Cottage food laws in Montana

The limits

Sales cap

None — the Local Food Choice Act (as amended) imposes no sales limit; a prior $35,000 cap under the older cottage food law was eliminated

You can sell

Under the MLFCA, homemade food producers may sell a broad range of homemade foods directly to an "informed end consumer," including many items that would be considered potentially hazardous in a traditional cottage food law (this is notably broader than the traditional cottage-food model). Specifically also allowed: raw milk and raw milk products from producers with no more than 5 lactating cows (or 10 lactating goats/sheep), and poultry processed under the federal/state 1,000-bird exemption.

You cannot sell

Meat products generally (beyond the limited poultry exemption) are excluded to preserve compliance with federal meat-inspection funding requirements; pet food is also excluded from the Act's food-sales provisions

Getting set up

Permit / registration

Depends on the pathway. Under the Local Food Choice Act: No — the Act exempts homemade food producers from state or local licensing, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, and inspection requirements. Under the separate cottage food program still codified at MCA § 50-50-117: registration with the local health authority applies. Producers should confirm with DPHHS which pathway fits their operation.

Cost

None under the Local Food Choice Act. The separate MCA § 50-50-117 cottage food registration pathway carries its own registration fee — confirm the current amount with DPHHS or the local health authority.

Training

No

Kitchen inspection

No

Labeling

No formal state-mandated label content, but producers must inform the buyer — the statute requires disclosure that the product "has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations." Some secondary guidance also references a suggested disclosure statement in at least 11-point type; confirm exact required wording with DPHHS.

Where you can sell

Permitted venues

Direct, in-person sales only — from a farm, ranch, home, office, or "traditional community social event" (including farmers markets and neighborhood/community gatherings)

Online sales

No — sales must be direct/in-person to an informed end consumer

Delivery in state

No — mail order is not authorized under the Act

Shipping out of state

No

The fine print

Statute

Mont. Code Ann. Title 50, Chapter 50 (Retail Food Establishments), particularly the Local Food Choice Act provisions enacted as SB 199 (2021) and amended in 2023; related registration/fee provision at MCA 50-50-117 for retail food establishments generally

Recent changes

Montana currently has two coexisting statutory regimes, which resolves the apparent DPHHS discrepancy rather than one having simply replaced the other. (1) The Montana Local Food Choice Act (enacted as SB 199 in 2021, codified at MCA Title 50, Chapter 49, Part 2, §§ 50-49-201 to -203) is the broad, registration-free regime: it bars any state or local agency from requiring licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling, or inspection of homemade food, provided sales are direct producer-to-consumer and, per its own text, occur "only in this state" with no interstate commerce involved — and it does not impose any dollar sales cap. (2) Separately, MCA Title 50, Chapter 50, § 50-50-117 ("Registration of cottage food operations — fee"), part of the Retail Food Establishments chapter, remains codified and un-repealed: it still requires a "cottage food operation" to register with the local health authority and pay a registration fee (amount set by department rule). DPHHS's continued publication of registration/fee-based materials therefore is not necessarily stale — it reflects this still-active, narrower registration pathway that exists alongside the newer, no-registration Local Food Choice Act most home producers now use.

Notes

Earlier research treated DPHHS's registration-based "Cottage Food" materials as stale guidance describing a superseded law. That was wrong: verification against the Montana Code Annotated shows MCA § 50-50-117 was never repealed, so the registration program and the Local Food Choice Act operate in parallel. DPHHS's materials describe a real, still-active second pathway. The Local Food Choice Act is the broader of the two — no registration, no sales cap, and a wider range of foods including some perishables, limited raw milk, and limited poultry — but its transactions must occur only in Montana.