Cottage food laws · Montana

Selling homemade food in Montana.

Montana gives home cooks two doors, built for different shops. Door one — cottage food — is a one-time $40 registration with your county for shelf-stable goods, sold face-to-face anywhere in the state. Door two — the Montana Local Food Choice Act, the state’s “food freedom” law — costs nothing, takes no license and no inspection, and lets you sell almost anything you make at home, including refrigerated things like cheesecake — but only directly to a neighbor, inside Montana, and you have to tell each buyer the food wasn’t inspected. No shipping or store shelves on either path. Here’s the whole picture, in plain English.

Verified against the Montana Code Annotated and the Montana DPHHS food-choice guidance

Last checked June 13, 2026 — every section links its sources.

A friendly guide, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers. Always confirm the details with your own city and state before you sell.

A sunlit front porch with fresh loaves on a table and an OPEN sign

The 2-minute version

Five cards, the whole story. Everything below is detail — with the actual laws linked, so you never have to take our word for it.

Selling shelf-stable goods?

That’s cottage food — a one-time $40 registration with your county for shelf-stable goods (breads, cookies, cakes, jams, candy, honey). Label it right and sell it face-to-face anywhere in Montana. No routine inspection, no sales cap.

$40 onceCounty registrationNo inspectionNo sales cap

Want to sell cheesecake?

That takes the Local Food Choice Act — Montana’s food-freedom law. No fee, no registration, no inspection. You can make refrigerated and perishable foods the cottage path bans (cheesecake, cream pie, fermented foods) — but you must tell each buyer it wasn’t inspected.

$0 to startNo paperworkRefrigerated OKTell each buyer

Where you can sell

Both paths are direct and in-person — no online sales, no shipping, no store shelves, no restaurants. The hard interstate-commerce bar is the food-freedom path’s rule (it must stay inside Montana); on the cottage path “in-state” is about the face-to-face handoff. Cottage goods sell anywhere in the state once registered.

Direct onlyFace-to-faceNo shippingNo store shelves

Inspection & training

Cottage food isn’t routinely inspected (only on a complaint or illness); the food-freedom path bars inspection entirely. No food-handler card or course on either path. The food-freedom path’s one binding qualifier: tell each buyer the food wasn’t inspected before the sale.

No inspectionNo food-handler cardFood-freedom: tell each buyer it wasn’t inspected

Kids’ stands?

Montana has no statewide kid-stand exemption — a young seller uses the same cottage or food-freedom path as an adult. The bigger gate is usually a local business permit, which varies by town and county. Check with your county sanitarian first.

No special exemptionSame two pathsCheck local permits
Sound doable? Show me the steps ↓Meet the Montana porch bakers already doing it

Two ways to sell in Montana — pick your path

In shortThe two paths split on one question: is what you make shelf-stable, or does it need a refrigerator? Shelf-stable → the $40 cottage path. Refrigerated, fermented, or raw-milk → the free food-freedom route, which stays direct, in-state, with a spoken not-inspected heads-up.

Montana’s two home-food paths split cleanly on one question — is what you make shelf-stable, or does it need a refrigerator? The cleanest way to see it: a cheesecake can’t come out of the cottage food path (it needs refrigeration, which makes it a “potentially hazardous” food the cottage rules exclude), but the Local Food Choice Act can sell it — direct to a neighbor, in state, with the spoken heads-up that it wasn’t inspected. Same product, two answers.

Path A · register once, $40$40 once

Cottage Food

Register one time with your county’s local health authority for $40 — hand in your product list, your labels, and your recipes — and you’re a cottage food operation, exempt from food-establishment licensing and routine inspection. You make shelf-stable (“not potentially hazardous”) food, label it correctly, and sell it face-to-face, directly to the buyer, anywhere in Montana.

The hard lines: no consignment, no shipping, no internet sales, no store shelves, no restaurants.

Pick this path if: everything you sell is shelf-stable — breads, cookies, cakes, candy, jams, jellies, dried fruit, dry mixes, granola, honey — and you want a registration certificate on file (some private farmers markets ask for one) and the freedom to sell at any location in the state, not just your home or a community event.

Path B · the refrigerated + free door$0 · food freedom

Montana Local Food Choice Act

This is Montana’s food-freedom law. No registration, no fee, no license, no inspection — state and local agencies are barred from requiring them. In exchange you can make almost any homemade food, including refrigerated and perishable items the cottage path bans (cheesecake, cream pies, fermented foods), plus raw milk from a small dairy and your own home-raised poultry.

The trade-offs are real: every sale must be directly to the person eating it (“an informed end consumer”), inside Montana only, for home consumption or at a traditional community event, and you must tell each buyer the food wasn’t licensed or inspected. Meat is the big exclusion (see “What you can sell”).

Pick this path if: you want to sell anything refrigerated, fermented, raw-milk, or home-raised poultry; or you just want zero fees and zero paperwork — and you can live with selling only from home, by pre-arranged delivery, or at community events, and with telling each buyer the food is unregulated.

One path per sale. You can’t mix them on the same transaction — by the statute’s own definition, a producer selling under the food-freedom law is not a cottage food operation. And when you want store shelves, restaurants, consignment, shipping, or out-of-state sales, that’s a licensed retail or wholesale food establishment through your local health authority — most porch shops never need it.

Sources: MCA 50-50-102 (definitions) · MCA 50-50-116 (cottage food conditions) · MCA 50-49-203 (Local Food Choice Act) · ARM 37.110.511 (registration) · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ · DPHHS Food Choice Act Guidance

Where you can sell

In shortMontana keeps homemade food direct and in-person on both paths — no shipping, no online delivery, no store shelves, no restaurants. Cottage goods sell face-to-face anywhere in the state once registered; food-freedom sales stay at your home or a community event, inside Montana only.

The shared rule both paths live by — direct, in-person, no middlemen. Neither path lets you ship, mail, sell online for courier delivery, put food on a store shelf, or sell through a restaurant. That’s the load-bearing limit on this whole page.

Cottage food — face-to-face, anywhere in Montana. Once registered, you may sell your registered products anywhere in the state — your home, farmers markets, bazaars, small venues. But “direct sale” is defined narrowly: a face-to-face purchase between you and the buyer (or someone buying it as a gift). The statute says it plainly — “The direct sale may not be by consignment or involve shipping or internet sales.” You may advertise and arrange sales by internet, social media, or phone, but the handoff must be face-to-face; USPS, UPS, FedEx, couriers, and Amazon/eBay-style sales where buyer and seller never meet are not allowed. A table beside your car in a parking lot is allowed under the cottage rules — but many towns and counties require a local business permit for any sales (even from home), and you’d need the lot owner’s permission; product may be stored only temporarily in your transport vehicle. Not allowed: selling to grocery stores, restaurants, or any retail food establishment; consignment; wholesale.

Local Food Choice Act — your home and community events, in Montana. Sales go directly from you to an “informed end consumer,” only for home consumption or consumption at a traditional community social event, and only inside Montana — no interstate commerce. A “traditional community social event” includes weddings, funerals, church and school events, farmers markets, potlucks, neighborhood gatherings, club meetings, and youth or adult outdoor club/sporting events. Pre-arranged delivery to the buyer is allowed; roadside stands are not — to sell outside your home, the sale must be tied to a traditional community event. No retail, no wholesale, no restaurants (for store shelves you’d need a wholesale food license; narrow exception: raw, unprocessed fruit, vegetables, and aquaculture products may go to retail without one). And no food prep outside your home kitchen — you can’t assemble or finish products at the market booth.

Sources: MCA 50-50-102 (“direct sale”) · MCA 50-50-116 · MCA 50-49-203 · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ · DPHHS Food Choice Act Guidance

What you can sell

In shortCottage food is the shelf-stable (“not potentially hazardous”) rule — baked goods, jams, dried fruit, dry mixes, confections, honey. The food-freedom path is much broader (refrigerated, fermented, raw milk, home-raised poultry) with four hard exclusions — meat, wild game, raw-milk limits, and alcohol/marijuana.

Cottage food — the shelf-stable rule

Cottage food is limited to foods that are not potentially hazardous — they don’t need refrigeration to stay safe. The approved list (ARM 37.110.503) covers baked goods (breads, rolls, quick breads, cakes, pastries, cookies, crackers, cereals, granola, and certain pies — no custard, unbaked-fruit, or refrigerated pies); jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butters meeting the federal standard of identity (heat-processed in sterilized containers, no paraffin seals); dried high-acid fruits and commercially dried fruits/vegetables; dry mixes; confections (popcorn, cotton candy, fudge, cooked candies, molded chocolate from commercial melts) — and honey. Other non-potentially-hazardous foods can be approved case by case.

  • Breads & baked goods
  • Cakes & cookies
  • Candy & fudge
  • Jams, jellies & preserves
  • Dried high-acid fruit
  • Dry mixes
  • Honey

Not allowed as cottage food

  • Cheesecake & cream pies
  • Anything refrigerated
  • Freezer jams
  • Fermented foods
  • Home-canned veg
  • Dairy & eggs

Anything that needs refrigeration is out — cheesecakes, cream and pumpkin pies, and custard-type pastries (they support pathogen growth); freezer jams; fermented foods (e.g. lacto-fermented pickles); home-canned vegetables and fruits; and dairy products and eggs as cottage products. (Eggs may be sold at farmers markets with restrictions — contact the Montana Department of Livestock’s Milk & Egg Bureau.) Cheesecake test: fails cottage food.

Local Food Choice Act — much broader

“Homemade food” isn’t limited to a shelf-stable list — the food-freedom law lets you sell potentially hazardous (refrigerated/perishable) homemade food directly to consumers, including at farmers markets, where it’s treated as not-potentially-hazardous for market-sale purposes. Cheesecake test: passes the food-freedom path. But four hard lines apply — see below.

  • Refrigerated / perishable foods
  • Cheesecake & cream pies
  • Fermented foods
  • Raw milk (small dairy)
  • Home-raised poultry

Meat is effectively out. The statute bars meat or meat products processed at a state-licensed or federally approved establishment, by the producer, or by any third party from being used in homemade food — even a product made with commercial chicken stock or bouillon is disqualified. The only exception is your own home-raised poultry, fewer than 1,000 birds a year, slaughtered and processed on your premises under federal recordkeeping rules and not moving in commerce. Wild game can’t be sold at all. Raw milk is allowed only from a “small dairy” (≤5 lactating cows, 10 goats, or 10 sheep) with milk testing every 6 months, annual brucellosis testing per animal, and 2-year records (and raw milk may not be donated to a community event). Alcohol and marijuana laws still apply — rum-filled candy, home beer/wine, and THC products aren’t authorized; CBD-containing homemade food is outside DPHHS food oversight when sold in compliance with the Act, but no health claims are allowed anywhere — label, ad, social media, or spoken.

Sources: MCA 50-50-102 / 50-50-116 · ARM 37.110.503 (approved foods) · MCA 50-49-203 · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ · MT Dept. of Livestock MLFCA guidance

The rules that actually matter

In shortNeither path has a sales cap; the only quantity limits are the food-freedom path’s animal products. Both stay direct and in-person; the food-freedom path also stays inside Montana. Local business-permit and trade-name rules are separate and apply on either path.

  • No sales cap on either pathNo dollar limit appears in the cottage-food chapter (50-50-116/-117) or the Local Food Choice Act (50-49-201–203). Sell as much as you can make.
  • Quantity limits exist only on the food-freedom path’s animal productsHome-raised poultry under 1,000 birds a year, and a small dairy capped at 5 lactating cows / 10 goats / 10 sheep. Everything else is uncapped.
  • Both paths are direct and in-personNo shipping, no internet delivery, no store shelves, no restaurants (cottage adds: no consignment, no wholesale). The food-freedom path also stays inside Montana — no interstate commerce.
  • Local rules are separate — and often the real gateMany Montana towns and counties require a local business permit for any sales, even from home — the cottage FAQ flags this directly. If you use a business name other than your legal name, register the trade name with the Montana Secretary of State. Zoning and sales-tax rules are local — check yours.

Sources: MCA 50-50-116 · MCA 50-49-203 · MCA 50-49-202 (definitions) · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ

Getting set up

In shortPath A is a one-time $40 county registration — confirm your goods are shelf-stable, submit your product list, labels, and recipes, show a safe water source, pay the county. Path B is nothing to file — but you must tell every buyer, before the sale, that the food wasn’t inspected.

Path A — Cottage Food ($40, one time)

  1. Confirm everything you sell is shelf-stableNot potentially hazardous — no refrigerated, frozen, fermented, dairy, or egg products.
  2. Register with your county’s local health authorityUse the DPHHS Cottage Food Operation Guidance & Registration form. Submit your operation name, your home address, a description of ingredient sources, a complete product list, a copy of each label, and the recipe for each product (submitted for review — a rule requirement under ARM 37.110.511, not in the statute).
  3. Show a safe water and sewage sourcePublic water, or private-well tests meeting drinking-water standards.
  4. Pay the $40 fee to the countyYou receive your certificate of registration. Re-register and re-pay only if you move the operation or add new products.

No kitchen inspection to register, and no routine inspections afterward — only a complaint or illness investigation can trigger one. No food-handler card or training course is required by the cottage statute or rules. (A local business permit and a Secretary of State trade-name registration may still apply — those are local/state business rules outside the food law.)

Path B — Local Food Choice Act (nothing to file)

  1. There’s nothing to register, license, or payNo registration, license, fee, training, or inspection — agencies can’t require them.
  2. Tell every buyer, before the sale, that the food wasn’t inspectedThe statute requires you to inform the buyer that the food “has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations.” This is the one mandatory step — and the law prescribes no wording, so a spoken heads-up at the sale satisfies it (see Labels).
  3. Keep your sales direct, in-state, and tied to home or a community eventDirectly to the person eating it, inside Montana only, for home consumption or at a traditional community event.
  4. If you sell raw milk or home-raised poultry, follow the animal-product dutiesRaw milk: milk tested every 6 months, each animal tested annually for brucellosis, 2-year records. Poultry: stay under 1,000 birds a year and keep the federal records.

No fee, no form, no inspection — the buyer heads-up is the whole compliance step. (A local business permit and a trade-name registration may still apply on this path too.)

Sources: MCA 50-50-117 (registration) · ARM 37.110.511 · MCA 50-49-203 · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ

Labels

In shortMontana’s two paths carry completely different label rules — get the path right first. Cottage food requires a printed label with a verbatim required statement in ≥11-point font. The food-freedom path requires NO label (and none can be required) — just a spoken duty to tell each buyer the food wasn’t inspected.

Cottage food label (Path A)

  • The name, address, city, state, and zip code of the cottage food operation. This path keys to the operation (your cottage food operation’s name and address), not just an individual’s name.
  • The name of the product
  • The ingredients, in descending order of predominance by weight
  • The net quantity — weight, count, or volume
  • Allergen labeling as required by federal and state law
  • A nutritional-claim label if you make a nutritional claim
  • The verbatim required statement: “Made in a home kitchen that is not subject to retail food establishment regulations or inspections.” It must be printed in at least the equivalent of 11-point font, in a color that clearly contrasts with the background, and conspicuously placed on the principal label.
Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread
Ingredients: flour (wheat), water, honey, butter (milk), yeast, salt.
Contains: wheat, milk.
Net Wt 24 oz (680 g)
Big Sky Hearth · 123 Rimrock Rd, Billings, MT 59101
Made in a home kitchen that is not subject to retail food establishment regulations or inspections.
Cottage food label — note: the operation’s name + full address, net quantity, the ≥11-pt verbatim statement.

Local Food Choice Act (Path B) — no label, a spoken duty

  • No label is required, and none can be required. The food-freedom law bars any agency from mandating labeling, and “homemade food” is by definition food that is “not… labeled… per any official regulations.”
  • One mandatory step instead — tell the buyer. You must inform the end consumer that the food “has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations.”
  • No prescribed wording. The law doesn’t dictate a written format — DPHHS guidance restates the duty without one, so a spoken heads-up at the sale satisfies it. Some sellers print a courtesy card with that language, but no specific wording is required by the state.
  • No health claims anywhere — label, sign, ad, social media, or spoken.
Classic Cheesecake
Made fresh at home in Bozeman, Montana.
Courtesy note (not required by law): This food has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations.
Food-freedom “label” — a courtesy card only. Not required by law; the spoken heads-up is what the statute asks for.

For an unpackaged large item (e.g. a wedding cake) on the cottage path, put all the required label information on an invoice delivered with the item to the buyer. And don’t mix the paths: the cottage label is mandatory and verbatim; the food-freedom path can’t be made to carry a label at all — the spoken heads-up is the duty there, and we won’t put words in the statute’s mouth.

Sources: MCA 50-50-116(2)(b) (label elements) · ARM 37.110.504 (labeling) · MCA 50-49-203(1)(a) & (3) · DPHHS Food Choice Act Guidance

What changed recently

In shortThe cottage food law is unchanged on every seller-facing fact since 2015. The Local Food Choice Act was created in 2021 and revised in 2023 and 2025 (aquaculture). A 2025 fee bill touched the definitions chapter but changed no cottage or food-freedom seller rule. A constitutional challenge to the food-freedom law was dismissed in 2025.

  • Aquaculture added — 2025 (SB 161, Ch. 344)This amended the Local Food Choice Act and the cottage-food definitions to add raw, unprocessed aquaculture products to the narrow list of things that may be sold at retail without a license; it carried an immediate effective date.
  • A fee bill that did NOT change seller rules — 2025 (HB 853, Ch. 737)HB 853 raised licensed-establishment fees and added retail-establishment size categories (small/medium/large). It amended the definitions chapter (50-50-102) but did not change any cottage-food or food-freedom seller rule — the cottage “direct sale” definition (no consignment, shipping, or internet sales) is unchanged. If a tracker shows “50-50-102 amended 2025,” that’s this bill.
  • Local Food Choice Act revised — 2023 (SB 202, Ch. 347)This amended the food-freedom definitions and operative section; DPHHS reissued its guidance October 1, 2023, treating food-freedom food as not-potentially-hazardous for farmers-market sale.
  • The two laws were created — 2021 and 2015The Local Food Choice Act was created in 2021 (SB 199, Ch. 320), effective on passage (April 2021). The cottage food law was created in 2015 (Ch. 239) — MCA 50-50-116/-117 and the rules at ARM 37.110.5xx, effective 9/25/2015 — and is unchanged on every seller-facing fact since.
  • Court challenge dismissed — October 2025A former food-safety officer’s constitutional challenge to the food-freedom law was dismissed with prejudice for lack of standing, so the law stands. (This is reported by news outlets, not a court document we read — see the disclaimer.)

Sources: SB 161 (Ch. 344, 2025) · HB 853 (Ch. 737, 2025) · MCA 50-49-203 (history) · SB 199 (Ch. 320, 2021) · Food Safety News — challenge dismissed

Common questions

Can I sell cheesecake from home in Montana?
Not as cottage food — cheesecake needs refrigeration, so it’s “potentially hazardous” and the cottage rules exclude it. But the Local Food Choice Act lets you sell it: direct to a neighbor, inside Montana, at your home or a community event, with the spoken heads-up that it wasn’t inspected.
What’s the difference between cottage food and the food-freedom law in Montana?
Cottage food is a one-time $40 county registration for shelf-stable goods you can sell face-to-face anywhere in Montana, with a printed label. The Local Food Choice Act is free with no paperwork and covers refrigerated and perishable foods, raw milk, and home-raised poultry — but you sell only from home or community events, only in Montana, and you must tell each buyer it wasn’t inspected.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell in Montana?
No — neither path has a dollar cap. The only quantity limits are on the food-freedom path’s home-raised poultry (under 1,000 birds a year) and small-dairy raw milk.
Can a store carry my cookies in Montana?
No — not on either path. Cottage food bans store shelves, consignment, and wholesale; the food-freedom law is direct-to-consumer only and sends store sales to a wholesale license.
Can I ship my baked goods or sell them online in Montana?
No. The cottage statute says a direct sale “may not… involve shipping or internet sales” — you can advertise online, but the handoff must be face-to-face. The food-freedom law is in-state, direct-only, with no interstate commerce.
Can I sell canned salsa, pickles, or fermented foods in Montana?
Not as cottage food — home-canned vegetables and fermented foods aren’t on the cottage list. The food-freedom law allows perishable and fermented homemade foods sold direct to a neighbor, in state.
Do I need a food-handler card to sell homemade food in Montana?
No card or training course is required on either path.
Can my kid run a stand in Montana?
There’s no special kid exemption in Montana — a young seller uses the same cottage or food-freedom path as an adult, and the bigger question is usually a local business-permit rule, which varies by town and county. Check with your county sanitarian first.
Can I sell raw milk or eggs in Montana?
Raw milk only under the food-freedom law from a small dairy (≤5 cows / 10 goats / 10 sheep) with testing duties. Eggs aren’t a cottage product, but may be sold at farmers markets with restrictions — contact the Department of Livestock’s Milk & Egg Bureau.

Sources: MCA 50-50-116 (cottage food conditions) · MCA 50-49-203 (Local Food Choice Act) · DPHHS Cottage Food FAQ · DPHHS Food Choice Act Guidance

You won’t be doing this alone

11 porch bakers are already selling across Montana under these exact laws. Browse their pages and learn from people two steps ahead of you — what they sell, how they price, how they talk about their bread. Cottage bakers are famously generous with what they’ve learned, and most are a DM away on Instagram.

See all 11 in the directory →List your porch shop — always free to list

This page is educational, not legal advice — we’re not lawyers, just neighbors who read Montana’s official sources and wrote down what they say (every claim above links to its source). Montana’s two home-food paths carry different rules and different labels — make sure you know which one you’re on. A few honest hedges: the DPHHS cottage-food FAQ we relied on is an older document (its footer reads “EHFS February 2018”) that the statute and rules still corroborate on every point we cite; the “no food-handler training” and “no sales cap” statements come from reading the full chapters and finding no such requirement; and the food-freedom court challenge was reported resolved by news outlets, not a court order we read directly. Many Montana towns and counties require a local business permit for any home sales, so check with your county sanitarian, and local zoning and sales-tax rules are separate and set locally. Always double-check the details with your own city and state before you sell. When something here and the law disagree, the law wins; if you spot that happening, tell us and we’ll fix it.