Mississippi Cottage Food: $35,000 Sales Cap, No Internet or Wholesale Sales, Inspection Only on Complaint

The section sits alone in Article 21 of Title 75, Chapter 29, and it was created by Laws 2013, ch. 481, § 1, effective on passage on April 1, 2013. The $35,000.00 ceiling is not the original figure: Laws 2020, ch. 383, § 1, effective July 1, 2020, raised it and at the same time opened Internet advertising. Subsection (1)(b) closes the obvious workaround by defining the ceiling broadly. Annual gross sales include all sales of cottage food products at any location, regardless of the types of products sold or the number of persons involved in the operation, so splitting a business between a farmers market stall and a church craft fair, or across two family members, does not create two allowances. The operation must give the department written documentation to verify its annual gross sales on request.

Subsection (2) sets the channel restrictions, and they are stricter than the marketing rules many producers assume. A cottage food operation may not sell over the Internet, may not sell by mail order, and may not sell at wholesale or to a retail establishment. Internet advertising, including through social media, is expressly not prohibited, which is the distinction the 2020 amendment drew: you may promote online and take the order in person, but the transaction cannot be an online sale. The same subsection defines the product boundary by delegation rather than by list, saying only that cottage food products are nonpotentially hazardous food products "as defined by the department."

That delegation is why the department's published list matters. The MSDH Cottage Food Operation frequently asked questions document, revised September 2023, allows baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, candy, chocolate-covered nonperishable foods except melons, dried fruit except melons, dried pasta, dried spices, dry baking mixes, granola, cereal and trail mixes, dry rubs, fruit pies, jams, jellies and preserves meeting 21 CFR part 150, nut mixes, popcorn, vinegar and mustard, waffle cones, and acidified products meeting 21 CFR part 114. It excludes meat, fish, poultry, dairy products including custard pies, eggs other than air-dried hard-cooked eggs with intact shells, cooked vegetables, raw seed sprouts, sliced melons, garlic and other fresh herbs in oil, cooked potatoes, legumes, beans, nut butters, juices and rice. The same document states that products must be made in the home kitchen and stored in the single-family domestic residence, not in a shed, barn or rented kitchen, that cottage foods may be sold only in Mississippi and only person to person with the producer present, that consignment placement in a store or restaurant is not allowed, and that a cottage food operator may not operate as a caterer because caterers need a retail permit.

One currency warning is worth having before you rely on a Mississippi web page. MSDH's own food regulations index still describes the cottage food question-and-answer document as covering "home food producers with sales less than $20,000 a year," while the statute and the linked September 2023 document both use $35,000. Where the two disagree, § 75-29-951(1)(a) is the enacted figure.

Labelling is set out in subsection (3) and is mandatory on every prepackaged item: the name and address of the cottage food operation, the name of the product, the ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, the net weight or net volume, allergen information as specified by federal labelling requirements, appropriate federal nutritional information if any nutritional claim is made, and the ten-point contrasting-colour statement that the food was made in a cottage food operation not subject to Mississippi's food safety regulations. Subsection (4) preserves every federal tax law, rule, regulation and certificate that would otherwise apply, and subsection (6) makes clear the whole section is irrelevant to anyone already holding a food permit issued under § 41-3-18.

Oversight is complaint-driven by design. Under § 75-29-951(5)(a) the department may investigate a complaint that a cottage food operation has violated the section or a rule adopted under it, and under (5)(b) an authorised officer or employee may enter and inspect the premises only upon receipt of a complaint. 00, imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or both. 00, imprisonment of up to ninety days, or both. 00; the statutory ceilings just described are lower, so a producer should read the agency figure as the department's summary and the code sections as the enacted limits.

00 in annual gross sales does not create a fine of its own; it removes the exemption, which means the operation then needs a food permit under § 41-3-18 like any other food establishment.