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Michigan HB 5704 Michigan  ●  2022 Bills

Cottage Food Bill

This bill has not yet passed

Would allow products to be sold online and be shipped.

Would also allow products to be sold in food service establishments.

Would also remove the $25k sales limit.

Allows a producer to use a registration number on labels instead of their name and home address.

Bill Dates
Started
February 2022

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Comments

Hello again! So the newest version looks like it is the result of the agrigultural committee making changes. It isn’t as great as the original version. I am pretty sure this is the most recent recommended bill for voting, and I am not entirely sure when it will be voted on.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(rtlf0mgl1g4bwe5cycvmur0x))/documents/2021-2022/billcurrentversion/House/PDF/2022-HCVBS-5671-0N295.pdf

Under these changes, the gross sales limit would be increased to $40k, online and food delivery service would be allowed as long as the customer has an opportunity to video chat, or chat face to face with the seller, and the business can register with the MDARD or Michigan State University to get the number to put on their labels instead of their home address.

The bill in this form actually specifically calls out consignment and wholesale as being prohibited, so perhaps that changed from the original bill? Michigan’s version of the cottage food law, to me, has always seemed like it is replacing the normal food safety requirements with a face to face meeting – so the consumer knows exactly who they purchased the food from in case of some ill effect from it. This bill seems to be an effort to modernize with modern technology for meeting people, as well as a concession that $25k in gross sales is not very much…

In some of the variations I read from the original up until this current version, it looks like $100k was the proposal, which got changed to $40k in NET sales, and now seems to be $40k in GROSS sales. better than a sharp stick in the eye I guess!

I appreciate the comment back! I am still hopeful this passes, it would really do wonders for increasing the window of opportunity for me to bootstrap my way out of my day job and make a real go at coffee roasting. Getting into a commercial kitchen and getting licensed is still going to be the end game in order to scale, but something like this law feels like it adds a couple of stepping stones before I would really have to make that leap.

    Thanks again! The bill you linked to is HB 5671, but I see that this bill also has proposed amendments. Since these proposals can change so often, I’ll wait to update this page until something gets passed in the house or senate. If you could let me know when that happens via these comments, that would be great!

Hello David! I’ve been a fringe member of this community for a while now, and yesterday I decided on a whim to check out the cottage food laws page and to my absolute delight, found there is a law being discussed in Michigan that would allow me to sell my coffee online! I have been digging into it more, and there are a couple things I think should be worth correcting on your information page here.
1 – the $25,000 gross sales limit is being proposed to increase to $100,000 (with provisions to increase or decrease after 2024 based on a consumer price index) – this part appears to be under some debate as far as I can tell.
2 – Being able to sell product online has a condition that the customer is able to interact fact to face with the seller. Before this had to be in person, under the proposed changes, this could be via video chat.
3 – I cannot find anything in the proposed bill that would allow cottage food to be allowed to be sold in food establishments. However, under the proposed law, it WOULD be allowed to be delivered by a food delivery service (ie uber eats/door dash, etc). Consignment and wholesale would still be prohibited under the cottage food law.
4 – the registration number is correct. It would require registering with a department (likely through Michigan State University) and may or may not require a one time $50 admin fee.
Finally – for further clarification – HB5704 is the bill that defines what a food delivery service is. HB 5671 is the actual bill that is proposing the primary changes. These bills are tied together though, in that both need to pass together.

Hope this is helpful, and thank you for all you do!!

    Thanks Steve!

    First off, I didn’t go into details in my summary above (for instance, the face-to-face thing). I would put all the details on Michigan’s law page once this bill was passed and went into effect.

    However, I’m wondering if you’re getting this bill confused with HB 5671, which is on this page: https://forrager.com/bill/michigan-hb-5671/

    That’s the bill that specifies an increase to $100k. This bill states: “Cottage food products may be sold in food service establishments and directly…”

    I’m just looking at the bill that was introduced. Is there a new version that I’m missing?

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