Utah cottage food law (2026): what you can sell and label

What Utah actually decides

The Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act is about as light as a food rule gets. No registration, no inspection, no food handler permit, no sales cap, and the department is actually barred from adding certification requirements by rule. Utah publishes no allowed list for this tier because the definition does the work: any food product prepared in a private home kitchen that can be used as food or non-alcoholic drink, except what the statute takes out.

What it is not is a state with nothing to do. A municipal business licence under section 10-1-203 is mandatory, and UDAF lists it for both tiers. It is easy to miss because it is a city requirement rather than a food one, and nobody at the health department will mention it.

Two boundaries define this tier and both are about who buys. Nothing may be sold to a retail store or a restaurant, because this tier is not for resale, with raw unprocessed fruit and vegetables the only exception. And nothing may be sold outside Utah. If either is the plan, look at the other tier.

That other tier is a genuine alternative rather than a punishment. A Cottage Food Establishment registration with UDAF costs $100 to register plus $100 for plan review, and it opens up what this tier closes off.

One caveat on the sourcing. The agency's own page did not spell out the training requirement, so those came from the statute and secondary sources rather than from Utah Department of Agriculture and Food directly. Everything else on this page was read off an official source on September 11, 2026. If one of those points decides your case, ask them.

What you can sell in Utah

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.

• Any food product prepared in a private home kitchen that can be used, or prepared for use, as food or nonalcoholic drink, except what section 4-5a-105(1) takes out. Utah publishes no allowed list for this tier, so this is derived from the definition
• Baked goods of every kind, including the cream, custard, cheesecake and fresh-fruit items the registered cottage food list bars
• Food that needs refrigeration. This tier carries no shelf-stability or temperature control limit
• Nonalcoholic drinks
• Jams, jellies, preserves, pickles and home-canned goods
• Candy and confections
• Pasteurized dairy products
• Poultry and poultry products, if you slaughter no more than 1,000 birds a year under the USDA 1,000 bird exemption and follow the FSIS exemption guidance
• Domesticated rabbit meat, pending USDA approval that the state’s role in meat inspection is preserved
• Raw, unprocessed fruit and vegetables, which are the one thing on this tier you may sell to a restaurant or a commercial establishment

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
• Food products containing meat
• Raw, unpasteurized dairy products
• Anything sold to a retail store or a restaurant. This tier is not for resale, and raw unprocessed fruit and vegetables are the only exception
• Anything sold outside Utah. The food has to be produced and sold within the state
• Alcoholic drink, since the definition covers food and nonalcoholic drink only

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, delivery.

One channel being open does not open the rest. Shipping, delivery and wholesale each turn on the product and where it is going, so check the route you actually plan to use.

Paperwork, training and inspections

The researched record does not list a general permit for this tier. No registration, no inspection and no food handler permit on this tier. Two things belong next to that. A municipal business licence under section 10-1-203 is mandatory, and UDAF lists it for both tiers, so this is not a "nothing to do" state. And the other tier is a real alternative: a Cottage Food Establishment registration with UDAF, $100 registration plus $100 plan review on the FY2027 fee schedule, non-refundable and non-transferable, valid to 31 December of the year it issues and renewed by applying by that date, requiring a valid food handler’s permit from the local health department, a passed pre-operational inspection, and every recipe submitted for approval against a closed list. The trade is reach: cottage food products may be sold to stores for resale and at ordinary farmers markets with no cordon, which this tier cannot do.

No training is recorded as universally required. Section 4-5a-104(1) exempts a producer from certification requirements and section 4-5a-105(3) bars UDAF from adding any by rule, so the absence has a statutory basis, but UDAF never states it in terms. The registered cottage food tier does require a food handler's permit.

No inspection is what the record says about inspections. Confirm what that means for your product and your local authority, because the two can differ.

Kitchen rules people miss

None of these fit on a label, which is exactly why they get skipped. Read them before the first batch, not after.

• Utah sets no home kitchen hygiene rules on this tier: no pets rule, no separate-storage rule, no water test, no food handler permit. Section 4-5a-105(3) bars the department from adding any by rule.
• The food is prepared in a private home kitchen, and it has to be both produced and sold inside Utah.
• Separately from the label, you have to tell the buyer the food is not certified, licensed, regulated or inspected by the state or any county or city.
• A city or town business licence under section 10-1-203 still applies.
• The Department of Health keeps its power to investigate a foodborne illness, and you may ask a state agency to inspect or advise if you want it. The registered cottage food tier is the opposite: pets out of the kitchen during preparation, no domestic cooking at the same time, everyone else out during processing, a business-only refrigerator at 41°F or below, separate dry storage, sanitizer and test strips, a two-compartment warewashing procedure, everything six inches off the floor, nothing prepared or stored in bedrooms, toilet rooms or garages, and a written vomit and diarrhoea clean-up procedure.

What changed, and when

A dated change means an older checklist can be confidently wrong. Read the instrument itself at the official source before you trust anything written before these dates.

• 2023-05-03: Added minor producers and minor-operated businesses. A direct-to-sale farmers market made up only of minors is exempt from the signage and uninspected-only rules, and a direct sale by minor producers is exempt from the labelling rules entirely. It is a lemonade-stand carve-out, not a general expansion.
• 2026-05-06: Added the designated representative, someone you contract with who may distribute, sell, deliver, hold, store or offer your homemade food at a direct-to-sale location while you keep ownership. Removed the standalone signage duty for a direct-to-sale farmers market, and repealed section 4-5a-101, the section that gave the Act its name. Every UDAF page and PDF still describes the pre-2026 rules.
• 2026-07-01: Sales of food and food ingredients or prepared food by a home cook became exempt from state sales tax. A home cook is an individual who prepares food exclusively in a private, noncommercial home kitchen.

Start this weekend

In this order, so the label is the last thing you check and not the first thing you guess.

• Get your municipal business licence. It is mandatory and it is the thing people forget.
• Keep sales inside Utah and away from resale. Those two lines define this tier.
• Do not expect an allowed list. The definition plus the exclusions is the whole boundary here.
• Look at the Cottage Food Establishment tier if you want shops, restaurants or out-of-state sales.
• Remember there is no food handler permit requirement here, and the department cannot add one by rule.