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Selling homemade food in North Dakota means your label has to follow the North Dakota Century Code ch. 23-09.5, "Cottage Food Production and Sales" (esp. § 23-09.5-02) — the codified successor to the 2017 Food Freedom Act; the ND Department of Health & Human Services / local regulating authority may only investigate upon an illness or environmental-health complaint (§ 23-09.5-02(9)), not license or inspect. Here is exactly what that label must show in 2026 — the required fields, the allergen rule, and the verbatim disclaimer and its font size — sourced to the statute and dated.
Print this statement on the label, word for word:
Verbatim statutory wording under N.D.C.C. § 23-09.5-02(8). The operator may satisfy it EITHER by displaying a consumer-advisory sign at the point of sale OR by placing the statement as a label on the product — a printed label is not strictly mandatory. No minimum font size, color, or placement is specified. Note a distinct duty under subsection (5): the operator must also inform the end consumer that the food is 'not certified, labeled, licensed, packaged, regulated, or inspected.' For shipped/mailed orders where there is no physical point of sale, put the advisory on the product so it travels with the food.
North Dakota is one of the most permissive homemade-food states: N.D.C.C. § 23-09.5-02(1) forbids any state agency or political subdivision from requiring licensure, permitting, certification, inspection, packaging, OR labeling for qualifying cottage food. The only labeling-adjacent obligation is the advisory statement in subsection (8) — and even that can be met with a point-of-sale sign instead of a printed label. No permit, no registration number, no fee.
§ 23-09.5-02(8) lets you post the exact advisory sentence on a sign at the point of sale instead of printing a label, but the disclosure itself is mandatory. For shipped or mailed orders with no physical point of sale, the statement must travel with the product, so put it on the label.
§ 23-09.5-02(2) limits transactions to direct operator-to-informed-end-consumer for home consumption, and subsection (4) prohibits cottage food (except whole unprocessed fruits/vegetables) from being sold or used in any food establishment, food processing plant, or food store. Reselling through a retailer is outside the exemption entirely; interstate or wholesale sale then drops you under federal FDA labeling (name, net weight, ingredients by weight, allergens, producer address).
§ 23-09.5-02(7): products needing refrigeration (cream, custard, meringue, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, cream cheese) are allowed but must carry safe-handling instructions AND a disclosure that the product was transported and maintained frozen — easy to forget because the base law is otherwise so bare.
State law forces no allergen or ingredient declaration, so many sellers omit it. The food-freedom exemption is a regulatory shield, not a shield against civil liability for an undisclosed allergen — voluntarily list the major allergens.
Timeline: Immediate — no application, approval, registration, or waiting period. You can label and sell the same day you decide to start.
Cost: $0 — no permit required (no license, registration, certification, inspection, or fee for qualifying direct, in-state, home-consumption sales)
Cottage food laws get revised, and a new disclaimer or font size can quietly make your label non-compliant. Leave your email and we'll write to you only when North Dakota's cottage food label rules change. Nothing else, ever — and you can unsubscribe from any message.
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Make my North Dakota label →North Dakota requires this exact statement on a cottage food label: “This product is made in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the state or local health department.” The state sets no minimum point size for it.
No. North Dakota does not require a permit or registration number printed on the label.
At minimum: product name — the common name of the food; your business / producer name; the address of the cottage food operation; a complete ingredient list, in descending order by weight (sub-ingredients included); an allergen declaration — the 9 major FDA allergens, in the ingredient list or a “Contains:” line; net weight, in US customary and metric units; the state's required disclaimer (see below).
No. CottageCompliance gives general information based on each state's published rules, dated to when we last verified them. Always confirm with your state or local agency before selling.
Source: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t23c09-5.pdf (official ND Century Code, ch. 23-09.5, full text of §§ 23-09.5-01 and -02) ; https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t23c09-5.html ; https://codes.findlaw.com/nd/title-23-health-and-safety/nd-cent-code-sect-23-09-5-02/ Verified 2026-08-10. General information, not legal advice — confirm with your state or local agency before selling.