Michigan Cottage Food Law Label Requirements: Seven Steps

Everything below comes from MDARD's own pages, checked against the live pages on 7 October 2026. Rules change, so confirm with MDARD before you print.

Here is the order MDARD uses in its own sample label.

Step 1: Your name and the physical address of your home kitchen

MDARD says the label carries the name and physical address of the cottage food operation. It must be the physical address of your home kitchen, and post office box addresses are not allowed. The department says the address is there so it can find the business in a recall or when it traces a food illness complaint.

The same page says the voluntary registration through the Michigan State University (MSU) Product Center would let an operation print its unique registration number and a telephone number in place of its full home address. The name stays on the label. That is optional, and MDARD's page is the place to read how it works.

Step 2: The name of the product

Name the product plainly, such as Chocolate Chip Cookie. Per MDARD, all capital letters or upper and lower case are both acceptable.

Step 3: Ingredients in descending order by weight

List the ingredients from heaviest to lightest by weight. If you use a prepared item, such as soy sauce, you must list its sub-ingredients too. On soy sauce, MDARD says "soy sauce" is not acceptable and "soy sauce (wheat, soybeans, salt)" is.

You must list all of your ingredients. According to MDARD, there is no trade-secret exception, and no laboratory analysis is needed to get an official list. You write it yourself from your recipe and the packages.

Step 4: Net weight or net volume, with the metric equivalent

The label shows the net weight or net volume and must include the metric equivalent. MDARD's sample reads "Net Wt. 3 oz (85.05 g)". For a dozen cookies at 2 ounces each, that is 24 ounces, or 680 grams (24 × 28.35 = 680.4).

Weigh a finished package on your scale. Do not trust the recipe yield.

Step 5: Allergens, with the exact tree nut named

Allergen labeling follows federal requirements, per MDARD. You have two choices. Put the allergen inside the ingredient list, as in "whole wheat flour", or add a Contains statement after the list. If you add a Contains statement, it must list every allergen in the product.

If a food has tree nuts, name which one. In MDARD's words, "almonds" is acceptable and "nuts" is not.

MDARD's page lists milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, fish and tree nuts. The FDA says that as of January 1, 2023, sesame must be labeled as an allergen on packaged foods, so check federal rules as well.

Step 6: The home-kitchen statement in 11-point type

MDARD names one sentence: "Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development". It must be at least the equivalent of 11-point font, about 1/8 inch tall, and in a color that contrasts clearly with the background. All capital letters or upper and lower case are both acceptable.

Copy the sentence from MDARD's page each time you reprint. Do not shorten it or reword it.

Step 7: Cakes you cannot label, and hand-printed labels

A wedding cake has nowhere to put a sticker. MDARD says that for wedding cakes, birthday cakes and other specialty cakes that are not easily packaged, you must put all the labeling requirements on the invoice. Then you must deliver the invoice with the cake. Smaller cakes must be boxed, and the label must go on the box.

Hand-printed labels are accepted if they are clearly legible, written in durable permanent ink, and large enough to match the type size above.

A cottage food label answers one question for a stranger: who made this, and what is in it.

Michigan cottage food law label requirements: who they cover

Cottage food producers may sell up to $50,000 a year in gross sales, or $75,000 if the products sell for $250 or more a unit, according to MDARD. Sales go directly to the consumer, within Michigan. MDARD's allowed-foods list includes cakes and cookies, and it rules out cakes with a frosting that needs refrigeration, such as cream cheese frosting. Sales terms and food lists are on the selling page.

Where the Cottage Food Label workbook fits

The Cottage Food Label workbook has a Details tab for the product, ingredients, allergens, net weight, your name and address and the statement, and a Label tab that prints from them. It supplies no legal wording. It does not make a label compliant, and it does not check your text against MDARD's page.

The workbook also has a best before date field. Michigan's label page lists no date line, so you can leave that field empty. MDARD's page shows a sample label rather than a template. Copy its pattern, not its words. The workbook's How to use tab names no app menu, only the Details and Label tabs. So the steps read the same in Excel and in Google Sheets.

You can lay out a Michigan label in a word processor for nothing, and MDARD's page costs nothing. The workbook costs $5.99 and helps if you reprint often and want your details in one file. Ask MDARD at 800-292-3939 if anything on your label is unclear.