North Dakota's cottage food law, N.D.C.C. chapter 23-09.5, is short and broad. Baked goods, jams, jellies and other food and drink made in a home kitchen can be sold with no license, permit, inspection, packaging or labeling requirement from any state agency or local government, as long as the sale is directly to an informed end consumer for home consumption: at a farm, ranch, farmers market, farm stand, your home, anywhere else the law allows, or by delivery. Foods that need refrigeration, like custard kuchen or cheesecake, are allowed too, if they're kept and transported frozen with safe handling instructions. Uninspected meat is out, except poultry you raise yourself, up to 1,000 birds a year, and nothing goes to restaurants or stores. Every sale needs a sign or label with one sentence. In the example below, a Dickinson baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the sign and label, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No license, permit, certification, inspection, packaging or labeling requirement from the state or local government.
- Sell directly to informed end consumers for home consumption: farm, ranch, farmers market, farm stand, home, delivery.
- Tell every buyer the food isn't certified, labeled, licensed, packaged, regulated or inspected.
- Refrigerated items, such as cream, custard or meringue pies, cheesecake and pumpkin pie, are sold frozen with safe handling instructions.
- No uninspected meat; own-raised poultry only, up to 1,000 birds a year, not across state lines.
- Not sold or used in a food establishment, food processing plant or food store.
- A sign or label: "This product is made in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the state or local health department."
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What chapter 23-09.5 says |
|---|---|
| Cottage food operator | An individual producing in a kitchen designed for the residents of a private home |
| Products | Baked goods, jams, jellies, and other food and drink |
| No requirements | No state or local licensure, permitting, certification, inspection, packaging or labeling |
| Sales | Directly between the operator and an informed end consumer, for home consumption |
| Where | Farm, ranch, farmers market, farm stand, home-based kitchen, other lawful venues, or delivery |
| Meat | No uninspected meat products; uninspected poultry only from up to 1,000 birds you raised, not across state lines |
| Food businesses | Except whole produce, not sold or used in a food establishment, food processing plant or food store |
| Refrigerated items | Labeled with safe handling instructions and a disclosure that they were transported and kept frozen |
| Complaints | The Department of Health and Human Services or a local authority can investigate an illness complaint |
The law is chapter 23-09.5. This is general information, not legal advice.
The sign and label
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Sign at the point of sale, or a label | "This product is made in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the state or local health department." |
| Every sale | Tell the buyer the food isn't certified, labeled, licensed, packaged, regulated or inspected |
| Refrigerated items | Safe handling instructions, and that the product was transported and maintained frozen |
The law asks for nothing more, but your name, the ingredients and the allergens are what a buyer with an allergy needs. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Dickinson baker
Badlands Bakehouse, a made-up cottage food operator in Dickinson, North Dakota, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market and delivers orders around town:
| Product | Allowed? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Juneberry jam | Yes | Shelf-stable |
| Custard kuchen | Yes, frozen | Kept and delivered frozen, with safe handling instructions |
| Chickens from its own flock | Yes | Under 1,000 own-raised birds |
| Beef jerky | No | Uninspected meat isn't allowed |
| Bars for a coffee shop | No | Not for food establishments or stores |
| Lefse | Yes | Frozen, with the disclosure, if it needs refrigeration |
The kuchen goes to the market in a freezer chest, each box labeled "Keep frozen; thaw in the refrigerator" with the frozen disclosure. By September Badlands Bakehouse had sold $25,700, and North Dakota sets no limit. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business, and which foods need refrigeration in TCS foods list.
Get the checklist
Download the North Dakota cottage food checklist. Three sheets: the sign and disclosures, each with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and how; and sales by month. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The law asks little on paper, so the records are yours to keep. Frozen kuchen delivered across town and jam at the market: if one customer calls about a box, which batch it was, when it was made, and who else got it is the answer that matters.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went.
Each batch dated. A batch of kuchen gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Where it went. Delivered and market orders record the lots each customer got, so one recall report shows where a batch went; TaroStack connects to Square for market sales.
Ingredients by lot. Ingredients are received with their lots, so a supplier's recall of an ingredient points to the batches that used it.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the box | The batch's lot and dates |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
| Which batches used a recalled ingredient | Guessed | Traced from the ingredient's lot |
Lots, batches, receiving, orders and lot labels 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.