Cottage food rules
Cottage Food Laws MT: What Montana Home Bakers Must Know
The Montana rules for selling bakes from your home kitchen, in plain words.
On this page
What to remember
- Baked goods, jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butters, and dry spice blends can be made in a home kitchen.
- Montana DPHHS publishes Cottage Food Operation guidance and a registration form operators must complete.
- There is no dollar limit on Montana cottage food sales.
- The Local Food Choice Act, the cottage food rules, and the farmers market rules each carry their own requirements.
If you bake from your home oven in Montana and sell to neighbors and market customers, this is the set of rules that covers you. Below is what you can make, how to register, and where to check the fine print. When you get to packaging, what your label has to say picks up where this leaves off.
What you can make in a Montana home kitchen
The state rules are built around non potentially hazardous foods. The examples named in Montana guidance are baked goods, jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butters, and dry spice blends. For a home baker that is a wide list, and it covers most of what a small baking business sells in a normal week.
Register your cottage food operation
Montana DPHHS publishes Cottage Food Operation guidance together with the cottage food registration form that operators must complete. The form also comes as a fillable PDF, and that file has to be completed and then printed to be saved.
Read the state guidance
Start with the Cottage Food Operation guidance on the DPHHS cottage food and farmers market page so you know which rules apply to what you bake.
Fill in the registration form
Complete the Montana cottage food registration form. If you use the fillable PDF, complete it and then print it to save it.
Check which rule set fits
The Montana Local Food Choice Act, the cottage food rules, and the farmers market rules all allow foods made in a home kitchen, but each has its own exemptions and requirements.
Keep your paperwork together
Store your registration, your recipe list, and your label wording in one place you can find on a busy morning.
No sales cap, and the rules that still apply
Montana sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, so the ceiling on growth is the home kitchen and the baker’s time rather than a statutory cap. That makes the paperwork and the label the parts worth getting right early. The cottage food rules themselves sit in Montana Administrative Rules Subchapter 37.110.5, which includes rule 37.110.510 on the manufacture of cottage food products.
The Montana Department of Agriculture Food Ag Regulatory Resources page links to Montana Farmer’s Market and Cottage Food Information and to Montana Food Freedom Law Guidance, which is worth a look if you sell in more than one setting. If you are still working out whether your product is allowed, find the rule that applies to you walks through the questions to ask. Bakers who sell eggs next to their cakes should read cottage food laws and eggs before adding them to the table.
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Common questions
Do I need to register to sell baked goods from my home in Montana?
Montana DPHHS publishes Cottage Food Operation guidance along with a cottage food registration form that operators must complete. The registration form is also available as a fillable PDF, which has to be completed and then printed to be saved.
What foods can I sell as a Montana cottage food operation?
State guidance names non potentially hazardous foods such as baked goods, jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butters, and dry spice blends as foods that can be produced in a home kitchen.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell?
No. Montana sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, so the limit is your home kitchen and your time rather than a number in the rules.
Where do I find the Montana cottage food registration form?
Montana DPHHS publishes it on its cottage food and farmers market page, and a fillable PDF version is available. The fillable file must be completed and then printed to be saved.
Do farmers market rules apply to me too?
They can. The Montana Local Food Choice Act, the cottage food rules, and the farmers market rules all allow foods made in a home kitchen, but each one has its own exemptions and requirements.
Sources
- Montana DPHHS Cottage Food Registration
- Montana DPHHS Cottage Food and Farmers Markets
- Montana Fillable Cottage Food Registration Form
- Cottage Food Law Library: Montana
- Cascade County MT: Home Kitchens
- Montana Administrative Rules: Cottage Food Operations
- Montana Department of Agriculture: Food Ag Regulatory Resources
General information only, not legal or tax advice. Rules change, so confirm the current requirements with Montana DPHHS before you sell.