Selling homemade food in North Dakota
North Dakota's Food Freedom Act is about as permissive as it gets: no license, no inspection, no sales cap, and it even allows home-raised poultry and locally-sold perishables that most states ban outright. A 2025 law (SB 2386) removed the old bans on online sales, phone orders, mail, consignment, and interstate shipping - you can now ship shelf-stable goods across state lines (destination state's laws still apply). The one line that hasn't moved: nothing needing refrigeration can be shipped, only sold, picked up, or delivered locally.
You can sell
- Baked goods, including perishable/refrigerated items for local sale (cheesecake, custard pies, cream-filled pastries)
- Jams, jellies, preserves
- Candy
- Fresh produce, frozen produce (blanched)
- Home-cooked meals and nonalcoholic beverages
- Fresh eggs
- Home-raised poultry and poultry products (capped at 1,000 birds/year)
You can't sell
- Store-bought meat and meat products (home-raised poultry is the one meat-adjacent exception)
- Low-acid canned foods
- Pet food
- Cannabis-infused products
- Alcohol-infused products (except baked goods where the alcohol fully cooks off)
- Shipping anything that needs refrigeration - perishables must be sold/picked up/delivered locally, never shipped
Where you can sell
- Direct to consumer
- Farmers markets
- On-farm sales
- Online and phone orders
- Mail, parcel, and interstate shipping (shelf-stable/non-perishable items only)
- Consignment
Selling online
One of the most permissive laws in the country. Before 2025, North Dakota barred home producers from shipping, online sales, phone sales, and consignment entirely. SB 2386, signed March 21, 2025 with an emergency clause (effective immediately), removed those bans: online, phone, mail, consignment, and even interstate shipping of shelf-stable goods are now allowed (check the receiving state's own law before shipping there). Anything needing refrigeration still can't be shipped - local sale, pickup, or direct delivery only.
What your labels must include
- Producer name & address
- "This product is homemade and exempt from state licensing and inspection" statement (commonly cited phrasing; confirm exact wording in NDCC 23-09.5 rules before printing)
- Ingredient list
- Allergen disclosure
- Net weight
- Perishable items: bold-caps "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS" plus product-specific handling text (e.g., "KEEP REFRIGERATED")