Muffins are baked goods, the heart of every cottage food law: blueberry, banana nut and corn muffins keep at room temperature, so Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and California allow them. What changes the answer is a cream cheese filling or a cream topping that needs the fridge, which takes those out, except frozen and labeled in North Dakota. The other question is where they're sold: most of these laws mean selling to the person who eats them, and North Dakota bars cottage foods from food establishments, so a coffee shop reselling them isn't allowed there. In the example below, a North Dakota home baker sorts its list.
The short version
- Muffins are baked goods: cottage foods in all four states here.
- Cream cheese fillings and cream toppings need the fridge.
- North Dakota allows refrigerated items frozen and labeled.
- North Dakota cottage foods can't be sold to a coffee shop or other food establishment.
- Label wheat, milk and eggs, and nuts if used.
- California's Class B permit allows sales through shops.
- TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot. More below.
Muffins, state by state
| Product | Michigan | Minnesota | North Dakota | California |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blueberry muffin | Yes | Yes, registered | Yes | Yes, on the list |
| Banana nut muffin | Yes | Yes, registered | Yes | Yes, on the list |
| Muffin with cream cheese filling | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
The business beyond home is in muffin business plan, and what a muffin sells for in how to price muffins.
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) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a North Dakota coffee shop question
Sakakawea Sweets, the made-up home baker in Bismarck, North Dakota, I use in these examples, added blueberry and banana nut muffins to its market table, labeled with the home kitchen statement. A coffee shop asked to buy two dozen a week; North Dakota's cottage food law doesn't allow cottage food to be sold to a food establishment, so the shop waits for a licensed kitchen. The cream cheese muffins are sold frozen and labeled, as the law allows. North Dakota's rules in full are in north dakota cottage food laws.
Get the checker
Download the home muffins 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. Three kinds of muffin, frozen and fresh, at a market and by order, are where a frozen batch gets mixed with a fresh one.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot, and what each dozen 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 dozens is a batch from its recipe, with its date and lot, and the lot goes on each order it fills.
True cost. Each dozen 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 dozen 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.