Utah gives a home cook two separate paths. The cottage food registration with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food takes a food handler permit, an application, a consultation with a compliance officer and a registration fee, and covers a set list of shelf-stable foods, baked goods without cream or custard, candy, jams, granola, roasted coffee, which you can sell directly or to stores for resale. The Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act needs only a business license: no registration, and almost any food except meat and raw dairy, refrigerated food included, but it's sold in person, directly to the end consumer, never for resale. Both stay inside Utah, and each has its own label. In the example below, a Box Elder County baker sorts six products across the two paths. Below are the two paths, the foods, the labels, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Cottage food registration: food handler permit, application, consultation, registration fee; UDAF may test products for pH or water activity first.
- Registration covers shelf-stable foods on UDAF's list; sell directly or to stores for resale.
- Homemade Food Act: a business license, no UDAF registration; most foods except meat and raw dairy.
- Homemade Food Act sales are in person, to the end consumer, at an agreed location; never to stores or restaurants.
- Both: sales only within Utah.
- Registration label: product, ingredients, net quantity, allergens, business name and contact, "Home Produced".
- Homemade Food Act label: name and address, allergens, and "Not for Resale – Processed and prepared without the benefit of state or local inspection".
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to. More below.
The two paths
| Cottage food registration | Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act | |
|---|---|---|
| Law | Utah Code 4-5-501, rule R70-560 | Utah Code 4-5a |
| What you need | Food handler permit, UDAF application, consultation, registration fee | A business license |
| Foods | Shelf-stable, low-risk foods on UDAF's list | Most foods; not meat (some poultry and rabbit exemptions) or raw dairy |
| Selling | Directly to consumers, or to stores for resale | In person, directly to the end consumer, at a prearranged place |
| Resale | Allowed | Not allowed: no stores or restaurants |
| Where | Utah only | Utah only |
| Farmers markets | As a registered cottage food | Only at a direct-to-sale market, or in a section signed as homemade and uninspected |
Both are on UDAF's pages: Cottage Food Production and the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act. The registration steps are on the application form. This is general information, not legal advice.
What registration covers
| Allowed under registration | Not allowed under registration |
|---|---|
| Baked goods cooked with dry heat, such as oven or skillet | Fried or steamed baked goods; tres leches and other liquids added after baking |
| Frostings without egg, cream or cream cheese | Cream-based or egg buttercreams, ganache, custards such as lemon bars and pecan or pumpkin pie |
| Fruit pies | Custard, cream or egg-based pies |
| Cereals, trail mixes, granola, cereal-marshmallow treats | Carrot cake and vegetable pieces, unless from a dried mix |
| Hard, freeze-dried and cotton candy; nuts and brittles | Truffles and other cream-based chocolates |
| Jams, jellies and preserves from the federal standard's fruits | Fruit butters; sugar-free jams; tomatoes |
| Dried acidic fruit, dry herbs and seasonings, roasted coffee, honey, vanilla extract | Refrigerated or frozen food, meat, cheesecake |
Sourdough starters are commercial, or lab-tested at pH 4.0 or below. Which foods need refrigeration is in TCS foods list.
The labels
| Cottage food registration | Homemade Food Act |
|---|---|
| Name of the food | Producer's name and address |
| Complete list of ingredients | An allergen list |
| Net quantity | "Not for Resale – Processed and prepared without the benefit of state or local inspection" |
| Allergens | |
| Business name and contact information | |
| "Home Produced" |
How to work out the allergens in a recipe is in allergen matrix template.
An example: a Box Elder County baker
Bear River Bakehouse, a made-up home baker in Brigham City, Utah, I use in these examples, is registered for cottage food, sells to a coffee shop, and takes custom orders it hands over in person:
| Product | Allowed? | Which path |
|---|---|---|
| Cherry pie | Yes | Either |
| Sugar cookies with eggless buttercream | Yes | Either |
| Lemon bars | Homemade Food Act only | Custard isn't allowed under registration |
| Funeral potatoes | Homemade Food Act only | Needs refrigeration; handed over in person |
| Beef jerky | No | Meat isn't allowed under either |
| Cookies for a coffee shop | Cottage food only | Only registered cottage food can be resold |
The coffee shop gets cookies under the registration; the lemon bars and funeral potatoes go only to customers who pick them up, under the Act, and never to the shop. By September Bear River had sold $27,700. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Utah cottage food checklist. Three sheets: both labels, each line with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and under which path; 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
Running both paths means two labels, two sets of rules on who can buy what, and a coffee shop that may only get some products. Mixing them up, a lemon bar on the shop's counter, breaks the Act's no-resale rule.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to.
Each batch dated. A batch of cookies gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
The shop as a customer. The coffee shop is a customer with its own orders, and each order records the products and lots it got, so what went to the shop is on record, and one recall report shows where a batch went.
Market sales too. TaroStack connects to Square for market sales, so the shop, custom orders and markets sit together.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the box | The batch's lot and dates |
| What went to the shop | Remembered | Recorded with each order |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
Lots, batches, 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.