Montana gives home bakers something most states don’t: TWO legal ways to sell food from home. You can register as a cottage food operation — one small fee, an approved list of foods, and a set label for your packages. Or you can sell under the Montana Local Food Choice Act, which skips licenses and labels entirely and asks only that you tell your buyer, plainly, that your food isn’t state-inspected.

Neither lane has a sales cap. This guide walks through both, in plain English, so you can pick the lane that fits how you actually sell.

Just a heads-up before we start: I’m a home baker, not a lawyer. This guide sums up Montana’s official rules as of October 23, 2026 — always double-check the details with the official sources linked at the bottom before you sell.

Montana Cottage Food at a Glance

Lane A — Cottage Food Operation (Mont. Code Ann. §§ 50-50-116 and 50-50-117)

  • Registration: Yes — register with your local (county) health authority before you sell
  • Cost: One-time $40 registration fee
  • Sales cap: None
  • Training: No food safety course is required
  • Inspection: None, unless there’s a complaint or an illness investigation
  • Foods: An approved list of non-potentially hazardous foods (details below)
  • Sales: Direct to customers, face-to-face only — no shipping, no stores

Lane B — Montana Local Food Choice Act (Mont. Code Ann. §§ 50-49-201 to 50-49-203)

  • License, permit, or registration: None — the state is not allowed to require one
  • Sales cap: None
  • Labels: None required — instead, you must inform your buyer (details below)
  • Foods: Broad, including foods that need refrigeration — with a firm rule against meat
  • Sales: Direct to an informed end consumer, in Montana only

Let’s look at each lane.

Lane A: Registering as a Cottage Food Operation

If you want to sell packaged, labeled baked goods at farmers markets and from your home — the way most of us picture a home bakery — this is your lane. Montana’s cottage food rules live in §§ 50-50-116 and 50-50-117 of the Montana Code, run by the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) and your local health authority.

How registration works

You register with the local health authority in the county where you live, and you do it before you start selling. You’ll submit:

  • The name of your operation and the physical address of your home
  • A short description of where your ingredients come from
  • A complete list of the products you plan to sell
  • A copy of each label (the application also asks for your recipes, with weights, processing steps, and packaging details)

The fee is a one-time $40. Your local health authority reviews and approves your registration and forwards it to the state. Two things worth knowing: if you move, or if you add new recipes and labels later, you register again and pay the fee again. And if you sell only at farmers markets, and only foods on the Farmers’ Market exemption list, DPHHS says you don’t need to register at all.

There’s no sales cap and no food handler course required. Your kitchen is not inspected — the only time anyone comes looking is if there’s a complaint or an illness investigation. Everything has to be made, processed, and packaged in the registered area of your home. (One local note: your town or county may still require a local business permit for selling, even from home. That’s separate from the state registration.)

What you can sell under Lane A

Only approved non-potentially hazardous foods — foods that don’t need refrigeration to stay safe. The DPHHS list includes:

  • Baked goods: loaf breads, rolls, biscuits, quick breads, muffins, cakes, pastries and scones, cookies and bars, crackers
  • Cereals, trail mixes, and granola; nuts and nut mixes; snack mixes
  • Pies — except custard-style pies, pies with unbaked fresh fruit, and pies that need refrigeration after baking
  • Dried fruits
  • Standardized jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butters
  • Dry herbs, seasonings, and mixes (dry soups, teas, coffees, spice blends)
  • Popcorn and popcorn balls; cotton candy and candy mints
  • Fudge, candies, and confections that require a cook step and don’t require refrigeration
  • Molded chocolate made from commercial chocolate melts
  • Honey
  • Other products, case by case, if the department and your local health authority approve them

Not allowed: products with meat or cheese; meringue or custard pies; cheesecakes; pumpkin and cream pies; freezer jams and jellies; fermented foods; dairy products and eggs sold as products (eggs are fine as an ingredient); pet treats.

One more rule that surprises people: any recipe the health authority isn’t sure is shelf-safe has to go to a process authority for testing — and even swapping an ingredient in a preserved recipe (honey for sugar, for example) can trigger that testing.

Buttercream under Lane A

Here’s DPHHS’s own answer, because bakers ask this constantly: only buttercream frosting that does not require refrigeration — for instance, a recipe made with shortening instead of butter, or a recipe that has been tested and determined to be non-potentially hazardous. If your buttercream has to live in the fridge to be safe, it’s outside Lane A.

Your Lane A label

Every cottage food must be packaged and labeled. Montana’s statute (§ 50-50-116(2)(b)) requires these items on the main label:

  1. The name, address, city, state, and ZIP code of your cottage food operation
  2. The name of the product
  3. Ingredients, listed in descending order by weight (list sub-ingredients in parentheses, like “butter (milk, salt)”)
  4. The net quantity, weight, count, or volume
  5. Allergen labeling as required by federal and state law
  6. This statement, word for word:

Made in a home kitchen that is not subject to retail food establishment regulations or inspections.

That statement has formatting rules: it goes on the principal label, in a contrasting color, in type equivalent to at least 11-point, placed where buyers will see it.

Two label notes that save headaches:

  • Nutrition facts are NOT a standard requirement. You only need a nutrition label if you make a nutrition claim and federal law requires one.
  • Big cakes have an exception. For an item that isn’t easily packaged, like a wedding cake, all of the label information goes on the invoice, delivered with the cake to the customer.

Lane B: The Montana Local Food Choice Act

Montana’s second lane is a food-freedom law (§§ 50-49-201 to 50-49-203, passed in 2021 and updated since). It works completely differently — and it’s important not to mix the two lanes’ rules together.

Under this Act, no state agency or local government may require licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, testing, sampling, or inspection for homemade food sold under the Act. There is no registration, no fee, and no sales cap. A seller under this Act is legally not a cottage food operation at all.

In exchange, every sale has to meet all of these conditions:

  • The sale is directly between you and an “informed end consumer” — the last buyer, who won’t resell it
  • The food is for home consumption or for a traditional community social event (the law’s list includes weddings, funerals, church socials, school events, potlucks — and farmers markets)
  • The sale happens in Montana — no interstate sales
  • You inform the buyer (next section)

The one thing you must do: inform your buyer

There is no required label under the Food Choice Act — no statement, no font size, no format. What the law requires instead is that you inform the end consumer that the food “has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected per any official regulations.”

You can do that in conversation, on a sign at your table, on your order page — the law doesn’t dictate the form, only that your buyer actually knows. And a caution here: if you see a blog printing an official-looking “Montana Food Choice Act label statement,” that’s invented. There is no label under this Act, and the statement from Lane A belongs to Lane A only — don’t put it on Food Choice Act sales.

Foods and sales under Lane B

Because there’s no approved-foods list, this lane is broader — DPHHS guidance confirms that even foods considered potentially hazardous can be sold under the Act by someone following its rules. But it has hard edges:

  • No meat. Meat and meat products (however processed) may not be used in homemade food under the Act. The one exception: poultry you slaughter yourself under the federal 1,000-bird exemption, with its recordkeeping rules.
  • Other laws still apply. The Act doesn’t change alcohol laws (rum-filled candy is prohibited under liquor law), marijuana laws, or the ban on health claims — you can’t claim a food treats or prevents anything, on a label, online, or out loud.
  • Delivery is allowed — by you or someone you designate — as long as the sale was arranged ahead of time.
  • Farmers markets count as traditional community social events. But a privately run market can set stricter vendor rules of its own (like requiring a local registration for refrigerated foods) as a condition of selling there. That’s the market’s house rule, not state law — but it can still keep you out of that market.
  • No retail sales. Homemade food under the Act can’t be sold or used in a store, restaurant, coffee shop, school, or boutique. The only exception: raw, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, and aquaculture products may go to a retail food establishment.
  • No roadside stands unless they’re tied to a traditional community social event, and all food must be made in your private home kitchen — no assembling food on-site at an event.

What About Freeze-Dried Treats?

Freeze-dried candy is a big question in our house, so here is the honest, lane-by-lane answer:

  • Lane A (cottage): Freeze-drying isn’t named in the cottage rules. Dried fruits are approved, but the state’s process rules for them describe heated dehydration (including temperature requirements), not freeze-drying — and the approved candy line covers candies that “require a cook step,” which freeze-drying isn’t. So don’t assume. Montana does let the department and your local health authority consider other products case by case, and recipes are reviewed at registration — ask your local sanitarian first.
  • Lane B (Food Choice Act): The Act has no food list and no process restrictions beyond the meat rule and the other-laws limits. Freeze-dried foods made in a private home fit the Act’s definition of “homemade” on the statute’s own terms, as long as every sale follows the direct, in-state, informed-consumer rules. No official source names freeze-drying under the Act — this is the plain reading of the law, not a special permission slip.

Which Lane Should You Pick?

A simple way to think about it:

  • Pick Lane A if you sell packaged baked goods face-to-face and want the clarity of an approved list and a standard label. One $40 registration covers you until you move or change your recipes.
  • Pick Lane B if labels and licensing are the obstacle — or if you sell foods Lane A won’t allow, like items that need refrigeration — and your sales are all direct, local, and to buyers you’ve informed.

You can use different lanes for different products, but each sale has to fully follow the rules of the lane it’s sold under. Mixing them halfway is where trouble starts.

Planning your prices or checking what a batch really costs you? The free tools on our Tools page — including the Cottage Cost Calculator, were built for exactly that. And when you’re ready to see how Montana compares, the Cottage Food Laws by State hub — links the official rules for all 50 states.

Montana Cottage Food FAQ

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

It depends on your lane. Under the cottage food lane, you register once with your local health authority ($40) — it’s a registration, not a license, and there’s no inspection. Under the Local Food Choice Act, no license, permit, or registration may be required at all.

Is there a sales cap in Montana?

No. Neither lane has a sales cap.

Do I need a food handler course?

Neither lane requires one under the rules as written. (Food safety knowledge is still just good practice.)

Can I sell online or ship my products?

Under Lane A, you can advertise and coordinate online, but the sale itself must be face-to-face — shipping by mail or courier and selling through Amazon or eBay are not allowed. Under Lane B, sales are direct and in-state; delivery by you or your designated person is fine when the sale was arranged ahead of time. Neither lane allows shipping products to customers.

Can I sell at farmers markets?

Yes, under either lane. Lane A: markets are a standard venue (and market-only sellers of exemption-list foods may not need to register at all). Lane B: farmers markets are named community events — just know a private market can set stricter vendor rules of its own.

Can I sell my cottage foods to a local grocery store or café?

No. Lane A prohibits consignment and retail sales entirely, and Lane B bars sales into retail food establishments (except raw produce and aquaculture products). Both lanes are direct-to-consumer.

Official Sources

Last verified: October 23, 2026. Montana’s rules can change — the Montana Legislature updates the code after each session, and DPHHS revises its guidance from time to time — so confirm the details with the official sources above before you sell. This guide is friendly information from one home baker to another, not legal advice.