Michigan Has No Home Kitchen Permit; Only a Bed and Breakfast Escapes

The Food Law of 2000 leaves exactly two doors out of licensure. MCL 289.4101(1) reads: "Except as provided in sections 4102 and 4105, a person shall not operate a food establishment unless licensed by the department as a food establishment." Section 4102 is the Cottage Food Law and section 4105 is a list of exempt persons and operations. Neither creates a home kitchen permit, and no third route exists, so a Michigan resident who wants to sell cooked meals from a residence has to fit one of those two sections or get a food service establishment license.

Cottage food does not reach hot food. MCL 289.1105(k) defines a cottage food product as food that is not time and temperature control for safety food, and MCL 289.4102(2) requires cottage food products to be prepackaged and properly labeled before sale, with subsection (6) requiring them to be stored only in the primary domestic residence. A plated dinner, a tray of enchiladas or a pot of soup fails all three tests. The sales ceiling is $50,000.00 a year, or $75,000.00 where products are priced at $250.00 or more per unit, until October 1, 2026, after which MCL 289.4102(5) lets the department index those figures each October 1 to the Detroit Consumer Price Index. That cap is computed per person at a particular domestic residence, so two people cooking in one house do not each get a fresh limit.

The exemption list in MCL 289.4105(1) is where a home kitchen scheme would live if Michigan had one, and it is worth reading in full because its shape is the proof. It covers establishments licensed under the grain dealers act and the milk laws, a person offering only whole uncut fresh fruits and vegetables, consumer and grower nonprofit cooperatives, retail outlets for Michigan honey or maple syrup below the cottage food sales limit, a temporary food establishment using only single-service articles and serving only non-potentially-hazardous food, a retail food establishment selling only prepackaged non-hazardous food, a mobile establishment such as an ice cream truck offering only prepackaged single-serving frozen desserts, a nonprofit trade association event closed to the general public, a commercial fishing guide serving lunch to a party of not more than 12 clients on the water, soft drink and packaged snack vending machines, feeding operations set up in response to an emergency or disaster, uncut produce warehouses owned by the grower, and an individual operating a location under 1978 PA 260. Not one of them describes a residence cooking meals for paying customers. The list was last touched by 2025 PA 42 and 2025 PA 43, both effective March 24, 2026, and the version now in force still contains no residential carve-out.

The genuine Michigan exception sits in the definition itself. MCL 289.1107(t)(ii) says a food service establishment does not include "A bed and breakfast that has 10 or fewer sleeping rooms for rent." MCL 289.1105(d) then defines a bed and breakfast as a private residence offering sleeping accommodations to transient tenants in 14 or fewer rooms for rent, which "is the innkeeper's residence where the innkeeper resides while renting the rooms to transient tenants, and serves breakfasts, or other meals in the case of a bed and breakfast described in section 1107(t)(ii), at no extra cost to its transient tenants." Read together, an owner-occupied Michigan bed and breakfast renting 10 or fewer rooms may cook and serve full meals, not just breakfast, out of its own home kitchen without a food service establishment license. Three conditions bind it: the innkeeper has to live there, the guests have to be transient tenants renting rooms, and the meals have to be included at no extra cost. Charging separately for dinner, or opening the dining room to the public, takes the operation straight back under MCL 289.4101(1). At 11 to 14 rooms the exemption narrows to continental breakfasts only under MCL 289.1107(t)(iii), and above 14 rooms the property is not a bed and breakfast at all.

One more home-prepared route exists, and it is charitable rather than commercial. MCL 289.1107(p)(i) removes from the definition of food establishment "A charitable, religious, fraternal, or other nonprofit organization operating a home-prepared baked goods sale or serving only home-prepared food in connection with its meetings or as part of a fund-raising event." Michigan is unusual in extending that beyond baked goods to home-prepared food generally, so a church supper or a fire department fundraiser can serve food cooked in members' kitchens. It does not stretch to a standing weekly meal service, because the exemption is tied to the organization's own meetings or a fundraising event.

Enforcement runs through the county rather than Lansing. MCL 289.3105(1) requires the department to delegate enforcement of the food service establishment requirements to local health departments that meet the program criteria, and those departments enforce the act in the manner provided by part 24 of the public health code. Late fees under section 4113, administrative fines under section 5105 and criminal fines under section 5107 are specifically not delegated and stay with the state. That delegation is also why there is no statewide price for the licence: MCL 289.4111(1) lists flat figures for other categories, such as $183.00 for a retail grocery and $70.00 for a temporary food establishment, but subdivision (j) sends food service establishments to subsection (2), under which the department sets a fee only if a local health department stops running its food service program. Ask your county health department for its current schedule.

Local governments cannot invent their own version either way. MCL 289.4101(3) provides that "a city, county, or other local unit of government shall not adopt or enforce licensing ordinances or regulations for persons regulated under this act," so a Michigan township cannot create a local home kitchen permit any more than it can waive the state licence. Zoning is a separate question and survives: MCL 289.4102(7) says a cottage food exemption does not affect any applicable ordinances enacted by a local unit of government, which is how home occupation rules, parking limits and signage restrictions still bite. Note finally that MCL 289.1107 is scheduled to be amended effective 91 days after the 2026 regular session adjourns sine die. The published amended text keeps the same bed and breakfast carve-outs word for word and still adds no home kitchen category.

00, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both. 5107(3) adds that on conviction the court must assess the department's investigation costs against the defendant, and those costs are deposited into the dairy and food safety fund. 00 plus twice any economic benefit from the violation. 5107 remain with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. 4102(1) exemption and is simply an unlicensed food establishment.