licensed shared kitchen. Packaging frozen food is in how to package frozen food for sale.
Get the checker
Download the home burrito checker. Two sheets: your products, whether each needs refrigeration, is meat or poultry, a milk product, a canned food other than jam, or a drink, and whether it's on California's list; how Michigan's, Minnesota's, North Dakota's and California's cottage food laws treat it fill in; and each state's rules as read for this article. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The rules decide what can be sold. Weekly orders, three fillings frozen on different days, and coworkers who want the same order every Monday are where the oldest burritos get missed.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot, and what each burrito costs.
Orders. Each customer's order goes in for its pickup or market day, with a picking list.
Each batch a lot. A batch of burritos is a batch from its recipe, with its date and lot, and the lot goes on each order it fills.
True cost. Each burrito is costed from its recipe and the batch, at what the ingredients actually cost.
| The job | Paper | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets what on market day | Order sheets | Orders by day |
| Which batch went to which customer | Not recorded | Lots on each order |
| What a burrito costs | A guess | True cost from the recipe and batch |
Orders, recipes and batches are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.