The essentials
Wisconsin, at a glance
Qualifying home-baked goods and qualifying home-canned foods operate under different exemptions.
The baked-goods court orders cover direct consumer sales of finished foods that are not potentially hazardous. The Pickle Bill covers certain acidic or acidified canned fruits and vegetables, with a $5,000 annual per-person ceiling and much narrower selling locations. Do not carry a permission from one route into the other. In particular, a baker’s direct sale does not establish that a jar of homemade jam can be picked up at home.
Choose the route that fits
- Home-baked goods court-order exemption
- Unlicensed direct consumer sales of non-potentially hazardous foods baked in a home.
- Home-canned foods Pickle Bill exemption
- Separate limited exemption for qualifying acid or acidified home-canned fruits and vegetables.
View official sources (2)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
One step at a time
Your first 3 steps
Classify the product first
Write down what you make, where it is produced and how the final customer will receive it.
For the baked-goods route, the finished product must be non-potentially hazardous and baked at home. For canning, start with qualifying fruit or vegetables and the required acidity. A menu mixing cookies, jam and non-baked candy needs separate product decisions; the old ruling covering all shelf-stable homemade foods is no longer the current basis.
Resolve unfamiliar recipes and obligations
Use DATCP’s licensing contact before selling a borderline product, working from a commercial kitchen, or adding wholesale customers.
The current home-baker page does not settle every question about training, fees, renewal, label wording or carrier delivery. Treat those as questions to resolve for the actual operation, rather than taking silence as an exemption from every possible obligation.
Plan canned-food sales separately
Choose a Wisconsin farmers market, flea market, or qualifying community/social event for eligible canned foods.
Track annual sales against the $5,000 per-person limit. Prepare both the required jar label and separate sales sign. DATCP recommends preserving recipes, production and sales details, receipts and pH results so you can reconstruct the batch and monitor the limit.
View official sources (3)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
- 2024 WI App 69, November 19, 2024 Wisconsin Court of Appeals
Make what you love
Can you sell what you make?
These are examples. Check the complete recipe, preparation method and sales route before offering a product.
Home-baked cookies and bread
Check the conditionsA cookie or loaf may fit when made at home and safe without temperature control.
Baking does not automatically make a refrigerated filling safe. The agency looks at the finished ready-for-sale food, not merely whether the dough went through an oven. Dehydrator products do not become baked goods because heat was involved.
Canned salsa, jam and pickles
Check the conditionsDATCP lists fruit jams and jellies, salsas, chutneys, sauerkraut and similar fruit/vegetable products as examples within the canning route when pH is 4.6 or lower.
Refrigerator pickles are excluded from those examples. A low pH does not bring pickled eggs, lemon curd, meat, pesto or dressings into this exemption.
View official sources (2)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
From your kitchen to your customers
Where and how you can sell
| Selling method | What matters |
|---|---|
| Home pickup | The baker route requires direct sales to consumers. Do not generalize that to canned products: DATCP expressly prohibits selling Pickle Bill products out of your home. Resolve location-specific bakery arrangements with licensing staff if needed. |
| Markets and community events | Eligible canned foods may be sold directly at Wisconsin farmers markets, flea markets and community/social events. Qualifying baked goods remain direct consumer sales under their separate court-order route. Keep the canned-food sales sign visible and the jar labels complete. |
| Online orders | Internet sales are expressly prohibited for exempt home-canned foods. The bakery guidance establishes direct consumer sales but does not expressly resolve every online-ordering model. Have DATCP confirm the proposed bakery model before treating it as an unrestricted online-sales permission. |
| Delivery and shipping | Canned-food sales are limited to the specified Wisconsin venues and cannot be internet or out-of-state sales. The current home-baker guidance does not expressly establish carrier shipping or delivery-platform permissions; ask about the exact fulfillment arrangement and destination. |
| Wholesale and consignment | A bakery supplying resellers must be licensed. Pickle Bill products cannot be wholesaled or sold on consignment. Switching from direct retail to a café account is therefore a licensing decision, even when the recipe is unchanged. |
View official sources (2)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
Your label, explained
Every field has a purpose.
Use the example to understand the structure. Follow the Wisconsin requirements below for your product and sales route.
Fruit
preserves
Your product name and actual net quantity
Your complete recipe and supplier ingredients
Operation or producer name; full business address (see state notes)
The statement for your state, product and sales route
Eligible canned foods · not the separate baking route
A guide to the fields, not a ready-to-print label. Use your actual product and business details.
Name it. Measure it.
Identify your product and its actual net quantity. Check the state’s formatting and unit requirements below.
Use your actual recipe.
Check every ingredient and supplier label. Use the applicable ingredient and allergen declarations for your product.
Identify your operation.
Operation or producer name; full business address (see state notes)
Use the wording for your route.
Requirements can differ by product and sales channel. Keep the disclosure, placement and type-size conditions together.
Illustrative canned-jam label
Assume an eligible fruit jam sold at a permitted Wisconsin market: identify the jam; show the canner’s actual name and address, canning date and complete ingredient list in descending order, including allergen sources.
Add the official private-home statement quoted below. This is a worked example for the canned-food route, not a claim that the same mandatory wording applies to a baker.
Required canned-food sales sign
These canned goods are homemade and not subject to state inspection.
Required canned-food package statement
This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection.
The wording for your label
Eligible canned foods · not the separate baking route
This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection.
View official sources (1)
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
A useful head start
Your Wisconsin label kit.
Editable template, example label and starting checklist.
Personalize it for your products and business.
Enter your email. Get the files immediately.
Before your first sale
A few details worth getting right.
An example
Cookies and jam at one market
Imagine bringing qualifying home-baked cookies and qualifying canned fruit jam to a Wisconsin farmers market.
Apply the bakery direct-sale conditions to the cookies and the Pickle Bill conditions to the jam. Keep a separate jam sales tally for the $5,000 annual per-person limit, put the required information on every jar and display the canned-food sign. Do not offer later home pickup of leftover jam under this exemption.
Relying on the reversed expansion
The December 2022 ruling that expanded home production beyond baked goods was reversed in November 2024.
Shelf stability alone does not establish an exemption for non-baked candy, dry mixes or other products. Identify a current legal route before selling them.
Using bakery channels for jam
Home pickup, internet sales and consignment are expressly excluded for Pickle Bill products.
A direct relationship with the buyer does not erase the canned-food venue restrictions.
Calling recommended records mandatory
DATCP suggests detailed batch and sales records and recommends testing finished acidified foods.
Preserve those practical safeguards, but distinguish agency recommendations from the pH limit and label requirements that actually condition the exemption.
View official sources (3)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
- 2024 WI App 69, November 19, 2024 Wisconsin Court of Appeals
A few more answers
Common questions
Is the $5,000 limit for every home baker?
The verified $5,000 annual per-person limit belongs to the home-canned exemption. Do not apply it to baked goods simply because both foods are homemade. The baker page defines its own eligibility conditions and does not state a sales ceiling.
View sources for this answer (2)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
Can I sell to a local café?
Wholesaling baked goods requires licensing, and canned-food wholesale is not permitted under the Pickle Bill. Ask DATCP about the licensed route before agreeing to regular café supply or putting products on someone else’s resale shelf.
View sources for this answer (2)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
Keep it handy
Your first-sale checklist
Use this free checklist to keep track of your next steps. The conditions in this guide still apply.
0 of 3 completed · Restoring progress…
Official guidance
Sources, updates & your next step
Start with the two DATCP pages
Read both official program pages if your menu includes baked and canned foods. For a recipe or sales model outside the stated scope, contact DATCP licensing at (608) 224-4923. Recheck the guidance when court decisions or legislation change; the current baker page explicitly warns that litigation can affect the rules.
Official sources 3 references
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods →
Wisconsin DATCP · Reviewed September 14, 2026
- Home-Canned Foods →
Wisconsin DATCP · Reviewed September 14, 2026
- 2024 WI App 69, November 19, 2024 →
Wisconsin Court of Appeals · Reviewed September 14, 2026
Guide updates September 14, 2026
Reviewed Wisconsin’s product eligibility, sales routes, starting requirements and label guidance against the official sources below. Current conditions and any dated changes are explained in the relevant sections of this guide.
View sources for this update (3)
- Licenses and Homemade Baked Goods Wisconsin DATCP
- Home-Canned Foods Wisconsin DATCP
- 2024 WI App 69, November 19, 2024 Wisconsin Court of Appeals
This guide is a starting point. Confirm requirements for your products and location with the relevant authority. Examples are illustrative and are not a compliance approval.