Tamales are a hard fit for cottage food law. Pork and chicken tamales are meat products, and cottage food laws exclude meat; bean, cheese and vegetable tamales are cooked masa, which needs temperature control. Michigan and Minnesota exclude both; California's approved list doesn't include them; North Dakota allows food that needs refrigeration if it's labeled and kept frozen, but not uninspected meat. So in North Dakota frozen bean and cheese tamales can be sold from home, and in the other three it takes a licensed kitchen, or another permit some states offer for home meals. In the example below, a North Dakota tamale maker sorts its holiday menu.
The short version
- Pork and chicken tamales are meat products: excluded from cottage food.
- Bean, cheese and vegetable tamales need temperature control.
- Michigan and Minnesota: no.
- California: not on the approved list; a home kitchen operation permit may fit where the county allows it.
- North Dakota: frozen, labeled tamales without meat, direct to the customer.
- Otherwise: a licensed or shared kitchen.
- TaroStack keeps each customer's order and each batch's lot. More below.
Tamales, state by state
| Product | Michigan | Minnesota | North Dakota | California |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pork red chile tamales | No: meat and poultry are excluded | No: potentially hazardous | No: uninspected meat | No: not on the list |
| Bean and cheese tamales, frozen | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
| Sweet pineapple tamales, frozen | No: needs temperature control | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
Pricing a dozen is in how to price tamales, and the frozen packs in how to package tamales for sale.
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 where the city or county allows it, with limits (HSC 113825) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a North Dakota holiday menu
Red River Tamales, a made-up home tamale maker in Grand Forks, North Dakota, takes holiday orders. Bean and cheese and sweet pineapple tamales are made, cooled, bagged by the dozen, frozen and labeled as kept frozen with safe handling instructions, and handed to customers frozen. The pork tamales customers asked for are meat, so they're made in a licensed shared kitchen with inspected pork, under a different license. Licenses for frozen food sold to shops are in license to sell frozen food.
Get the checker
Download the home tamale 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. Two hundred dozen in December, some from home and some from a shared kitchen, is where a pork dozen ends up in the wrong bag, or a frozen batch can't be told from last week's.
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.