Whether a honey business needs a license depends on two things: your state, and whether the honey is still raw. States often treat a beekeeper who extracts and jars their own raw honey differently from a food processor, and Wisconsin, the example's state, spells it out: a place a beekeeper uses only to extract honey from the comb, or to produce and sell raw honey and raw bee products, isn't a food processing plant, so it needs no food processing license. A farm stand selling mostly its own honey, produce, cider or maple syrup needs no retail food license either. The line moves the day you add something. Hot honey, cinnamon honey, honey with fruit or herbs are no longer raw honey; they're processed food, and in Wisconsin that means a food processing plant license, renewed every year. The usual business layers apply either way: a registered name, tax registrations, and labels with the net weight and your name and address. In the example below, a Wisconsin beekeeper works out what changes when it adds hot honey.
The short version
- Licensing for honey is set by your state, and depends on whether the honey is raw.
- Wisconsin: a beekeeper extracting and selling raw honey and raw bee products isn't a food processing plant.
- A stand selling mostly its own honey and produce needs no Wisconsin retail food license.
- Hot honey, infused or flavored honey is processed food: a food processing license.
- The business layers still apply: name, tax, labels.
- Check your own state's agriculture department before you add a product.
- TaroStack keeps each extraction as a lot, and each hot honey batch as a batch that uses it. More below.
The layers
| Layer | Raw honey | Hot honey or infused honey |
|---|---|---|
| Business name and registration | Yes | Yes |
| Tax registrations | As your state requires | As your state requires |
| State food processing license | Often exempt for the beekeeper's own raw honey | Usually needed: it's processed food |
| Retail food license at your own stand | Often exempt for your own honey | Check: other processing can end the exemption |
| Labels | Name, net weight, your name and address | Plus ingredients and allergens |
How honey is labeled is in how to label honey for sale, and the rest of the startup in how to start a honey business.
The rules, in Wisconsin
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Beekeeper exemption | A place used by a beekeeper solely for extracting honey from the comb, or producing and selling raw honey or raw bee products, isn't a food processing plant (Wis. Stat. 97.29(1)(g)8) |
| Processing license | Every food processing plant is licensed; licenses expire March 31 (97.29(2)(a)) |
| Retail exemption | No retail food license for an establishment primarily selling its own produce, honey, cider or maple syrup and doing no other food processing (97.30(2)(b)1.b) |
Other states draw the line in other places, some with a hive or sales cap. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a beekeeper adds hot honey
Kettle Moraine Apiary, a made-up beekeeper with 60 hives near West Bend, Wisconsin, extracts and jars its own wildflower honey and cuts comb honey, sold at its farm stand, two farmers markets and three shops. A shop asked for hot honey:
| Product | Raw? | Wisconsin food processing license? |
|---|---|---|
| Wildflower honey, 12 oz jar | Yes | No: the beekeeper exemption |
| Cut comb honey, 8 oz box | Yes, a raw bee product | No |
| Hot honey, chili-infused, 8 oz | No: chili added | Yes |
The raw honey and comb stay under the exemption, and the stand keeps its retail exemption as long as it isn't processing food there. The hot honey is made in a licensed shared kitchen instead of the honey house, under that kitchen's arrangement for its users, so the honey house stays a raw-honey operation. The hot honey's label adds an ingredient list, "Honey, chili peppers, vinegar". The owner checked with the state agriculture department before the first batch, since how a shared kitchen covers its users is the department's call. Hot honey's own recipe and margins are in hot honey business plan.
Get the checklist
Download the honey business license checklist. One sheet: each layer, who issues it, what it is, whether you need it, what it cost, the date done and when it renews; the status shows done, to do, not needed or renewal due. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The checklist covers the licenses. The jars are another matter: each extraction is a different batch of honey, the hot honey uses some of it, and a shop asking which jars came from which harvest needs records that run from hive to shelf.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each extraction as a lot, and each hot honey batch as a batch that uses it.
Each extraction a lot. An extraction is recorded as a lot with its date, so jars of July wildflower and September goldenrod stay apart.
Batches that use the honey. A hot honey batch takes honey from a lot, plus chili and vinegar, and gets its own lot, so the trace runs from the extraction to the hot honey jar.
Sites. The honey house and the shared kitchen can each be a site, with honey moved between them shown in transit.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which extraction a jar came from | A date on the lid | Lots with dates |
| Honey used in a hot honey batch | Not recorded | A batch that uses the lot |
| Honey moved to the shared kitchen | Not recorded | A transfer between sites |
| Which shops got a lot | Invoices | One recall report |
Lots, batches and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard, at $99 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.