Wisconsin residents can sell more than baked goods from home, judge rules – Madison.com
Wisconsinites who want to sell homemade goodies to friends, neighbors and the public no longer have to stick to baked goods like cakes and cookies.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford ruled this week that other nonhazardous food items, not just baked goods, can be made and sold from home without a commercial license or kitchen, which plaintiffs argued can be cost-prohibitive. That includes items like candy, cocoa bombs, fried donuts and roasted coffee beans.
Many of those who want to sell homemade goods are people like moms with young children who hope to make a bit of money by selling the items they make at home.
This week’s ruling is the second victory for a trio of women — B&B owner Lisa Kivirist, 56, and farmers Dela Ends, 69, and Kriss Marion, 54 — who have been fighting for years to be able to sell nonhazardous food items from home.
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The women won their first lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in 2017, successfully arguing that a state ban on the sale of home-baked goods to the public was unconstitutional.
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In February 2021, they filed a follow-up lawsuit arguing that Wisconsin residents should be able to sell other shelf-stable goods out of their homes, too, like roasted coffee beans and hot cocoa bombs.
“The first case said that the government can’t ban the sales of perfectly safe homemade baked goods. And so, since we already had that victory regarding baked goods, it definitely made things easier the second time around,” said Justin Pearson of the Institute for Justice, the organization that represented the plaintiffs in both cases.
“If you’re allowing people to bake cookies and muffins and breads, why should they not be allowed to make cocoa bombs?” Marion asked.
Other plaintiffs in the second case included the newly created Wisconsin Cottage Food Association, which represents people who make homemade foods for sale in the state; residents Mark and Paula Radl, who hoped to sell home-roasted coffee beans in Manitowoc; Stacy Beduhn, of Outagamie County, who bakes and sells cakes; and Steph Zink, who sells oven-baked granola in Milwaukee County.
“What we were saying is the government can’t ban the sales of perfectly safe homemade foods that aren’t baked goods, like candy, fried donuts, fudges,” Pearson said. “The government admitted that these not-baked goods are exactly the same from a health and safety standpoint as …….