Confita
What Idaho actually decides
SB 1283 replaced the old IDAPA cottage food rule with the Direct-to-Consumer Commerce Act in March 2026, and it is a bigger change than a rename. There is no permit, licence, registration or fee, and the Act bars agencies and political subdivisions from imposing any licensing, permitting, inspection, packaging or labelling requirement more stringent than the state or federal one, declaring offending rules unenforceable outright.
It covers perishable food for the first time, which is the substantive expansion. It also lets the required disclosure be a sign or a card instead of a label, which is a practical gift at a market stall where labelling every item is the slow part.
Training is a read-it duty rather than a certification. The Act requires the department to compile and publish educational material, and says producers and designated agents shall become familiar with it. There is no course to pass and no certificate to hold.
Production happens at a private or leased farm, home kitchen or other non-licensed facility. Food cooked or served on site for immediate consumption sits outside the Act entirely. Meat is the main exclusion, with six narrow carve-outs including poultry under the 1,000-bird exemption, domestic rabbit, and farm-raised fish.
The short version
What you can sell in Idaho
Straight from the official record. Read these as categories rather than a menu, because one recipe can cross the line on its own: a filling that needs refrigeration, a pH that needs testing, or a process that needs an authority to sign it off.
- Shelf-stable hermetically sealed butters, jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves and syrups
- Shelf-stable fermented food products, tallow and lard
- Shelf-stable fruit leathers, pies and turnovers, and chocolates, candies and confectioneries that need no refrigeration
- Shelf-stable nonalcoholic drinks, and milk and dairy products that need no refrigeration
- Shelf-stable nut mixes, granola, dry soup mixes other than meat-based, roasted coffee beans, popcorn and honey
- Shelf-stable dried, dehydrated and freeze-dried foods, including jerky products
- Shelf-stable baked goods without frosting or filling made from animal products or other perishable ingredients
- Perishable nonalcoholic drinks including coffee, lemonade, tea and soda, plus condiments, sauces, chocolate, candies and confectioneries
- Perishable milk and dairy products, eggs and egg products, and nut, seed and fruit butters
- Perishable fresh and dehydrated pastas, raw doughs, cooked vegetables and pickled products
- Perishable baked goods that include frosting or filling made from animal products or other perishable ingredients
- Fruits and vegetables that stay uncut after harvest, and meat products produced under the chapter
What is outside the rule
If your product is on this list, the answer is not "ask nicely". It is a different licence, a different kitchen, or both.
- Meat and meat products, except six carve-outs: poultry under the 1,000-bird own-raising exemption, live animals, portions of live animals, domestic rabbit meat, farm-raised fish, and cattle, sheep, swine or goat meat inspected by USDA or another approved inspector
- Catfish, expressly carved out of the farm-raised fish allowance
- Food prepared, cooked or served on site for immediate consumption, which puts restaurant service, mobile food units, concession trailers and ready-to-eat meal facilities outside the Act
- Milk and dairy products, unless you fully comply with the dairy chapters of title 37
- Raw milk and raw milk products, unless you fully comply with the raw milk chapter
- Anything in interstate commerce
- Anything used as an ingredient in a food establishment, public school kitchens included
