Alaska's cottage food law is the Exemption for Homemade Food, AS 17.20.332. Food made in a home kitchen, or a commercial kitchen, is exempt from the state's food permits, inspections, labeling and packaging rules, with no limit on how much you make or sell. It covers shelf-stable food like bread, cookies, fudge, jams and pickled vegetables, and perishable food too, burritos, cream-filled donuts, ice cream from pasteurized milk, even dishes with USDA-inspected beef or chicken. Sales are retail only, for the buyer's own use, anywhere in Alaska, including online with mail or delivery; shelf-stable food can also go through an agent or a store. Seafood, game meat and seal oil are out, and Anchorage runs its own rules. Every sale comes with a sign and a short statement. In the example below, a Palmer producer sorts six products. Below are the rules, the foods, the label and sign, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No state food permit, inspection, labeling or packaging rules for homemade food sold under the exemption.
- Made in a home kitchen or a commercial kitchen; no limit on production or sales.
- Shelf-stable and perishable food both allowed, sold for the buyer's personal consumption.
- Sell anywhere in Alaska: in person, online with pickup, mail or delivery.
- Shelf-stable food can be sold by an agent or third-party seller, displayed apart from inspected food.
- Not allowed: seafood, game meat, rendered animal oils, alcoholic beverages, wholesale, resale, consignment.
- Meat from cattle, sheep, pigs and goats only where federal law allows; poultry only as an ingredient.
- A sign at every sale, and packaged food labeled with your name, address, phone and the statement.
- Anchorage, Eagle River, Chugiak and Girdwood follow the Municipality of Anchorage's rules.
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What DEC says |
|---|---|
| Exemption | From the Alaska Food Code's permit, inspection, labeling and packaging requirements; federal and local law still apply |
| Kitchens | A home kitchen or a commercial kitchen; food prepared elsewhere isn't homemade food |
| Limits | None on production or gross sales |
| Selling | Retail, for the buyer's personal consumption; no wholesale, resale, consignment, or use in someone else's food |
| Where | Produced and sold in Alaska; online sales picked up, mailed or delivered |
| Agents and stores | May sell shelf-stable homemade food, displayed apart from inspected food |
| Serving | Reheat, hold, portion and garnish at the selling location; preparing and cooking stay in the kitchen |
| Local rules | Cities and boroughs may add vendor permits; Anchorage has its own program |
DEC explains the exemption on its Homemade Food page and Producing and Selling Homemade Food. This is general information, not legal advice.
Products and ingredients
| Item | As a product | As an ingredient |
|---|---|---|
| Commercially pasteurized milk and milk products | Products made from them, like ice cream or flavored butter, yes | Yes |
| Raw milk and raw milk products | No | Yes |
| Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck, goose) | No | Yes, if it meets federal law |
| Meat (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats) | Yes, if it meets federal law and the exemption | Yes, under the same conditions |
| Game meat, including other species | No | No |
| Seafood and shellfish | No | No |
| Rendered animal oils such as seal oil or bear tallow | No | No |
| Alcoholic beverages | No | Yes, if the product isn't a beverage over 0.5% alcohol |
Which foods count as potentially hazardous is in TCS foods list; UAF Cooperative Extension helps producers decide.
The label and sign
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Sign at every sale | Made in a home kitchen, may contain allergens, and not regulated or inspected (except permitted meat) |
| Packaged food | Your name, current address, phone, and business license number if any |
| Packaged food statement | "This food was made in a home kitchen, is not regulated or inspected, except for meat and meat products, and may contain allergens." |
| Unpackaged food | Tell the buyer it was prepared under AS 17.20.332-17.20.338, and give your name, address and phone |
Online, the sign and statements go with the listing. How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Palmer producer
Mat-Su Pantry, a made-up home producer in Palmer, Alaska, I use in these examples, sells at a summer farmers market, ships online orders around the state, and stocks a gift shop:
| Product | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fireweed jelly | Yes | Shelf-stable |
| Rhubarb pie in the gift shop | Yes | Shelf-stable, through a third-party seller, shelved apart |
| Beef chili from USDA-inspected beef | Yes | Perishable, with meat that meets federal law |
| Smoked salmon spread | No | Seafood isn't allowed |
| Reindeer sausage | No | Game meat under the exemption |
| Cookies a café resells | No | Personal consumption only |
The chili sells hot at the market, reheated there from batches cooked at home, which DEC allows. The summer season carries the year: by September Mat-Su Pantry had sold $30,700. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Alaska homemade food checklist. Three sheets: the label and sign, each with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and why; and sales by month. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
With perishable food, meat and a gift shop in the mix, a question about one jar or one bowl means knowing which batch it came from, what went into it, and who else got it. A notebook covers the market days, not the mail orders and the shop.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and where it went.
Each batch dated. A batch of chili or jelly gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Ingredients by lot. The inspected beef is received with its lot and supplier, and each batch records the lots it used, so the meat behind a batch is on record.
Where it went. Shipped, market and gift shop orders record the lots each customer got, so one recall report shows where a batch went; TaroStack connects to Square for market sales.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the jar | The batch's lot and dates |
| The beef behind a batch | A receipt somewhere | The ingredient's lot on the batch |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
Lots, batches, receiving, orders and lot labels are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.