Do You Need a License to Sell Microgreens in Minnesota?

No, if you grew them on land you occupy and cultivate. And Minnesota's exclusion is unusual in that it does not care who buys them.

Minn. Stat. 28A.15, subdivision 2 excludes from the whole of chapter 28A "persons selling the products of the farm or garden occupied and cultivated by them". MDA and University of Minnesota Extension both call this product of the farm.

Two things make it a better deal than it first looks.

It is a licensing exclusion, not an income cap. There is no revenue figure to stay under. Qualification turns on whether the product came from a farm or garden you occupy and cultivate, and Extension confirms that land you own, rent or lease all counts.

It follows the product, not the channel. This is the part that separates Minnesota from most of this series. In Indiana the exemption dies the moment you sell to a restaurant. In Oregon a restaurant is not the end retail consumer. In Minnesota, a farm stand, a CSA, a farmers market, a restaurant delivery, a grocery sale and an online order can all qualify, because the question is what you are selling and where it was grown, not who is buying.

The federal layer applies on top and is the same everywhere. See the FDA Produce Safety Rule page.

What "occupied and cultivated" actually requires

The exclusion has two conditions and people usually only remember the first.

You must have grown it, on land you occupy and cultivate. Extension is clear that owned, rented and leased land all qualify, so a leased warehouse bay of racks is not automatically outside it.

Every ingredient must come from that same farm, if the product is processed at all. Extension says the exclusion can even cover certain processing, provided every ingredient originates on that farm. So a single-variety clamshell you grew is product of the farm. A salad mix that includes anything bought in is not, and at that point you are looking at a Food Handler license or, for a different sort of product, cottage food registration.

The agency is the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Food and Feed Safety Division, on 651-201-6062 or MDA.Licensing@state.mn.us. MDA says a pre-consultation is appropriate for a home farm or garden seller who is unsure whether the exclusion applies, which is an invitation worth taking rather than guessing.

The license name changed, and older guidance did not

If you go looking for Minnesota food license information, check its date.

Since 1 August 2025, MDA issues a single Food Handler license that replaced multiple older classifications. Guidance calling for a "Retail Food Handler" or a "Manufacturer and Processor" license may be describing a structure that no longer exists, depending on where a business sits in its conversion cycle.

Worth being precise about what changed: licensing modernization changed the names and classes, not who needs a license. If you were excluded before, you are still excluded.

The stale federal figure, which is now a pattern

MDA's Produce Safety Rule farm status page gives the inflation-adjusted cut-offs as $33,297 against the $25,000 baseline and $665,947 against the $500,000 one.

FDA currently publishes $34,324 and $686,476. Both are the average of FDA's 2023, 2024 and 2025 values, and the arithmetic on FDA's own table confirms it. Take them from the column headed "Average 3 Year Value for 2023 - 2025". The single-year 2025 values printed next to them, $35,247 and $704,950, are a different measure and are not the ones to compare a three-year average against.

Both were read from each agency's own page on 6 August 2026. This is the second state in this series doing it, after Indiana, which publishes $28,075. States recalculate on their own schedule and FDA recalculates annually.

Use FDA's figure. It is a federal threshold and FDA is the authority on it. The practical effect of a low state figure is that it makes some growers think they are a covered farm when they are not, which costs paperwork rather than creating risk.

Cottage food, which is a different statute

Minnesota's cottage food exemption is 28A.152, a separate route for specified homemade non potentially hazardous foods, currently capped at $78,000 in gross receipts per calendar year.

Fresh microgreens are products of the farm under 28A.15. You do not need to relabel them as cottage food to sell them, and the $78,000 is not your ceiling because you do not have one.

One date to note: cottage food revisions enacted on 23 May 2025 take effect 1 August 2027, and the statute directs a biennial inflation adjustment using a July 2025 CPI base from that point. None of it changes the microgreens answer, but it will change what other people tell you about Minnesota.

Food safety, inspections and a genuinely good free offer

An exclusion is not a pass on safety. MDA says plainly that exclusions do not remove food safety requirements: farm products must be grown, harvested and handled safely regardless of license status.

Inspections. For a farm covered by the federal Produce Safety Rule, MDA's Produce Safety Program inspects. Three details are unusually grower-friendly and worth knowing: the initial inspection is education focused, routine inspections cost the farmer nothing, and most are announced. Unannounced visits follow a complaint, a recall, an outbreak investigation, an uncorrected prior issue, a follow-up need, or a failure to respond. No universal interval is published for every microgreens farm.

The readiness review. MDA's On-Farm Readiness Review is free, voluntary, non-regulatory and includes a farm walk-around. It is explicitly not an inspection. Request it on 651-539-3648 or ProduceSafety.MDA@state.mn.us. Note that farms may request one even if excluded or exempt, subject to scheduling priority. If you are outside the Produce Safety Rule entirely and still want a second pair of eyes on your process, Minnesota will send someone. Very few states in this series offer that.

Training. No separate food handler certification is required simply because you qualify under the product-of-the-farm exclusion. For a fully covered farm, at least one supervisor or responsible party must complete FDA-recognized or equivalent training.

Water. Must be safe and of adequate sanitary quality for its intended use under the federal rule. No Minnesota-specific microgreens testing frequency is published; MDA's grower training covers water management and testing, and the Produce Safety line will tell you what your source and use require.

Labeling, and the cutting question

For packaged product-of-the-farm microgreens, display prominently at the point of purchase:

For a single-ingredient tray or bag, identify the microgreen and its variety, and list microgreens as the ingredient. A nutrition label may be exempt.

The cutting point matters more than the label. Extension identifies cutting, chopping or slicing fruits and vegetables as making them TCS, time and temperature controlled for safety, and says TCS foods must be refrigerated or frozen through storage, transportation and sale. So the moment you harvest into a clamshell you have taken on a cold chain obligation, even though your licensing position has not changed at all.

No source reviewed requires the literal words "Keep Refrigerated" on every label. Use a refrigeration statement where it accurately describes the control you actually run.

Tax and business setup

A sole proprietor can sell under their legal name. Form an entity or file an assumed name only if the business choice requires it. The Secretary of State publishes assumed name filing at $30 by mail or $50 online or in person; confirm entity formation fees from the live schedule before paying.

Fresh microgreens sold as food are generally exempt from Minnesota sales tax, but the precise taxable mix is worth confirming before concluding you need no seller's permit, especially if you also sell anything that is not plain produce. Ask the Department of Revenue Sales and Use Tax on 651-556-3000. A resale exemption certificate relates to purchasing inputs for resale and has nothing to do with the farm-product exclusion.

If you do end up needing a license, MDA's process is a technical review, a possible retail plan review, a facility inspection, then the license, with a $50 initial application fee for new licensed businesses.

Selling channel by channel

Farmers markets. Selling your own microgreens stays inside 28A.15. Sampling is separate: it is addressed at 28A.151, so handing out tasters is its own question rather than something the exclusion automatically covers. Market organisers add vendor applications, insurance, product origin, canopy, cold storage and sampling requirements of their own. Check the market contract and the local health authority before you offer samples.

Restaurants. The exclusion holds, which is the headline. The buyer still has its own due diligence duty, and Extension advises buyers to ask farms about production and packing safety. Supply lot and harvest records, delivery temperature control and a practical food safety plan, because you will be asked even though the state does not require it.

Grocery and distribution. Expect requirements well beyond the law: a written food safety plan, a GAP or GHP audit, traceability, product specifications, documented cooler and delivery controls, insurance and recall cooperation. Extension identifies distributors, grocery stores, schools and restaurants as the typical audit-requesting buyers, and says larger groceries and distributors may require a passed audit.

Online. In-state sales do not defeat the exclusion. Interstate shipping brings federal rules and destination-state law. Do not apply Minnesota's cottage food internet rules to fresh microgreens; those belong to a different exemption with its own interstate limits.

Home growing, zoning and agricultural preserves

Zoning, home occupation, customer traffic, signage, greenhouses, parking and drainage are all local. The farm-product exclusion is a food licensing rule and not statewide permission to run a commercial grow room out of a residence. Check with the city or county planning and zoning department before building or receiving customers.

A commercial kitchen is not triggered by growing your own microgreens. It becomes relevant when the product loses farm status, the activity requires a Food Handler license, or local building and zoning rules demand it.

Minnesota's agricultural preserve law protects normal agricultural practices within an agricultural preserve from local restrictions, unless the restriction relates directly to public health and safety. It covers crop planting, maintenance, harvest, farming type and farm structures, though not residences. It is not a blanket statewide right-to-farm immunity, and it erases nothing in food, zoning or building law.

Insurance

No blanket Minnesota mandate for product or general liability insurance on a one-person microgreens grower was found. Both are advisable, along with commercial auto if you deliver. Note one concrete requirement: a licensed Retail Food Handler application requires workers' compensation policy information if the business has paid non-family employees.

Buyers contract for certificates of insurance, additional-insured status, product liability coverage, indemnity, audit evidence, harvest and lot traceability, recall terms, specifications and delivery temperatures. Those are buyer terms, not Minnesota statute.

What Minnesota does not publish

The market

Minnesota has a real direct-market base. Extension reports 375 farmers markets statewide, and the Twin Cities concentrate restaurant, grocery and institutional buyers in one metro.

Competition is genuine and buyers increasingly ask about verified safety practices, so the durable advantages are year-round controlled-environment availability, reliable refrigerated delivery, consistent mix, and transparent food safety records. Not a claimed special permit, because there isn't one and everyone selling their own crop is in the same position you are.

The strategic point is the one the statute gives you. Because the exclusion survives wholesale, Minnesota is one of the few states where a grower can go after chef and grocery accounts without a licensing step in the way. What stands between you and those accounts is the buyer's own food safety expectations, not the state's. Spend the effort on the audit and the records rather than on paperwork with MDA.

On funding, MDA Produce Safety runs mini-grants, and the Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant program supports on-farm demonstrations of sustainability and profitability practices. Check current rounds rather than assuming one is open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Minnesota? A: Not if you grew them on a farm or garden you occupy and cultivate. 28A.15 subd. 2 excludes products of the farm from chapter 28A entirely.

Q: Does that survive selling to a restaurant? A: Yes, and that is Minnesota's real advantage. The exclusion follows the product, not the buyer, so wholesale does not break it the way it does in Indiana or Oregon.

Q: Is there a sales cap? A: No. It is a licensing exclusion rather than an income cap. The $78,000 you may have seen is the separate cottage food figure and it is not yours.

Q: What if I mix in greens from another grower? A: You lose farm status. For a processed product every ingredient must come from that same farm, so a bought-in component moves you to a Food Handler license.

Q: I rent my growing space. Does that count? A: Extension says owned, rented and leased land all qualify. The words in the statute are occupied and cultivated.

Q: Minnesota's website says the federal threshold is $33,297. You say $34,324. A: Both are quoted accurately. MDA is carrying an older calculation and FDA recalculates annually. It is a federal threshold, so use FDA's number.

Q: Can I get a readiness review if I am excluded? A: Yes. MDA will do one for excluded and exempt farms, subject to scheduling priority. It is free and it is not an inspection.

Final thoughts

Minnesota is quietly one of the best states in this series to build a real business in, and the reason is structural rather than generous. Most states hand small growers an exemption and then take it away the moment they sell to anyone who resells. Minnesota's exclusion attaches to the product, so the grower who wants chef accounts and a grocery listing can pursue them without a licensing step appearing in the middle.

Three things to carry. Watch the ingredient boundary rather than the revenue, because one bought-in component does what no amount of sales volume will. Remember that cutting creates a cold chain duty even though it changes nothing about your license. And take the readiness review, since Minnesota offers it to farms that do not even need it.

If something here does not match what MDA told you, report it and it gets corrected. A page that is wrong about a rule is worse than no page.

Sources

Every claim above traces to one of these. All checked 6 August 2026.