Grading is not about food safety – it’s about quality. It’s voluntary, but if you do choose to grade your honey, you need to follow these regulations whether or not you are licensed as either a food processing plant or retail food establishment.
You can grade your honey according to Wisconsin standards, U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, or not at all. But if you do, it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. If you sell part of a year’s crop as graded honey, you must sell it all as graded. The only exception is that you can sell ungraded honey from your own premises even if you’ve sold graded honey at a farmer’s market. Grade standards don’t apply if you process your honey by adding flavoring, coloring, or other ingredients, or by creaming or whipping.
Wisconsin standards are outlined in
ATCP 87.