Cottage Food Label Requirements in Montana (2026)

Cottage food rules in Montana — the whole program

Who can sell homemade food in Montana

Montana is one of the few states where a home producer has to choose between TWO parallel, independently sufficient legal regimes, and picking the wrong one is the single most expensive mistake available here. Neither one is a subset of the other, and the state's own agency publishes separate guidance for each. REGIME 1 — the Cottage Food Operation, MCA 50-50-116 and 50-50-117, enacted by Ch. 239, L. 2015 and, notably, never amended since: the history line on both sections reads simply 'En. Sec. 1, Ch. 239, L. 2015' and 'En. Sec. 2, Ch. 239, L. 2015'. The eligibility definition is at 50-50-102(3): a 'cottage food operation' means 'a person who provides, manufactures, or packages cottage food products only in a kitchen in a registered area of a domestic residence and only for direct sale to a consumer in this state'. Four cumulative conditions live in that one sentence — the food must be a cottage food product (i.e. not potentially hazardous), the kitchen must be in a domestic residence, that kitchen must be a REGISTERED area, and every sale must be a direct sale to a consumer in Montana. 50-50-116(1) then states the bargain plainly: 'To acquire the status of not being a retail food establishment, a cottage food operation must meet the conditions in this section and shall register with a local health authority as provided in 50-50-117.' Registration is not optional paperwork; it is a condition of the status itself. 'Domestic residence' is defined at 50-50-102(7) as 'a single-family house or a unit in a multiunit residential structure, whether rented, leased, or owned by the person in charge of the cottage food operation' — so an apartment qualifies, and the DPHHS FAQ confirms it twice ('Yes, as long as the kitchen is in your primary residence' for apartments, and 'Yes, it would, as long as the kitchen is located in your primary residence' for a converted mother-in-law kitchen). 'Registered area' is defined at 50-50-102(21) as 'the portion of a domestic residence that has been registered as provided in 50-50-117 and in which food ingredients intended for cottage food products are transported or stored or the domestic residence kitchen where cottage food products are processed, packaged, or stored'. Montana registers a ROOM, not just a person, and 50-50-116(4) enforces that: 'Processing or packaging of cottage food products must be in the specific registered area of the domestic residence of the person processing or packaging the cottage food products.' A commercial or shared kitchen is therefore outside the exemption entirely — it is not a domestic residence. REGIME 2 — the Montana Local Food Choice Act, MCA 50-49-201 through 50-49-203, enacted by Ch. 320, L. 2021 (SB 199) and amended by Ch. 347, L. 2023 and Ch. 344, L. 2025. This is a food-freedom statute and it is far broader than the cottage food law: no registration, no fee, no label, no approved-product list, and potentially hazardous food is allowed. 50-49-203(1)(a): 'A state agency or an agency of a political subdivision of the state may not require licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling, or inspection that pertains to the preparation, serving, use, consumption, delivery, or storage of homemade food or a homemade food product under this part.' The price of that freedom is a much narrower sales channel (see sales_channels) and the loss of every regulated-status benefit: 50-49-203(1)(c) says flatly that 'A producer is not: (i) a retail food establishment, a cottage food operation, or a temporary food establishment'. You cannot be both at once for the same transaction. How to choose. Take the cottage food route if you want to sell from your own home, take pre-orders and deliver, sell at bazaars, craft fairs and flea markets, or hand a jar to a stranger who has never heard of you — the registration certificate is what makes those sales lawful. Take the MLFCA route if your sales are all at farmers' markets, weddings, church socials, school events, potlucks and the like, if you want to sell food the cottage food list does not allow (fresh salsa, canned vegetables, cheesecake, tamales, raw milk from a small dairy), or if you simply do not want to submit recipes and pay $40. Many Montana producers legitimately use both: MLFCA for the farmers' market, a cottage food registration for everything else. Two eligibility traps worth naming. First, there is no Montana residency requirement written into 50-50-102(3), but the sale must be 'to a consumer in this state' and the kitchen must be a domestic residence — as a practical matter the operation is anchored to a Montana address, and 50-50-117(1) requires registration 'in the county in which the person's domestic residence is located'. Second, a farmers-market-only seller may need nothing at all: 50-50-121(1)(b) provides that 'A person selling food that is not potentially hazardous or otherwise listed in subsection (2) if selling only at a farmer's market is not required to register as a cottage food operation.' The DPHHS registration guidance says the same in its own words: 'This registration is NOT required if products are only being sold at farmers' markets.' If the farmers' market is your whole business, do not pay the $40.

What you may and may not sell

Allowed:

• The gate is the statutory definition, MCA 50-50-102(4): 'Cottage food products' means foods that are not potentially hazardous and are processed or packaged in a cottage food operation, including jams, jellies, dried fruit, dry mixes, and baked goods. Other similar foods that are not potentially hazardous may be defined by the department by rule.' 'Potentially hazardous food' is defined at 50-50-102(19) as 'food that requires time and temperature control for safety to limit toxin formation or the growth of pathogenic microorganisms'. Montana is a closed-list state in practice: ARM 37.110.503(1) opens 'Only those products approved by the department and listed in the registration may be produced by a cottage food operation' — so even a food on the list below is not lawful for YOU until it is on YOUR registration
• Oven-baked products, ARM 37.110.503(1)(a): loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, quick breads, and muffins (i); cakes 'including celebration cakes such as birthday, anniversary, and wedding cakes' (ii); pastries and scones (iii); cookies and bars (iv); crackers (v); cereals, trail mixes, and granola (vi); nuts and nut mixes (viii); snack mixes (ix)
• Pies, ARM 37.110.503(1)(a)(vii), with a carve-out written into the item itself: 'pies, except that custard style pies, pies with fresh fruit that is unbaked, or pies that require refrigeration after baking are not approved'. DPHHS names the casualties: 'potentially hazardous pies such as pumpkin and cream pies are not allowed since they require refrigeration to prevent pathogen growth'
• Standardized jams, jellies, preserves and fruit butters, ARM 37.110.503(1)(b) — and 'standardized' is a real federal term of art: the rule ties it to '21 CFR, Part 150'. Four conditions attach: fresh picked or harvested fruit from noncommercial sources is allowed (b)(i); fresh fruit may be frozen in a household freezer and used later (b)(ii); 'all recipes must have a cook step included such as a hot fill or hot water bath, and freezer or refrigerator-style products are not approved' (b)(iii) — this is why the DPHHS FAQ answers 'Are freezer jams or jellies allowed?' with a flat 'No'; jars 'must be sealed in containers that are sterilized prior to filling' (b)(iv); and 'paraffin wax is not allowed for sealing' (b)(v)
• Dried fruit, ARM 37.110.503(1)(c), which is the most technically demanding item on the whole list and the one most often got wrong. Two doors. Door one: 'repackaged, commercially dried fruit or vegetables from an approved source as described in ARM 37.110.510(2)' — you buy it already dried and you repackage it. Door two: you dry it yourself, but ONLY fresh fruit that 'ha[s] a natural pH below 4.6', and the rule enumerates exactly which: 'apples, apricots, grapefruit, lemons, limes, mangos, nectarines, oranges, peaches, plums, pomegranates, tangerines, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, currants, gooseberries, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, and huckleberries'. That list is exhaustive for home-dried fruit — bananas, pears and figs are not on it. The process is prescribed too: 'during the fruit drying process the fruit must reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit within an hour of processing the fruit', then 'the fruit must then maintain 140 degrees Fahrenheit for the remainder of the drying process', and 'dried fruit may not be packaged using any method of reduced oxygen packaging, including vacuum packaging'. Note the asymmetry that catches people: you may REPACKAGE commercially dried vegetables, but home-dried VEGETABLES are not authorised under (c)(i)-(ii), which speaks only of fruits
• Dry herb combining and packaging, and seasoning and mixture combining, ARM 37.110.503(1)(d), 'examples of which are dry bean soup mixes, dry teas and coffees, and spice seasonings'
• Popcorn, popcorn balls, cotton candy — ARM 37.110.503(1)(e). The FAQ confirms cotton candy and 'most candy mints'
• Fudge, candies, and confections 'that require a cook step' — ARM 37.110.503(1)(f). The cook step is part of the authorisation, not decoration: a no-cook confection is outside the item as written
• Molded chocolate using commercial chocolate melts — ARM 37.110.503(1)(g). Note the qualifier: commercial melts, not bean-to-bar tempering
• Honey — ARM 37.110.503(1)(h). DPHHS publishes a separate 'Honey Sales FAQ', which is a signal that honey carries its own labeling and weights-and-measures questions beyond the cottage food rule
• Frostings and glazes, governed separately at ARM 37.110.503(2)(c): 'all frostings or glazes must have a cook step or be made with ingredients (such as a large amount of sugar) that when combined are stable at room temperature'. DPHHS applies this to buttercream: 'Only butter cream frosting that does not require refrigeration, for instance, if the recipe uses shortening instead of butter or the recipe has been tested and determined to be non-potentially hazardous'. A cream-cheese frosting is expressly given by ARM 37.110.511(7)(b) as an example of a change that makes a recipe potentially hazardous and triggers a whole new registration and fee
• Home-grown produce as an INGREDIENT is expressly fine. ARM 37.110.503(2)(a): 'fresh picked or harvested fruits from noncommercial sources are allowed in baked good products'; (2)(b): 'fresh fruits can be frozen and used at a later time as long as there is a cook step in the recipe'. DPHHS: 'You may use home grown vegetables, fruits, and eggs in the products you produce for sale'
• The case-by-case door, ARM 37.110.503(3): 'Other products may be approved on a case-by-case basis by the department in consultation with the local health authority of the county in which the cottage food operator is registered.' This is a real route — the DPHHS registration guidance repeats it as approved-food-list item (i) — and it is how an unlisted non-potentially-hazardous product gets in. It is also slow and discretionary: expect to supply a recipe with ingredient weights and, per the FAQ, possibly a process authority review and laboratory testing
• AND, on the entirely separate MLFCA track: essentially any homemade food, including potentially hazardous food, plus raw milk and cream from a 'small dairy' (MCA 50-49-202(6): 'no more than 5 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats, or 10 lactating sheep'), plus poultry from a producer slaughtering fewer than 1,000 birds a year under 50-49-203(7)(b). None of that is a cottage food product; it is lawful only under Title 50, chapter 49, part 2, and only through MLFCA's narrow channels

Not allowed under the program:

• Any potentially hazardous food, which is the master rule and not a list: MCA 50-50-102(4) admits only 'foods that are not potentially hazardous', and 50-50-102(19) defines that as 'food that requires time and temperature control for safety to limit toxin formation or the growth of pathogenic microorganisms'. If your product needs the refrigerator to stay safe, the cottage food route is closed no matter how it is packaged
• Custard-style pies, pies with unbaked fresh fruit, and pies requiring refrigeration after baking — excluded by the text of ARM 37.110.503(1)(a)(vii) itself. Pumpkin and cream pies are named by DPHHS as the standard examples
• Cheesecakes and refrigerated pastries — DPHHS: 'Certain baked goods are actually potentially hazardous, for example, some pumpkin and cream pies, cheese cakes, and pastries will support pathogenic growth and therefore require refrigeration'
• Freezer jams and freezer jellies — ARM 37.110.503(1)(b)(iii), 'freezer or refrigerator-style products are not approved'; DPHHS FAQ answers the question directly: 'No, products that must be stored in the refrigerator or freezer are not allowed'
• Home-canned fruits and vegetables. Montana allows jam and jelly but not canning generally, and DPHHS explains why: 'The preserved products allowed in Montana as cottage foods (jams, jellies, some fruit butters) have different characteristics than canned fruits and vegetables. Higher amounts of sugar in these products lower the water activity and therefore don't allow the growth of pathogens.' Pickles, canned green beans and canned tomatoes are not on the ARM 37.110.503 list
• Fermented foods of every kind — DPHHS FAQ, in terms: 'Are traditionally fermented foods allowed, for instance, lacto-fermented pickles and such? A. No, fermented foods are not allowed under the Montana Cottage Food Rules.' Kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut and lacto-fermented pickles are all out on the cottage food track
• Dairy products, including goat cheese — DPHHS: 'Dairy products and eggs are not eligible cottage food products.' The referral is to the Montana Department of Livestock, Milk and Egg Bureau, not to DPHHS
• Shell eggs as a cottage food product — same answer; eggs 'may be sold at farmers' markets with restrictions' under MCA 50-50-121(2)(a), which requires they be 'clean, free of cracks, and stored in clean cartons at a temperature established by the department by rule'. That is a farmers'-market exemption, not a cottage food authorisation
• Meat, poultry and fish products — nothing in ARM 37.110.503 authorises them, and they are potentially hazardous by definition. On the MLFCA side there is a specific and easily missed bar at 50-49-203(7)(a): 'Except for a temporary food establishment subject to 50-50-120, meat or meat products processed at a state-licensed establishment or a federally approved meat establishment, by the producer, or by any third party may not be used in preparation of homemade food that is sold pursuant to a transaction provided for in this part.' Read it slowly — under MLFCA you generally may not use meat in a homemade food for sale at all, whatever its source, with the sub-1,000-bird poultry exception at (7)(b)
• Home-dried vegetables (as opposed to repackaged commercially dried vegetables), and home-dried fruits outside the enumerated pH-below-4.6 list at ARM 37.110.503(1)(c)(i)
• Reduced-oxygen or vacuum packaging of dried fruit — ARM 37.110.503(1)(c)(ii)(C), an outright prohibition on a packaging method rather than a food
• Paraffin-sealed preserves — ARM 37.110.503(1)(b)(v), 'paraffin wax is not allowed for sealing'
• Pet treats — DPHHS FAQ: 'No, pet treats are not included in Montana's list of allowed cottage foods'
• Pumpkin butter, unless tested. DPHHS: 'Maybe. Due to the pH of pumpkin and the variations in how it is made, you would be required to have the recipe tested to determine if it is non-potentially hazardous'
• Alcohol-containing confections without clearance — DPHHS allows rum balls in principle but warns 'if there is no heat treatment to burn off the alcohol, the product will need testing to ensure it qualifies for non-beverage product status under Montana liquor laws'. The MLFCA guidance is harder still: 'The sale of rum-filled candy is prohibited under liquor control statutes and Department of Revenue (DOR) regulations'
• THC-infused products under either regime — DPHHS MLFCA guidance: 'The Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, Mont. Code Ann. 16-12-101, et. seq, requires a person who produces marijuana infused products to be licensed.' CBD is the odd exception on the MLFCA side only: the guidance concedes that because MLFCA disapplies the Montana Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 'the Department does not [have] regulatory oversight over homemade food and products sold in conformance with the requirements of MLFCA that contain CBD'. That reasoning does NOT transfer to a registered cottage food operation, which remains subject to those laws
• Health claims, on any label, advertisement, social post or spoken pitch — DPHHS MLFCA guidance: 'No, health claims cannot be on made on labels, advertisements, social media, verbally, etc.' Federal nutrient-content and health-claim law also bites via MCA 50-50-116(2)(b)(vi)

How much you may sell

THERE IS NO SALES CAP. This is the headline fact about Montana and it is an absence, not an omission in this fiche: MCA 50-50-116 and 50-50-117 were read in full and contain no dollar figure of any kind; MCA 50-50-102(3) and (4) contain none; ARM 37.110.501 through 37.110.514 contain none; and the DPHHS 'Cottage Food Operation Guidance and Registration' document and the 2024 Cottage Food FAQ state no annual limit. The only dollar amount anywhere in the Montana cottage food scheme is the $40.00 registration fee at ARM 37.110.511(7), which is a cost you pay, not a ceiling on what you earn. Montana therefore belongs to the no-cap group of states. A registered cottage food operation may in principle sell $200,000 of cookies a year and remain a cottage food operation, provided every other condition holds — the products stay on the approved list and on your registration, the kitchen stays the registered area of your domestic residence, and every sale stays a direct, face-to-face sale to a consumer in Montana. What Montana constrains is not volume but CHANNEL. The binding limit here is 50-50-102(6): a direct sale 'may not be by consignment or involve shipping or internet sales'. That, not a revenue threshold, is what will cap a Montana home business in practice, because it forecloses the growth paths (wholesale, shipping, e-commerce fulfilment) that a producer reaches for once volume rises. The Montana Local Food Choice Act likewise sets no dollar limit: MCA 50-49-201 to 50-49-203 contain no revenue threshold, and 50-49-203(1)(a) bars any state or local agency from imposing licensure or permitting on conforming homemade-food transactions at all. Again the limit is channel, not money — direct to an informed end consumer, in Montana, for home consumption or at a traditional community social event. Two consequences follow that a producer should plan around. First, growth in Montana is not a compliance cliff triggered by a number; it is a decision to change your legal form. When you want to ship, sell wholesale, or supply a store or restaurant, you leave the exemption voluntarily and obtain a licence — DPHHS's answer is 'Contact your local Environmental Health office for licensing and requirements to expand the types of products produced or how the product can be sold', and the MLFCA guidance is blunter: 'if you want to sell products at retail locations, you must obtain a wholesale food license through your local heath authority.' Second, income tax and self-employment tax arrive far below any food-safety threshold. DPHHS spells it out in the FAQ: 'You must pay self-employment tax and file Schedule SE (Form 1040) if the following applies: Your net earnings from self-employment (excluding church employee income) were $400 or more.' $400 of net profit, not $40,000, is the number that changes your filing obligations. CAUTION on secondary sources: several national cottage-food listicles state annual caps for Montana. No such figure exists in MCA 50-50-116, 50-50-117 or ARM subchapter 37.110.5 as read for this fiche. Treat any quoted Montana cap as wrong unless it is accompanied by a statutory or rule citation you can open.

Where you may sell

• The governing definition is MCA 50-50-102(6): 'Direct sale' means a face-to-face purchase or exchange of the cottage food product between the manufacturer or packager of a cottage food product and a consumer or individual purchasing the cottage food product as a gift. The direct sale may not be by consignment or involve shipping or internet sales.' Every channel question in Montana is answered by applying that one sentence. Note the gift clause: selling to someone who is buying your jam as a present for a third party is expressly a direct sale, so the recipient need not be the buyer
• ALLOWED — sale from your own home. This is the core case, and it is why the registration exists at all; the DPHHS registration guidance describes cottage foods as sold 'directly to the consumer within the State of Montana'
• ALLOWED — farmers' markets, flea markets, craft bazaars and fairs. DPHHS registration guidance, item 4: products 'may be delivered to the purchaser, sold at Farmers' Markets, flea markets, craft bazaars, fairs, etc.' For a farmers'-market-ONLY seller, remember MCA 50-50-121(1)(b): no cottage food registration is required at all
• ALLOWED — pre-arranged delivery to the buyer, by you. The FAQ blesses delivery ('may be delivered to the purchaser') because you personally handing over the goods is still face-to-face. The MLFCA guidance says the same on its track: 'Yes, as long as the sale was pre-arranged'
• ALLOWED — a table in a parking lot, with two caveats DPHHS supplies itself: 'This is allowable under the cottage food regulations. However, many towns and counties have local ordinances that ban sales of any type without a local business permit or license, including sales from your home. You would also need the parking lot owner's permission to conduct business there. Your product may only be stored temporarily in the motor vehicle used to transport it.' The vehicle-storage point is statutory: 50-50-116(5) permits storage 'only in the registered area of the primary domestic residence used to produce the cottage food product or temporarily in a motor vehicle used to transport cottage food products'
• ALLOWED — online advertising and order-taking, but never online fulfilment. DPHHS is precise about the line: 'A cottage food operator may advertise and coordinate the sale of their approved products via the internet, social media, other electronic communications, or phone. However, it must be a face-to-face sale to the consumer.' A Facebook page, an order form, Venmo payment in advance — all fine, so long as the handover is in person
• PROHIBITED — shipping and mail order of any kind. 50-50-102(6) excludes sales that 'involve shipping'; DPHHS names the carriers: 'Third party delivery services such as motorized or bike courier, USPS, UPS, FedEx, or any other mailing or shipping firm is not allowed.' A courier is not your agent for this purpose — using one destroys the face-to-face element
• PROHIBITED — marketplace platforms. DPHHS: 'Services such as Amazon, eBay, or other similar services where the transaction does not include face to face interaction between the buyer and seller are also not allowed'
• PROHIBITED — consignment, in the strongest terms Montana uses. MCA 50-50-116(3) is a standalone subsection: 'Providing cottage food products by consignment, including at a retail food establishment or through a wholesale establishment, is prohibited.' The word 'providing' is broader than 'selling' — leaving goods on a shop's shelf to be paid for after they sell is out even if no money changes hands up front
• PROHIBITED — wholesale, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops. DPHHS FAQ: 'No, the foods produced must be sold directly to the customer and only from the producers' home, or at a farmers' market, bazaar, or small venue... Selling or providing these food products to grocery stores or other retail food establishments such as restaurants is prohibited.' The MLFCA parallel is MCA 50-49-203(4): except for raw unprocessed fruit, vegetables and aquaculture products, 'homemade food may not be sold or used in a retail food establishment... unless the food has been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, and inspected as required by law'
• PROHIBITED — out-of-state sales. 50-50-102(3) confines the operation to 'direct sale to a consumer in this state', and the registration form repeats it: 'Products cannot be sold out of state.' MLFCA is identical in effect: 50-49-203(2)(c), transactions 'must occur only in this state and may not involve interstate commerce'
• MLFCA CHANNELS ARE DIFFERENT AND NARROWER IN ONE SURPRISING WAY. Under MCA 50-49-203(2)(b), MLFCA transactions 'must be only for home consumption or consumption at a traditional community social event'. 'Traditional community social event' is defined at 50-49-202(7) and expressly includes a wedding, funeral, church or religious social, school event, FARMER'S MARKET, potluck, neighborhood gathering, club meeting or social, and youth or adult outdoor club or sporting event. But because that list is the outer boundary, DPHHS reads MLFCA as excluding the roadside stand: 'Can producers set up a stand or vehicle on the side of the road to sell their products? A. No, in order to sell products outside of their home, the producer must be tied to a traditional community event.' So the parking-lot table that IS allowed for a registered cottage food operation is NOT allowed for an MLFCA producer. This inversion — the freer statute being stricter on one channel — is the most counter-intuitive thing in Montana law and it is worth re-reading
• MLFCA also bars off-site assembly: 'No, all products made under MLFCA must be prepared in a private home kitchen. No food preparation is allowed outside of the private home kitchen. Licensing such as a retail food license or temporary permit is required for any offsite preparation.' And it does not bind private market operators: 'nothing under the MLFCA prevents privately operated Farmer's Markets from electing to impose more stringent requirements. Therefore, privately operated Farmer's Markets can elect to require producers and vendors to obtain a license, registration, or permit from the local health authority as a condition of sale at the market.' Ask your market manager before assuming your MLFCA status is enough
• Farmers' market operators carry their own duty that will affect you as a vendor. MCA 50-50-121(3)-(5): the market 'shall keep registration records of all persons and organizations that serve or sell food exempt from licensure at the market', including 'the name, address, and telephone number of the seller or server as well as the types of products sold or served and the date on which the products were sold or served', and must make those records available to the local health authority on request. Expect to sign the market's vendor register
• One labeling consequence of channel choice, easily missed: MCA 50-50-121(6) provides that 'Except for homemade food or a homemade food product pursuant to Title 50, chapter 49, food sold in a farmer's market must, if sold in a container, have a label similar to a label required of a cottage food product under 50-50-116.' So a farmers'-market seller who is NOT registered and NOT under MLFCA still owes a cottage-food-style label; only the MLFCA producer is label-free

Permit, registration and fees

Registration is handled by The LOCAL health authority — the county environmental health office or sanitarian — not the state. MCA 50-50-117(1): 'A person in charge of a cottage food operation shall register with the local health authority in the county in which the person's domestic residence is located and pay a registration fee as provided in subsection (6).' 'Local health officer' is defined at 50-50-102(13) and 'regulatory authority' at 50-50-102(22) as 'the department, the local board of health, the local health officer, or the local sanitarian'. The state's role is downstream and administrative: 50-50-117(4), 'The local health authority shall submit a copy of the approved registration to the department, which may maintain a listing of cottage food operations', and the DPHHS registration form describes the mechanics — 'A LIST OF APPROVED PRODUCTS WILL BE SENT FROM THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICE TO THE STATE OFFICE. THE STATE OFFICE WILL PRINT THE REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE AND MAIL IT TO THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICE TO VALIDATE AND SEND TO YOU.' The state agency is the Department of Public Health and Human Services (50-50-102(5)), Environmental Health and Food Safety / Food and Consumer Safety Section, 1400 Broadway, Helena MT 59620; the county directory is published on the DPHHS food safety pages. TRIBAL LANDS: MCA 50-50-117(7) lets a tribal government 'pursue an agreement with the department pursuant to the authority provided in 50-1-106 to coordinate the registration of cottage food operations subject to tribal regulations', and 50-50-117(8) provides that 'If there is not a cooperative agreement pursuant to subsection (7), a person in charge of a cottage food operation may register with the department.' DPHHS guidance: 'For those Native Americans living on Montana's reservations, contact your tribal environmental health office to determine what agency will be reviewing and registering Cottage Food operations.'.

1. Decide your regime first. If every sale will be at a farmers' market, MCA 50-50-121(1)(b) means you need no cottage food registration and DPHHS says so: 'This registration is NOT required if products are only being sold at farmers' markets.' If your product is potentially hazardous or off the approved list and your channels fit MCA 50-49-203, the Local Food Choice Act needs no registration, no fee and no filing whatsoever. Only if you want to sell approved non-potentially-hazardous food from your home, by delivery, or at non-market venues should you proceed
2. Check your products against ARM 37.110.503 before you fill in anything. An unlisted product is not automatically banned — 37.110.503(3) allows case-by-case approval 'by the department in consultation with the local health authority' — but it will slow your file and may attract a process authority review and laboratory testing
3. Obtain the form: 'Montana DPHHS Cottage Food Operation Guidance and Registration' (FCSS March 2020), or the fillable version 'cottagefoodregistrationfillable2020Dec.pdf', both published on the DPHHS cottage food page. There is no online portal; this is a paper filing to your county
4. Complete the identification block: name of operation, owner name(s), street address of the home kitchen, city, county, mailing address if different, phone, email, and whether you were previously registered (with the prior registration number). This maps to the statutory content requirements at 50-50-117(2)(a)-(b) — the name of the operation and 'the physical address of the domestic residence, as defined in 50-50-102, where the ingredients are manufactured or packaged into cottage food products and stored'
5. Attach a RECIPE for every product. The form's instruction is emphatic: 'FILL OUT THIS APPLICATION PROVIDING A RECIPE FOR EACH PRODUCT WITH INGREDIENT WEIGHTS (NOT VOLUMES). SEE ATTACHMENT 1'. ARM 37.110.511(5) adds the reassurance most producers want: 'The recipe for each product must be submitted with the application for review and kept on file at the cottage food operation location. Ingredient lists are subject to public disclosure, but recipes are proprietary and are not subject to public disclosure.' Your recipe is not a public record; your ingredient list is
6. Attach a LABEL for every product — 50-50-117(2)(e) requires 'a copy of each cottage food product label', and the form repeats 'SUBMIT A LABEL FOR EACH PRODUCT WITH THE APPLICATION. SEE ATTACHMENT 4'. Build the label to MCA 50-50-116(2)(b) and use the specimen at ARM 37.110.504(2) as your template
7. Provide 'a brief description of expected or known food ingredient sources' (50-50-117(2)(c)) and 'a complete list of the cottage food products manufactured or packaged' (50-50-117(2)(d)). ARM 37.110.511(3) adds 'a detailed description of cottage food product manufacturing process including equipment and utensils to be used', and 37.110.511(2) your mailing address, phone and email
8. Prove your WATER, which is the step most applicants do not expect. ARM 37.110.511(6): at registration you must demonstrate the water is 'from an approved public water system' OR 'meets minimum drinking water standards from a certified laboratory by providing results for total coliform and nitrates from the private well serving the domestic residence'. The thresholds and their ages are specific: 'nitrates must be below 10 mg/L from a sample within the last 12 months' and 'total coliforms must be absent from a sample within the last 6 months', and 'failure to meet minimum drinking water standards will result in registration being withheld until samples are provided that meet the minimum nitrate and total coliform standards'. If you are on a private well — common in rural Montana — book the lab test before you file, not after
9. Confirm your SEWAGE disposal. ARM 37.110.511(4): the registrant 'must dispose of sewage through an approved facility that is: (a) a public sewage treatment plant; or (b) an individual sewage disposal system that is operated according to law'
10. Sign the inspection-access acknowledgement on the form: 'The information provided in this application accurately represents my operation and I understand that I must grant the local health official access to my residence for the purpose of inspection in the event of a complaint based on an illness associated with my product(s).' You are consenting in advance to complaint-triggered access
11. Send the completed application to your local environmental health office with payment: 'SEND THE COMPLETED APPLICATION TO YOUR LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICE WITH A CHECK OR MONEY ORDER FOR $40.00.' ARM 37.110.511(7): 'A registration fee of $40.00 must be paid to the county in which the cottage food operation is registered.' MCA 50-50-117(6) makes it 'a nonrefundable registration fee to the county', sets the fee by department rule, and directs that 'The county shall deposit the registration fee with the county treasurer'
12. Expect follow-up questions: 'ONCE SUBMITTED, YOUR LOCAL SANITARIAN WILL CONTACT YOU WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR TO REQUEST ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.' MCA 50-50-117(3) authorises this but bounds it: 'A local health authority may request additional food safety information, if needed, and shall submit the list of additional information to the department. The additional requested information may not restrain trade through extensive registration requirements.' If a county demands something disproportionate, that final clause is your statutory answer
13. Receive and keep the certificate. The state prints it, the county validates and sends it. ARM 37.110.511(7) then gives you statewide reach: 'Once registered a cottage food operator may sell their registered products anywhere in the state of Montana.' One county registration, fifty-six counties of selling
14. KNOW WHEN YOU MUST RE-REGISTER AND PAY AGAIN — this is the recurring cost Montana producers most often trip over, because the fee is one-time only if nothing changes. ARM 37.110.511(7): 'The cottage food operation must register again with the local health authority and pay the registration fee if it wishes to change the location of its cottage food operation or produce new products. Recipe changes to an existing approved product that necessitate redetermination as to whether that product constitutes a non-potentially hazardous food or contains a major allergen are new products for the purposes of this rule.' The rule then gives three worked examples: '(a) when a cottage food operator moves to a new house; (b) when a cottage food operator changes a recipe in a way that may make the recipe potentially hazardous or adds an allergen, such as switching from a traditional frosting to one that contains cream cheese or adding walnuts to chocolate chip cookies; and (c) when a cottage food operator wishes to make a completely new product, such as dried fruit when they had previously registered chocolate...' Adding walnuts to a cookie is a new product. Plan your product range at first filing
15. If registration is REFUSED, you have an appeal. MCA 50-50-117(5): 'If a local health authority refuses to register a cottage food operation, the provisions of 50-50-215 apply, including the requirement for notification of the cottage food operation in writing.' Demand the written refusal and follow 50-50-215
16. Separately, register a trade name if you use one. DPHHS: 'If you are using a trade name that is different from your own legal name, you must register it with the Montana Secretary of State (for sole proprietorships & partnerships). https://sos.mt.gov/business'

Fee: $40.00, non-refundable, paid by check or money order to the county in which you register — ARM 37.110.511(7) and MCA 50-50-117(6). Payable again on each re-registration event described above. There is no state fee, no MLFCA fee, and no fee for a farmers'-market-only seller. Ancillary costs a producer should expect but which are not registration fees: private-well laboratory testing for nitrates and total coliform if you are not on a public water system (ARM 37.110.511(6)), any process authority review or laboratory testing demanded for a borderline product (DPHHS FAQ), and Secretary of State trade-name registration if you trade under a name other than your own.

Renewal: No annual renewal and no expiry date appears anywhere in MCA 50-50-117 or ARM 37.110.511. The fee is described by DPHHS as 'a one-time registration fee of $40.00'. What replaces renewal is an event-driven re-registration: ARM 37.110.511(7) requires a fresh registration and a fresh $40.00 whenever you move house, add a product, or change a recipe in a way that could make it potentially hazardous or introduce a major allergen. Budget the fee per product-launch, not per year. NOT CONFIRMED: whether any individual county imposes its own periodic renewal or update requirement on top of the state rule; counties administer the file and the statute permits additional food safety information under 50-50-117(3), so ask your sanitarian.

Food safety training

NONE. Montana requires no food safety training, no course, no examination, no food handler card and no certificate of any kind from a cottage food operator. This was verified negatively and deliberately: MCA 50-50-116 and 50-50-117 were read in full and impose no training duty; MCA 50-50-102 defines no training term applicable to cottage food operators; and ARM subchapter 37.110.5 — rules .501 purpose, .502 definitions, .503 approved products, .504 labeling, .506 operator health, .507 personal cleanliness, .508 hygienic practices, .510 manufacture, .511 registration requirements, .513 enforcement and inspections, .514 samples (with .505, .509 and .512 reserved) — contains no training requirement in any of them. The DPHHS registration guidance's five numbered requirements are sanitary operations, approved food list, compliant labels, direct sales, and registration; training is not among them. Neither the 2024 Cottage Food FAQ nor the registration form mentions ServSafe or any equivalent. Note the contrast that proves the drafters knew how to require training when they wanted it: MCA 50-50-301(2) requires that the INSPECTOR 'must be certified and have completed a food safety training program, such as the program administered by the national restaurant association educational foundation or its equivalent'. The duty is placed on the regulator, not on the home producer. The Montana Local Food Choice Act requires no training either, and could not: MCA 50-49-203(1)(a) forbids any state or local agency from requiring 'licensure, permitting, certification' for conforming homemade-food transactions, and 'certification' would cover a mandated food handler card. What replaces training is a set of directly enforceable personal conduct rules that read like a food code and bind you whether or not anyone ever taught them to you. ARM 37.110.506 bars manufacturing while experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, or an open or draining pus-containing lesion (with detailed covering rules for hands, wrists, arms and elsewhere), or symptoms diagnosed by a health practitioner of norovirus, hepatitis A, Shigella spp., shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Salmonella typhi or nontyphoidal Salmonella; 37.110.506(2) adds that an operator with 'persistent sneezing, coughing, or a runny nose that causes discharges from the eyes, nose, or mouth must not work with exposed food'. ARM 37.110.507 prescribes handwashing to the second — 'rub together vigorously for at least 10 to 15 seconds' — lists nine trigger events for washing, requires trimmed and cleanable fingernails, bans fingernail polish and artificial nails when working with unpackaged food unless intact gloves are worn, and bans jewelry on hands and arms 'except for a plain ring such as a wedding band... including medical information jewelry'. ARM 37.110.508 forbids eating, drinking or tobacco use in the registered area during preparation and requires 'a barrier between the registered area of their domestic residence and all pets while preparing and packaging cottage food items'. ARM 37.110.510 requires approved sources, pasteurized grade A milk products, refrigerated storage of eggs and dairy ingredients, no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food, no double-dipping of tasting utensils, cleanable food-contact surfaces, and sanitizing by '100 ppm chlorine bleach solution (or other approved sanitizer)' or a dishwasher sanitizing cycle. DPHHS gives the domestic recipe in the FAQ: '1 scant teaspoon of unscented household bleach (5.25% to 6%) in a quart of water. Spray onto your counter and let stand for one minute and then wipe off.' Practical read: no course to buy, but read ARM 37.110.506 through .510 once, properly. They are the actual standard you will be judged against if a complaint ever arrives, and MCA 50-50-116(2)(a) independently requires you to 'follow department food standards as provided in rule, including applicable provisions implementing the 2013 United States food and drug administration food code'. Montana's cottage food scheme is pinned to the 2013 FDA Food Code by statute, not to the current edition — a fixed reference point that does not move when FDA revises.

Inspection

No routine inspection, and the statute says so twice over. MCA 50-50-116(7): 'A cottage food operation that meets the requirements in this section is not a retail food establishment or a wholesale food establishment and is not subject to licensure or inspection requirements under Title 50, chapter 57, or this chapter.' The inspection statute itself carves you out at MCA 50-50-301(3)(a): 'A cottage food operation is not subject to inspection under this section unless the state or local health officer is investigating a complaint based on an illness or an outbreak suspected to be directly related to cottage food products.' ARM 37.110.513(1) simply points back: 'Cottage food operations will be inspected according to the requirements of 50-50-301(3), MCA.' DPHHS answers the question in one line: 'Are Cottage Food Operations inspected? A. No, Cottage Food Operations are not inspected, unless there is a complaint or illness investigation.' There is no opening inspection, no annual visit, no unannounced routine check — which is the deliberate contrast with 50-50-301(1), where licensed retail food establishments are inspected 'once a year' and possibly 'more often'. Read the exception narrowly and precisely, because it is narrower than in most states: the trigger is not any complaint. It is 'a complaint based on an ILLNESS or an OUTBREAK suspected to be directly related to cottage food products'. A neighbour complaining about traffic, smells, or the fact that you are running a business does not authorise an inspection under 50-50-301(3)(a) — though it may well trigger a zoning enforcement visit from an entirely different office. You have pre-consented to the illness inspection. The DPHHS registration form makes you sign that 'I understand that I must grant the local health official access to my residence for the purpose of inspection in the event of a complaint based on an illness associated with my product(s).' There is also a product-sampling duty: ARM 37.110.514(1), 'A cottage food operator must furnish cottage food product or ingredient samples for analysis upon request of the regulatory authority when the food is suspected of being associated with an illness or outbreak', and ARM 37.110.511(6)(c) adds that 'Water sampling may also be required by the state or local health authority when cottage food is suspected of being associated with an illness or outbreak.' A voluntary inspection exists and is occasionally worth buying. MCA 50-50-301(3)(b): 'A cottage food operation may request an inspection and pay the appropriate costs for that inspection on a voluntary basis.' Producers use this to satisfy a market manager, an event organiser or an insurer. NOT CONFIRMED: what a voluntary inspection costs — the statute says only 'the appropriate costs', no figure is set in ARM subchapter 37.110.5, and pricing appears to be a county matter. Being exempt from inspection is not being exempt from regulation, and Montana is explicit. MCA 50-50-116(6): '(a) A cottage food operation is subject to local health authority or state enforcement action for violations of applicable department regulations. (b) Cottage food products may be subject to other state or federal laws or regulations.' ARM 37.110.513(2): 'Cottage food operators in violation of this subchapter are subject to enforcement action in accordance with Title 50, chapter 50, part 1, MCA.' You are an unlicensed but fully regulated operator whose file is a registration rather than a licence. MLFCA producers get the same shield at MCA 50-50-301(4): a producer selling homemade food under Title 50, chapter 49, part 2 'is not subject to inspection under this section unless the state or local health officer is investigating a complaint based on an illness or an outbreak suspected to be directly related to that homemade food or homemade food product' — with 50-49-203(1)(b) preserving voluntary help: 'This part does not preclude an agency from providing assistance, consultation, or inspection requested by a producer.' NOT CONFIRMED, and worth knowing before you rely on it: the statute and rules are silent on how much notice precedes a complaint-driven visit, who at the county decides that a complaint is 'illness-based', and what happens to your registration during an investigation. MCA 50-50-215 governs refusals and, by its cross-reference in 50-50-117(5), is the procedural anchor to read if your registration is ever refused or challenged in writing.

What your city or county may add

Montana's cottage food statute contains no preemption clause. MCA 50-50-116 and 50-50-117 were read in full for this fiche and neither displaces municipal or county authority over anything other than food licensure and inspection; what 50-50-116(7) removes is only the status of 'retail food establishment or a wholesale food establishment' and the associated 'licensure or inspection requirements under Title 50, chapter 57, or this chapter'. Everything else a town can require, it can still require. DPHHS says so in the FAQ without being asked twice: 'many towns and counties have local ordinances that ban sales of any type without a local business permit or license, including sales from your home.' That sentence is the one to act on. Before your first sale, call the city or county clerk about a business licence and the planning or zoning office about home occupations — in a state where the food regulator has told you in writing that local bans exist, discovering one afterwards is not a defence. The county is not a stranger to your food file either — it IS your food regulator. Unlike states with a single central agency, Montana routes cottage food registration entirely through the county: MCA 50-50-117(1) sends you to 'the local health authority in the county in which the person's domestic residence is located', 50-50-117(3) lets that authority 'request additional food safety information, if needed', and 50-50-117(6) sends your $40.00 to the county treasurer. Practice will therefore vary between Cascade, Missoula, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Lewis and Clark and the rural counties, and the correct expectation is that your sanitarian's reading of ARM 37.110.503 is the one that governs your file. The statutory check on county overreach is the last clause of 50-50-117(3): additional requested information 'may not restrain trade through extensive registration requirements'. The statutory check on refusal is 50-50-117(5) with 50-50-215, including written notice. Once registered, your reach is statewide and no second county can charge you again for selling there: ARM 37.110.511(7), 'Once registered a cottage food operator may sell their registered products anywhere in the state of Montana.' Tribal jurisdiction is a genuine third layer, and Montana handles it explicitly rather than by silence. MCA 50-50-117(7) authorises a tribal government to 'pursue an agreement with the department pursuant to the authority provided in 50-1-106 to coordinate the registration of cottage food operations subject to tribal regulations', and the agreement 'must include an appeals process if the registration is not approved'; 50-50-117(8) provides the fallback that without such an agreement a producer 'may register with the department' directly. DPHHS instructs reservation residents to 'contact your tribal environmental health office to determine what agency will be reviewing and registering Cottage Food operations.' NOT CONFIRMED: which Montana tribes have concluded a 50-1-106 agreement and what their registration terms are; no tribal code was surveyed for this fiche. Farmers' markets add a fourth layer of rules that are not health rules. A market authorised by a municipal or county authority under MCA 7-21-3301 must keep a vendor register under 50-50-121(3)-(5). And MLFCA expressly frees producers from county-commissioner market regulation at 50-49-203(2)(d) — transactions under the Act 'are not subject to regulation by a board of county commissioners pursuant to 7-21-3301' — while equally expressly leaving PRIVATE market operators free to be stricter: 'privately operated Farmer's Markets can elect to require producers and vendors to obtain a license, registration, or permit from the local health authority as a condition of sale at the market.' Your market's rulebook can be tougher than the state's, lawfully. Two private constraints that are not law but end just as many businesses. Landlords: DPHHS, 'Do check policies of your landlord about operating a small business out of your rented home or apartment' — noting that MCA 50-50-102(7) permits a rented or leased domestic residence, so this is a contractual, not a statutory, barrier. Insurance: DPHHS, 'You should check with your homeowner insurance company or your landlord if you are operating out of a rental property. Many homeowner insurance policies will not extend liability coverage to liabilities that result from the activities of a home-based business.' There is no state liability shield for a Montana cottage food operator; the MLFCA guidance is candid on this for its own track — 'the producer/person making the food products could face civil liability if individuals become ill from consuming the products, regardless of the type of products being made'. Finally, agency boundaries. Dairy and eggs are the Department of Livestock's Milk and Egg Bureau, not DPHHS. Meat and poultry questions under MLFCA go to the Department of Livestock, which publishes its own SB 199 meat guidance. Alcohol and marijuana infusions are the Department of Revenue. Trade names are the Secretary of State. DPHHS's own escalation map, from the MLFCA guidance: 'For products containing meat and poultry, contact the local county sanitarian or Montana Department of Livestock. For products containing alcohol and/or drugs, contact Montana Department of Revenue. Please contact the local county sanitarian for all other products.'.

Program sources: MCA 50-50-116, 'Conditions for cottage food operation exemption from licensure and routine facility inspection', Montana Code Annotated 2025 — (1) registration as a condition of status; (2)(a) 2013 FDA Food Code standards; (2)(b)(i)-(vii) the seven label elements and the verbatim 11-point disclaimer; (3) consignment prohibition; (4) registered-area production; (5) storage limits including the transport vehicle; (6) enforcement and other laws; (7) not a retail or wholesale food establishment. History: 'En. Sec. 1, Ch. 239, L. 2015' — never amended. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0500/part_0010/section_0160/0500-0500-0010-0160.html · MCA 50-50-117, 'Registration of cottage food operations -- fee', MCA 2025 — (1) register with the local health authority in your county and pay the fee; (2)(a)-(e) required registration content including a copy of each product label; (3) additional information may not 'restrain trade through extensive registration requirements'; (4) copy to the department; (5) refusal triggers 50-50-215 and written notice; (6) nonrefundable fee to the county, set by department rule, deposited with the county treasurer; (7)-(8) tribal agreements under 50-1-106 and the direct-to-department fallback. History: 'En. Sec. 2, Ch. 239, L. 2015'. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0500/part_0010/section_0170/0500-0500-0010-0170.html · MCA 50-50-102, Definitions, MCA 2025 — (3) 'cottage food operation'; (4) 'cottage food products'; (5) 'department'; (6) 'direct sale' including the consignment, shipping and internet exclusions; (7) 'domestic residence'; (8) 'farmer's market'; (13) 'local health officer'; (19) 'potentially hazardous food'; (21) 'registered area'; (22) 'regulatory authority'; (24)(c)(iv) cottage food operations excluded from 'retail food establishment'; (24)(c)(xiv) the farmers' market exclusion referencing Title 50, chapter 49. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0500/part_0010/section_0020/0500-0500-0010-0020.html · MCA 50-50-121, 'Requirements for farmer's markets', MCA 2025 — (1)(b) no cottage food registration required if selling only at a farmer's market; (2)(a)-(e) the eligible foods including homemade food under Title 50, chapter 49; (3)-(5) the market's vendor registration records and their availability to the local health authority; (6) the label duty for container-sold market food, excepting MLFCA homemade food. History includes 'amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 347, L. 2023'. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0500/part_0010/section_0210/0500-0500-0010-0210.html · MCA 50-50-301, 'Health officers and sanitarians to make investigations and inspections -- training requirements', MCA 2025 — (1) annual inspection of retail food establishments; (2) inspector training requirement; (3)(a) cottage food operations not subject to inspection absent an illness or outbreak complaint; (3)(b) voluntary paid inspection; (4) the same shield for MLFCA producers. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0500/part_0030/section_0010/0500-0500-0030-0010.html · MCA 50-49-201, Montana Local Food Choice Act, short title and purpose, MCA 2025; 'En. Sec. 1, Ch. 320, L. 2021'. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0490/part_0020/section_0010/0500-0490-0020-0010.html · MCA 50-49-202, MLFCA definitions, MCA 2025 — (1) 'deliver'; (2) 'home consumption'; (3) 'homemade'; (4) 'informed end consumer'; (5) 'producer'; (6) 'small dairy' (no more than 5 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats, or 10 lactating sheep); (7) 'traditional community social event' with its nine enumerated examples; (8) 'transaction'. History: 'En. Sec. 2, Ch. 320, L. 2021; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 347, L. 2023'. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0490/part_0020/section_0020/0500-0490-0020-0020.html · MCA 50-49-203, 'Exemptions from regulations -- transactions -- information required -- exceptions', MCA 2025 — (1)(a) the blanket bar on state and local licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling or inspection; (1)(c) a producer is not a cottage food operation; (1)(d) the disapplied statutes; (2)(a)-(d) the four transaction conditions; (3) the duty to inform the end consumer; (4) no sale into a retail food establishment; (5)-(6) donations and the milk-donation bar; (7)(a)-(b) the meat prohibition and the sub-1,000-bird poultry exception; (8)(a)-(c) small dairy testing every 6 months, brucellosis annually, 2-year records. History: 'En. Sec. 3, Ch. 320, L. 2021; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 347, L. 2023; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 344, L. 2025'. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0490/part_0020/section_0030/0500-0490-0020-0030.html · ARM 37.110.503, 'Approved cottage food products' (NEW, 2015 MAR p. 1494, eff. 9/25/2015) — (1) the closed registration principle and items (a)(i)-(ix) oven-baked goods including the pie carve-out, (b) standardized jams/jellies/preserves/fruit butters under 21 CFR Part 150 with the cook-step, sterilization and no-paraffin conditions, (c) dried fruit with the enumerated pH-below-4.6 species list and the 160F/140F drying protocol and the reduced-oxygen packaging ban, (d) dry herbs and seasonings, (e) popcorn and cotton candy, (f) cooked fudge and confections, (g) molded chocolate from commercial melts, (h) honey; (2) fresh fruit, freezing and the frosting/glaze rule; (3) case-by-case approval by the department in consultation with the local health authority. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/montana/ARM-37-110-503 · ARM 37.110.504, 'Labeling' — (1) adherence to 50-50-116, MCA; (2) the department's specimen label showing the disclaimer in capitals above the product name, net weight in ounces and grams, full ingredient and sub-ingredient declaration, a 'Contains:' allergen line, and the operator's name and street address; (3) the large-cake and bulk-container alternative of a product label sheet provided to the consumer. Fetched HTTP 200 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/montana/ARM-37-110-504 · ARM 37.110.511, 'Registration requirements' — (2) contact details; (3) detailed manufacturing process description; (4) approved sewage disposal; (5) recipes submitted and kept on file, ingredient lists public but recipes proprietary; (6)(a)-(c) the water demonstration, the nitrate below 10 mg/L within 12 months and total coliform absent within 6 months standards, withholding of registration on failure, and illness-related water sampling; (7) the $40.00 fee to the county, statewide selling once registered, and the re-registration triggers with the three worked examples (moving house, cream-cheese frosting or added walnuts, a wholly new product). Fetched HTTP 200 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/montana/ARM-37-110-511 · ARM 37.110.501 purpose; 37.110.502 definitions ('baked goods', 'cottage food operator', 'approved'); 37.110.506 cottage food operator health (the exclusionary symptoms and six diagnosed illnesses); 37.110.507 personal cleanliness (the 10-15 second handwash, nine trigger events, fingernail, polish and jewelry rules); 37.110.508 hygienic practices (no eating, drinking or tobacco in the registered area; a barrier against all pets); 37.110.510 manufacture of cottage food products (approved sources, pasteurized grade A milk, refrigerated egg and dairy storage, no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food, 100 ppm chlorine sanitizing, chemical storage); 37.110.513 enforcement and inspections; 37.110.514 samples. All NEW, 2015 MAR p. 1494, eff. 9/25/2015; each fetched HTTP 200 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/montana/ARM-37-110-501 (and parallel URLs for .502, .506, .507, .508, .510, .513, .514). Rules 37.110.505, .509 and .512 are reserved · Montana DPHHS, 'Montana DPHHS Cottage Food Operation Guidance and Registration' (FCSS March 2020; fillable December 2020 version) — the five numbered requirements, the approved food list as paraphrased by the department, the statement that 'This registration is NOT required if products are only being sold at farmers' markets', the $40.00 one-time fee and re-registration warning, the tribal environmental health referral, the application form fields, the recipe-with-ingredient-weights and label instructions, the mailing instruction with cheque or money order, the certificate workflow, and the signed inspection-access acknowledgement. PDF downloaded (HTTP 200, 1,026,800 bytes) and extracted with pdftotext — https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/publichealth/FCS/CottageFood/cottagefoodregistrationfillable2020Dec.pdf · Montana DPHHS, 'Cottage Food Frequently Asked Questions' (page footer 'EHFS February 2018'; published under the filename cottagefoodfrequentlyaskedquestions2024.pdf) — the $40.00 one-time fee, the farmers' market registration exemption, trade name registration with the Secretary of State, the grocery store and restaurant prohibition, the parking-lot answer, the online advertising versus face-to-face sale rule with the named carriers and platforms, 'Cottage Food Operations are not inspected, unless there is a complaint or illness investigation', the wedding cake invoice method, the apartment and second-kitchen answers, the bleach sanitizer recipe, the pie, cheesecake and buttercream answers, 'No, fermented foods are not allowed under the Montana Cottage Food Rules', 'Dairy products and eggs are not eligible cottage food products', process authority and laboratory testing, the pumpkin butter and rum ball answers, 'pet treats are not included', the homeowner insurance warning, and the $400 self-employment tax threshold. PDF downloaded (HTTP 200, 284,242 bytes) and extracted with pdftotext — https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/publichealth/FCS/CottageFood/cottagefoodfrequentlyaskedquestions2024.pdf · Montana DPHHS, Public Health and Safety Division, 'Montana Local Food Choice Act Guidance', dated October 1, 2023 — background and the three MLFCA requirements, the definitions restated, civil liability, the alcohol, THC and CBD analysis, the ban on health claims, the farmers' market analysis including that private markets may impose stricter conditions, what qualifies as informing the consumer, the prohibition on selling into retail locations, 'No, in order to sell products outside of their home, the producer must be tied to a traditional community event', delivery permitted where pre-arranged, no off-site assembly, and the complaint routing to the county sanitarian, Department of Livestock or Department of Revenue. PDF downloaded (HTTP 200, 661,223 bytes) and extracted with pdftotext — https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/publichealth/FCS/CottageFood/MLFCAGuidanceDoc-FAQ10.1.23.pdf · Montana DPHHS Environmental Health and Food Safety, 'Cottage Food and Farmers Markets' program page — links to the registration guidance and fillable form, 'Safe Handling Guidelines for Cottage Food Operators', the Cottage Foods FAQ, the Honey Sales FAQ and the Montana Local Food Choice Act Guide, and the statement of the legal framework as '50-50-101, MCA through 50-50-403' plus 'Title 37, Chapter 110, Subchapter 5 Cottage Food Operations'. Fetched — https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/EHFS/cottagefoodfarmersmarkets