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Montana homemade food law: selling food from home

General information, not legal advice. Rules change, and counties add their own. Check with your state and county before you start selling.

"Cottage food" is the term most states use for food made in a home kitchen and sold directly to customers. What it covers, and whether your state uses the phrase at all, differs by state.

The short answer

Yes, and Montana goes further than almost any state in this guide — by taking the power away rather than granting you a permit. Under the Montana Local Food Choice Act, a state agency or an agency of a political subdivision "may not require licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling, or inspection" for homemade food covered by the Act.

There is no sales cap, and there is no label. What replaces the label is a duty to tell the buyer. In exchange, the Act is narrow about who you may sell to and what the food is for: directly to an informed end consumer, for home consumption or a traditional community social event, entirely inside Montana.

What the Act takes off the table

The Local Food Choice Act sits at MCA 50-49-201 to 50-49-203. It arrived as SB 199 in 2021 (Chapter 320) and was amended by SB 202 in 2023 (Chapter 347). The 2025 edition of the Code shows no amendment since.

License or permit
Cannot be required.
Certification, testing, sampling
Cannot be required.
Packaging and labeling
Cannot be required.
Inspection
Cannot be required — though an agency may inspect if you ask it to.
Sales cap
None.
County commissioners
Transactions are not subject to their regulation under 7-21-3301.

That last line is what SB 202 added in 2023, and it closed a real gap: a county board cannot regulate transactions that the state has exempted.

The Act also says plainly that nothing in it "precludes an agency from providing assistance, consultation, or inspection requested by a producer." Help is available if you want it; it simply cannot be imposed.

Montana Local Food Choice Act, MCA title 50 chapter 49 part 2 · SB 199 as enacted

What counts as homemade, and what is shut out

"Homemade" means food "prepared in a private home kitchen, that is not licensed, inspected or regulated." There is no approved product list and no shelf-stable requirement in the Act, which makes Montana's scope unusually wide — but three things are shut out.

Meat. Except for a temporary food establishment under 50-50-120, meat or meat products processed at a state-licensed establishment, at a federally approved meat establishment, by the producer, or by any third party may not be used in preparing homemade food sold under the Act. The one exception is poultry: a producer who slaughters fewer than 1,000 birds a year may sell it, subject to 9 CFR 381.10(c) and the recordkeeping requirements of 9 CFR 381.175, and the product may not be adulterated or misbranded.

Retail food establishments. Except for raw, unprocessed fruit, vegetables and aquaculture products, homemade food may not be sold or used in a retail food establishment unless it has been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled and inspected as required by law. So no shops and no restaurants.

Milk, if you are donating. A producer may donate homemade food to a traditional community social event — but may not donate milk.

A small dairy is in, with conditions. The Act defines a small dairy as a place with no more than 5 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats or 10 lactating sheep. A small dairy selling milk or cream under the Act must sample, test or retest every 6 months for standard plate count, coliform count and somatic cell count, and every year for brucellosis for every lactating animal. That makes Montana one of very few states in this guide where home-sold milk is possible at all.

Who you may sell to, and where

The exemption is paid for by a narrow definition of the transaction. Under the Act, transactions:

An informed end consumer is a person who is the last to purchase the product, does not resell it, and has been informed that it is not licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled or inspected.

"Traditional community social event" is defined, and the list is more generous than the phrase sounds: a wedding, a funeral, a church or religious social, a school event, a farmer's market, a potluck, a neighborhood gathering, a club meeting or social, and a youth or adult outdoor club or sporting event.

Farmers markets being inside that definition is the practical heart of the Act for most cooks.

Delivery is flexible. "Deliver" means transferring the product as a result of a transaction, and it may be done by the producer or the producer's designated agent, at a farm, ranch, home, office, traditional community social event, other private property, or another location agreed to between the producer or agent and the consumer.

On selling online, the Act is silent — and we are going to say that rather than guess. There is no internet clause either way. What the text does require is that the transaction be direct, to an informed end consumer, inside Montana, and that the consumer be informed before they are the end consumer. Taking an order through a website and handing the food over yourself in Montana fits that shape; shipping it out of state plainly does not. If your plan depends on the answer, that is a question for the Department of Public Health and Human Services rather than for a guide.

There is no label — there is a sentence you have to say

Montana is one of the only states in this guide with no required label at all. Labeling cannot be required of you. What replaces it is a disclosure duty:

A producer "shall inform an end consumer that any homemade food or homemade food product sold through ranch, farm, or home-based sales pursuant to this part has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations."

Read that next to the definition of informed end consumer and you can see how the Act works: the consumer's knowledge is the safeguard the state accepted in place of inspection. Which means the disclosure is not paperwork. It is the thing that makes your sale lawful.

Practically: most producers put it on a card at the table, on the website page where the order is placed, and on the package anyway — not because a label is required, but because the duty is to inform, and a sentence the buyer actually read is the only version that does the job.

Tax, and what Montana is not

Montana has no statewide general sales tax, which removes a step most states in this guide require. Resort and local option taxes exist in some places; your own position is a question for the Department of Revenue and your accountant.

One definition worth not tripping over. Montana also has a separate "cottage food operation" category, defined at 50-50-102, with its own rules. The Local Food Choice Act explicitly says a producer is not a retail food establishment, a cottage food operation, or a temporary food establishment, nor a wholesale food manufacturing establishment, nor a dairy or manufactured dairy products plant. So in Montana, "cottage food operation" and "Local Food Choice Act producer" are two different things, and the page you want depends on which you are. Everything here describes the Act.

Official sources

Last verified: 1 November 2026. Every number on this page is linked to the official page it comes from.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need a license to sell food from home in Montana?

No, and more than that: under the Local Food Choice Act a state agency or an agency of a political subdivision may not require licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling or inspection for homemade food covered by the Act. An agency may still provide assistance, consultation or an inspection if you request one.

How much can I sell in a year in Montana?

There is no sales cap in the Act. What limits you is the shape of the transaction rather than a dollar figure: directly to an informed end consumer, for home consumption or a traditional community social event, only inside Montana.

Can I sell at a farmers market?

Yes. A farmer's market is inside the Act's definition of a traditional community social event, along with weddings, funerals, church socials, school events, potlucks, neighborhood gatherings, club meetings and youth or adult sporting events. For most cooks that definition is the practical heart of the law.

Can a shop or restaurant sell my food?

No. Except for raw, unprocessed fruit, vegetables and aquaculture products, homemade food may not be sold or used in a retail food establishment unless it has been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled and inspected as required by law. The Act is built around direct sales to an informed end consumer.

Can I sell online in Montana?

The Act is silent on the internet, and we would rather tell you that than guess. What it does require is a direct transaction with an informed end consumer, inside Montana, with the consumer informed before the sale. Taking an order through a website and handing the food over yourself in Montana fits that shape; shipping out of state does not. If your plan turns on this, ask the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

What does my label have to say?

Nothing — labeling cannot be required of you. Instead you must inform the end consumer that the food has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled or inspected per any official regulations. That disclosure is not paperwork; it is what makes the sale lawful, because an informed end consumer is defined as one who has been told. Most producers put it on a card, on the order page and on the package anyway.

Can I really sell milk?

A small dairy can, which is rare. The Act defines a small dairy as no more than 5 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats or 10 lactating sheep. If you sell milk or cream under the Act you must sample, test or retest every 6 months for standard plate count, coliform count and somatic cell count, and every year for brucellosis for every lactating animal. Note you may not donate milk to a community social event, even though you may donate other homemade food.

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