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Utah cottage 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 Utah gives you a genuine choice between two different deals. Neither has a stated sales cap, and the question is what you are willing to do in exchange for reach.

Register with UDAF as a cottage food producer and you need a food handler permit, an application with your recipes, a fee and a food safety inspection — and in return your products may go into stores for resale. Or sell under the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act, which asks for no licensing, permitting, certification or inspection at all — and in return you sell only direct to a final consumer, never to a restaurant or shop.

Which route do you want?

UDAF Cottage Food registration
Food handler permit, application with recipes, a fee, and a scheduled food safety inspection. Shelf-stable low-risk foods. Sell direct to consumers OR to stores for resale, within Utah.
Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act
Utah Code § 4-5a-104
No licensing, permitting, certification, inspection or labeling requirements beyond the Act's own. Produced and sold within Utah, direct to an "informed final consumer", for personal or home consumption. No restaurants or commercial establishments.

Neither route states a sales cap. So in Utah the choice is not about how much you may earn — it is about whether a shop may stock you, and whether you are willing to be inspected to get there.

That is a cleaner trade than most states offer. Ohio and Tennessee let a shop stock you with no inspection at all; Connecticut inspects you and still keeps you direct-to-consumer. Utah lets you pick.

Route A — UDAF cottage food registration

The program "allows an individual with a valid food handlers permit to make and/or package certain allowable foods in their own home kitchen after receiving approval through the inspection and registration process".

The steps, in the order UDAF gives them: submit an application with your recipes; registration fees are invoiced and are "nonrefundable"; and "a UDAF representative will contact you directly in regards to scheduling a food safety inspection".

The inspection is the price of the retail door. It is also the thing that distinguishes this route — most cottage food schemes in this guide involve no inspection at all, and Utah's does.

We are not printing the registration fee. UDAF states that fees are nonrefundable but the amount was not on the page we read, and a fee is exactly the kind of number that changes quietly. Ask UDAF when you apply. UDAF Cottage Food Production

What you can make on the registered route

Products must be shelf-stable, low-risk and non-potentially-hazardous. Potentially hazardous food — TCS food in many states — is food needing time or temperature control for safety, the kind that has to be kept hot or cold. UDAF names these categories:

Excluded: refrigerated or frozen food, "products that contain meat or poultry", cheesecakes, custards, and other high-risk or potentially hazardous foods.

Note what is in that is unusual: vanilla extract and vinegar, which most states never mention, and raw and creamed honey as its own line.

Labels on this route carry the words "Home Produced", the food name, a complete ingredient list, net quantity, allergens, and your business name and contact information.

Route B — the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act

This route is the opposite bargain, and the statute is unusually generous about what it removes. A producer is exempt from state, county or city licensing, permitting, certification, inspection and labeling requirements — note that it names counties and cities, not just the state — provided the food is produced and sold within Utah, sold directly to an "informed final consumer", and for personal or home consumption.

The limit is who you may sell to. Homemade food under this chapter "may not be sold to, or used by, a restaurant or commercial establishment". The one exception is raw, unprocessed produce, which you may sell to such a business.

You do not have to stand at the table yourself. The statute allows a "designated representative" to "distribute, sell, deliver, hold, store, or offer for sale" your food at a direct-to-sale location. You keep ownership of the product unless you and the representative agree to share or transfer it. That is a practical permission — it means a friend can run your market stall without the sale leaving this route.

The label on this route carries your name and address; a disclosure that the product is "not for resale" and "processed and prepared without state or local inspection"; and a statement about common allergens — milk, soy, wheat, eggs, peanuts or tree nuts, fish, or shellfish. A narrow exception in subsection 7 lifts the labeling requirements for direct sales by a home producer comprising only minor producers.

Utah Code § 4-5a-104, effective 6 May 2026

What changed in 2026

Section 4-5a-104 was amended by Chapter 433 of the 2026 General Session and the current version took effect on 6 May 2026.

We are not going to tell you which words it added. The statute page records the amendment but does not mark the changed text, and we did not read the session bill. What we can tell you is what the section says now — including the designated representative provision above — and that is what this page describes.

That is a deliberate choice. It would be easy to assume the newest-looking provision is the new one, and easy to be wrong. If the distinction matters to you, the 2026 session bill is the document.

Sales tax and local rules

Neither route is a tax registration. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you need to register to collect, belongs to the Utah State Tax Commission, and we are not going to print a rate.

On local rules the two routes differ, and it is worth noticing. The Homemade Food Act exempts you from city and county licensing and permitting by name. The UDAF cottage food route is a state registration and does not say the same thing, so your city's business license and zoning remain their own question there.

Official sources

Last verified: 31 October 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 Utah?

It depends which route you take. Under the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act you are exempt from state, county or city licensing, permitting, certification and inspection — but you may only sell direct to a final consumer. Under the UDAF cottage food program you register, hold a food handler permit and are inspected — and in exchange your products may go into stores for resale.

How much can I sell in a year in Utah?

Neither route states a sales cap. That makes Utah unusual: in most states the choice between routes is about how much you may earn, and here it is about who may sell your product and whether you are willing to be inspected.

Can a shop sell my products?

Only on the UDAF registered route. Products made under cottage food registration may be sold within Utah directly to consumers or to stores for resale. Under the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act the food may not be sold to, or used by, a restaurant or commercial establishment — the only exception is raw, unprocessed produce.

Can someone else sell for me at a market?

Yes, under the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act. The statute allows a designated representative to distribute, sell, deliver, hold, store or offer your food for sale at a direct-to-sale location. You keep ownership of the product unless you and the representative agree to share or transfer it.

Does my kitchen get inspected?

On the UDAF cottage food route, yes — a UDAF representative contacts you to schedule a food safety inspection as part of the registration process. On the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act route, no: that section exempts you from inspection along with licensing, permitting and certification.

What goes on my label?

It differs by route, and they are not interchangeable. On the registered cottage food route: the words "Home Produced", the food name, a complete ingredient list, net quantity, allergens, and your business name and contact information. Under the Homemade Food Act: your name and address, a disclosure that the product is not for resale and was processed and prepared without state or local inspection, and an allergen statement.

Can I ship my products?

Both routes keep the sale inside Utah — the registered route sells within the state, and the Homemade Food Act requires the food to be produced and sold within Utah to a final consumer. Neither source we read addressed shipping directly, and we are not going to read permission into that silence. Ask UDAF before you post a box.

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