Iowa has two ways to sell food from a home kitchen. Cottage food, created by HF 2431 in 2022, needs no license or inspection: foods that don't need refrigeration, sold directly from you to the consumer, labeled with one sentence, and home-canned pickles, vegetables and fruits too, if every batch is checked with a pH or water activity meter. A home food processing establishment (HFPE) license from the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing costs $50 a year, allows more products, and lets you sell through other businesses, such as coffee shops and stores, up to $50,000 in gross sales a year, with food safety training and written records. In the example below, a Jackson County baker sorts six products and moves to the license to stock a coffee shop. Below are the two paths, the labels, pickles, the records, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Cottage food: no license; non-TCS food made at home, sold directly from producer to consumer.
- Cottage food can be sold at a temporary food stand only if you run it yourself.
- Home-canned pickles, vegetables and fruits: pH 4.60 or lower or water activity 0.85 or lower, every batch measured with a meter, the canning date on the label.
- HFPE license: $50 a year, apply 30 days before opening, list every product, at least one person with food safety training.
- An HFPE can sell directly or through other businesses, up to $50,000 in gross sales a year.
- Cottage food label: who made it and how to reach them, product, ingredients, allergens, and "This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state licensing and inspection."
- TaroStack keeps the batch records, receiving and distribution records an HFPE is asked to keep. More below.
The two paths
| Cottage food | Home food processing establishment | |
|---|---|---|
| Law | HF 2431 (2022) | Iowa Code 137D; 481 IAC 34 |
| License | None, no inspection | DIAL license, $50 a year |
| Foods | Non-TCS food; home-canned pickles, vegetables, fruits at the pH or water activity limit | Homemade food items listed on the license, within 481 IAC 34's exclusions |
| Selling | Directly from you to the consumer; at a temporary stand only if you run it | Directly, or through other businesses |
| Limit | None set | Under $50,000 in gross annual sales |
| Training | None required | At least one team member trained in food safety |
| Records | Batch pH readings for canned goods, on request | Written records that demonstrate control |
DIAL's cottage food page and HFPE page set out both, and the HFPE rules are in 481 IAC chapter 34. Neither covers dairy regulated under Iowa Code 192, or meat and poultry regulated under chapter 189A. This is general information, not legal advice.
The labels
| Cottage food | HFPE |
|---|---|
| Name, and address, phone or email of the person preparing it | Name of the establishment |
| Common name | Common name |
| Ingredients in descending order | Ingredients in descending order |
| Each major allergen by common name | Net quantity of contents |
| "This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state licensing and inspection." | "This product was produced at a home food processing establishment." |
| For home-canned goods, the date processed and canned |
How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
Pickles and canned goods
Home-canned pickles, vegetables and fruits count as cottage food only if the product reaches pH 4.60 or lower, or water activity 0.85 or lower, each batch is measured with a pH meter or water activity meter, every jar carries the date it was made and canned, and you can show the records to an inspector, even at the market table. DIAL publishes a batch record and a pH calibration record you can copy. How the readings are taken is in pH testing for acidified foods.
The records an HFPE keeps
Iowa's rule asks an HFPE to "demonstrate control" with written records: standardized recipes, standard operating procedures, hygiene standards, temperature monitoring, equipment calibration, production or batch records, sanitation records, corrective actions, training, distribution records and receiving records. DIAL offers templates for each.
An example: a Jackson County baker
Maquoketa Kitchen, a made-up home baker in Maquoketa, Iowa, I use in these examples, started with cottage food at a farmers market:
| Product | Allowed? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Apricot kolaches | Yes | Cottage food, sold direct |
| Scotcheroos | Yes | Cottage food |
| Dill pickles | Yes | pH meter on every batch, canning date on the jar |
| Sweet corn salsa | Test first | Canned vegetables at pH 4.60 or lower |
| Loose-meat sandwiches | No | Meat is regulated separately |
| Kolaches for a coffee shop | HFPE license | Cottage food goes only from you to the consumer |
When a coffee shop asked for kolaches, the baker took a food safety course and applied for the $50 HFPE license, listing each product. That brought the $50,000 limit, so the year's total now matters: $31,500 by September, 63%. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Iowa cottage food checklist. Three sheets: both labels, each line with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and how; and sales by month against the HFPE's $50,000, red past 90%. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
An HFPE's records are the business's records: batches, what came in, what went out and to whom. Kept on DIAL's paper templates, they're three binders that don't talk to each other, and the inspector asks for all of them.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the batch records, receiving and distribution records an HFPE is asked to keep.
Batch records. Each batch gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, made from a versioned recipe, with fields of your own for the pickles' pH reading; lot labels print with it.
Receiving records. Ingredients are received with or without a purchase order, each with its lot, so what went into a batch is on record.
Distribution records. The coffee shop is a customer with its own orders, and each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows where a batch went; every list exports to CSV.
| The job | DIAL template | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Batch record | Paper form | The batch, its lot, recipe version and fields |
| Receiving log | Paper form | Receipts with lots |
| Distribution record | Paper form | Orders with lots, 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.