Cottage food rules
New Iowa Cottage Food Laws: What Home Bakers Need
What Iowa's cottage food rules actually allow, in plain words for a home baker.
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What to remember
- Cottage foods made in your home are not subject to licensing or inspection.
- Iowa sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales.
- Foods that need time or temperature control to stay safe are not cottage foods.
- Raw milk and raw milk products cannot be advertised, offered, sold, or distributed.
- Your food has to be properly labeled and meet all the exemption criteria, or the exemption does not cover you.
If you have been putting off selling because you thought you needed a license, the Iowa rules are friendlier than most bakers expect. They are also narrow in one specific way, and that narrowness is where home bakers get caught. Here is the short version, then the parts that matter when you are standing in your kitchen with a tray of cookies and a phone full of messages.
What Iowa counts as a cottage food
Iowa Code Chapter 137D covers home food processing establishments. The code describes a home food processing establishment as a business on the premises of a residence where homemade food items are produced for sale or resale, for consumption off the premises. Cottage foods, in the state’s own words, are foods prepared in a residence that is not subject to licensing or inspection. That is the deal. You stay out of the licensed system, and in return you stay inside the definition. If you want to see how another state handles the license question, Minnesota’s cottage food license rules are a useful comparison.
The definition has an edge to it. Cottage food means food produced at a private residence that is not time and temperature control for safety food. In plain terms, if your bake has to stay cold or be held hot to be safe, it is not cottage food in Iowa. Cakes, breads, cookies, and bars fit comfortably. Anything that leans on refrigeration does not.
The label is the whole exemption
As defined by legislation, cottage foods must be properly labeled and meet all of the criteria set out for the exemption. Read that again, because it is the part bakers skip. The label is not a nice extra you add once you get around to it. It is one of the conditions that makes your kitchen exempt in the first place. Get the label wrong and you are not a labeled cottage food operation, you are an unlabeled food business. What goes on a cottage food label walks through the pieces in order.
A habit that saves bakers a lot of grief: write the label once, print a batch, and read it out loud against the food in front of you before the first order leaves the house. If the label and the food do not match, fix the label before you fix anything else.
No dollar cap, so the ceiling is your week
Iowa sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales. That is unusual, and it is genuinely good news, because it means growth is not capped by a number in a statute. The ceiling on your business becomes your own kitchen and your own time rather than a legal limit. Bakers who hit that ceiling usually hit it in the calendar rather than in the cash: too many Saturday markets, too many custom orders on the same weekend, too little room in the oven. How Illinois sets its cottage food limits shows how different the rules can look one state over.
One more thing worth knowing before you take on a bigger order. Compliance with the cottage food exemption in Iowa Code section 137F.20 does not represent compliance with federal law. The exemption is a state exemption. If a sale starts to reach beyond your own kitchen and your own town in a way federal rules cover, that is a separate question, and it is worth asking before you promise a date.
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- What goes on a cottage food label
- Minnesota cottage food license rules
- New Illinois cottage food laws
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my home in Iowa?
Cottage foods are foods prepared in a residence that is not subject to licensing or inspection. The catch is that your food has to be properly labeled and meet all of the criteria set out for the exemption.
Is there a limit on how much I can sell?
Iowa sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales. The ceiling on growth ends up being your own kitchen and your own time rather than a statutory cap.
Can I sell cheesecake or custard pies?
Cottage food means food produced at a private residence that is not time and temperature control for safety food. Anything that depends on staying cold to be safe falls outside that definition.
Can I sell raw milk or a product made with raw milk?
No. A home food processing establishment may not advertise for sale, offer for sale, sell or otherwise distribute, or use raw milk, or a manufactured raw milk product or raw milk dairy product.
Does the state exemption cover federal rules too?
No. Compliance with the cottage food exemption in Iowa Code section 137F.20 does not represent compliance with federal law.
Sources
General information, not legal advice. Rules can change. Check with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing before you sell.