Can I sell homemade jam in South Dakota?

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated October 2026

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Pick your route: the course or a recipe review What the law leaves open for jam In person, every time The South Dakota jar label Outgrowing the home exemption Who to ask in South Dakota References

Yes, with one gate to pass first. South Dakota exempts home-processed canned goods from food licensing, and a jar of jam you seal in a water bath is a canned good. The jar must test at pH 4.6 or below or at a water activity of 0.85 or below, and before you sell you must either finish a state-approved food safety course (renewed every five years) or hold written verification of each recipe from a processing authority [1]. There is no sales cap and no license fee. Every sale, though, happens face to face: you or someone from your household hands the jar to the buyer [1] [2].

Pick your route: the course or a recipe review

The statute gives you a choice, and most jam makers will want to know what each costs in time and money.

	Food safety course	Recipe verification
What it is	Online, self-paced training that SDSU Extension describes as South Dakota Department of Health state-certified [2]	Written verification from a third-party processing authority that your process and your pH or water activity meet the law [1]
Cost	$40 [2]	Free through SDSU Extension Food Safety [2]
How long it lasts	Five years from completion, then repeat it [1] [2]	Each recipe is verified once; a new recipe needs its own review [1]
Turnaround	Self-paced	About one week [2]
What you keep	Proof of completion [1]	The written verification for each recipe [1]

To use the free review, fill out SDSU's Process and Ingredient Review Form and mail it with one sample jar (a quarter-pint is enough) to SDSU Extension, 4101 W 38th St., Ste 103, Sioux Falls, SD 57106 [2] [3]. SDSU also says its Master Food Preserver or Home Food Preservation course may count in place of the $40 training [2].

If you plan a short list of standard fruit jams, the course is the simpler path: one $40 fee covers every recipe for five years. If you plan unusual flavors, the review gives you something the course does not, which is an expert's written judgment that the specific recipe is safe.

What the law leaves open for jam

The statute never uses the words jam, jelly or preserves [1]. The canned goods section applies to "any canned good," which is why this page treats jam as one. The definitions section (SDCL 34-18-34) was not in the compilation reviewed, so whether an uncanned jam could instead qualify as plain non-temperature-controlled home food was not confirmed. Ask before you rely on that.

How the edge products fit, from the statute's own terms:

Low-sugar and no-sugar jam. Not named. The same pH or water activity test applies to every canned good [1]. A recipe review is the safer choice here, because a low-sugar spread made from an untested recipe gives you no way of knowing whether it meets the test. See low-sugar jam that sets and keeps.
Pepper jelly and jams with vegetables. Not named; still canned goods under the pH rule [1]. Send it through SDSU's review even if you have taken the course, because its safety rests on the vinegar bringing low-acid peppers into range. The safety reasons are on pepper jelly.
Freezer jam. South Dakota is unusual in allowing some cold-held foods. A producer who has taken the training may sell home-processed frozen fruit and produce kept at or below 0°F, with a keep-frozen directive on the label [1]. Whether freezer jam counts as "frozen fruit" under that section is not stated. Ask the Department of Health before you sell it.
Fruit butters. Not named, so the canned goods rule applies [1]. Pumpkin butter is the exception to any home route: there is no tested home canning process for it. See pumpkin butter and other low-acid spreads.

In person, every time

The exemption holds only if the food is sold in your physical presence at your primary residence, a farmers market, a roadside stand or another temporary venue, and you (or a resident of your home) personally deliver it when the sale is complete [1]. SDSU Extension reads this to mean you cannot ship by mail or carrier [2]. Taking an order online and then mailing the jar does not fit, and the law gives no path for selling through a shop or on consignment, because the seller must be present. For the stall itself, see selling jam at a farmers market.

The South Dakota jar label

SDCL 34-18-37 lists what every jar must carry [1]:

Product name
Your name
The physical address where the jam was made
Your mailing address
Your phone number
The date it was made
Ingredients
A keep refrigerated or keep frozen directive, for foods sold under the cold-held section
This disclaimer: "This product was not produced in a commercial kitchen. It has been home-processed in a kitchen that may also process common food allergens such as tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk, fish, and crustacean shellfish."

The federal basics (a correct product name, net weight and allergen declaration) still apply; see what a jam label must say.

Outgrowing the home exemption

Shipping, wholesale or any sale where you are not present takes you outside the exemption and into licensing. The statute refers only to "the department" and the licensing agency for a commercial jam kitchen was not confirmed for this page; ask the Department of Health which license applies, and see when you need a licensed kitchen.

Who to ask in South Dakota

SDSU Extension Food Safety (Curtis Braun, Food Safety Field Specialist) for recipe review and the training: the Cottage Home Processing Food Safety page [2].
South Dakota Department of Health for questions about the law, including freezer jam and the licensing route. No state agency page on the exemption was located; SDSU's page links the department's training.

Checked in October 2026. Whichever route you take, the pH reading is what the law turns on; measuring pH explains how to take it.