Selling home-canned jam in Wisconsin under the pickle bill

You can, within tight limits. Wisconsin's home-canned foods exemption, known as the pickle bill, lets you sell fruit-based jams and jellies you can at home with no license, provided the product has a pH of 4.6 or lower [1] [2]. The limits are what set Wisconsin apart: sales are allowed only at community or social events, flea markets and farmers markets in Wisconsin, and you must receive less than $5,000 a year from them [1] [2]. No sales from your home, online, out of state, wholesale or on consignment [2]. A sign at your table and a dated label on every jar are required [1].

Where a sale is legal, and where it is not

The statute itself names only community or social events and farmers markets; DATCP's page adds flea markets [1] [2]. University of Wisconsin Extension's 2014 fact sheet reads "community or social event" narrowly, excluding for-profit events and craft shows [3]. If you are invited to a craft fair, ask DATCP before you book the table. For running a market stall, see selling jam at a farmers market.

Whose $5,000: the person or the household

The statute says the exemption applies if "The person receives less than $5,000 per year from the sale of the food products" [1]. DATCP describes it as "No more than $5,000 per year per person" [2]. UW Extension's 2014 sheet says the limit "applies per farm/family, not per individual" [3]. The two agency sources disagree, and the stakes are real in a household where two people can. Follow the stricter household reading unless DATCP tells you otherwise in writing. Note too that the statute says "less than" $5,000, so a year that lands exactly on $5,000 is over. Pricing for a capped season is on how to price jam.

What qualifies: canned, and at pH 4.6 or below

The law covers "pickles or other processed vegetables or fruits with an equilibrium pH value of 4.6 or lower" that you "prepare and can at home in this state" [1]. DATCP's list names "fruit based jams and jellies" [2]. Two words in the statute decide the edge products:

• "Can." Freezer jam and refrigerator jam are not canned, so on the statute's wording they are outside the exemption.
• "pH." Every product must be at 4.6 or below. DATCP recommends testing the finished product and keeping the result with your records; processed fruits or vegetables above pH 4.6 require a license [2].

Low-sugar jam, fruit butters and pepper jelly are not named by DATCP or the statute [1] [2]. A home-canned apple butter or a low-sugar fruit spread is still a processed fruit, so the pH test is the rule that applies; pumpkin butter is the exception, because no tested home canning process exists for it. Pepper jelly is a processed vegetable product under the statute's terms, but whether DATCP accepts it was not confirmed, and as an acidified food it needs more care than a fruit jam. Ask DATCP about any of these before you sell. Testing pH correctly is covered on measuring pH.

DATCP suggests keeping records of each recipe, the amount made and sold, the canning date, sale dates and places, gross receipts and the results of any pH test [2].

Sign and label wording

At the place of sale, display a sign reading [1]:

"These canned goods are homemade and not subject to state inspection."

On each jar [1]:

• your name and address;
• the date the jam was canned;
• "This product was made in a private home not subject to state licensing or inspection.";
• ingredients in descending order of prominence, with the common name of any ingredient from milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts or soybeans.

The statute's allergen list predates sesame's addition to the federal list. The federal requirements are on what a jam label must say.

Selling from home, online or to stores

Each of those needs a license, because the exemption does not cover them [2]. DATCP licenses food processing; ask which license fits a jam operation, and see when you need a licensed kitchen.

Questions go to DATCP

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Division of Food and Recreational Safety: Selling Home-Canned Foods [2]. That page links DATCP's home food, dairy and retail food license pages for the licensed route.

Verified in October 2026. Since markets and events are the only legal venues, selling jam at a farmers market is the page to read next.

References

1. Wisconsin Legislature, 2009 Wisconsin Act 101 (creating Wis. Stat. § 97.29(2)(b)2.), published February 4, 2010. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2009/related/acts/101
2. Wisconsin DATCP, Selling Home-Canned Foods, not dated (viewed October 2026). https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Programs_Services/FSHomeCannedFoods.aspx
3. University of Wisconsin Extension, Ingham, Selling Home-Canned Foods: Do It Safe, Do It Legal (Pickle Bill), October 2014. https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/wilocalfoodlocator/files/2016/09/Pickle-Bill_2014.pdf