Idaho cottage food label requirements

The statute is new. Senate Bill 1283 created the Idaho Direct-to-Consumer Commerce Act, Idaho Code §§ 37-201 through 37-208, and took effect March 20, 2026 as an emergency measure. The Department of Health and Welfare says it "replaces and supersedes the cottage food rule that was defined previously in IDAPA 16.02.19." If you're working from a fact sheet that talks about "non-TCS foods" and a placard, that's the old rule. The new act covers refrigerated foods too, bans nothing short of red meat, and has no cap, no registration, and no fee. There are five situations where the answer on the panel flips and you do need one. They're below, after the part you actually came for.

The label Idaho actually requires

Under Idaho Code § 37-205(3), you must inform the end consumer that the product "is not subject to inspection or licensing," and you must do it through "a conspicuously displayed sign, label affixed to the food product, or card given to the informed end consumer" that contains all of the following:

1. The Idaho statement, word for word. It's below.
2. The name and contact information of the producer. The statute doesn't say "address," so a phone number or email satisfies it. Idaho is one of the few states where you can keep your home address off the package.
3. A list of ingredients, if the product contains two or more ingredients. The statute doesn't require descending order by weight; federal law does, and you'll need it that way the day you leave the act. Sub-ingredients count.

Two more items apply in specific cases:

• Perishable food must include "information on handling instructions sufficient to inform the consumer of safe storage and preparation practices," under § 37-205(4)(b). "Keep refrigerated at or below 41°F" is the usual form.
• Animal-share meat must carry a label stating "not for sale," under § 37-207(1)(d).

An allergen declaration is not separately required; the statement says "may contain allergens" without naming them. Federal law covers nine: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame, the last added by the FASTER Act on January 1, 2023. Declare them in the ingredient list or a "Contains" statement, naming tree nuts, fish, and shellfish by species. Net weight is also not required by the act.

The exact disclaimer wording

This product is not subject to government food safety inspection or licensing requirements. It may contain allergens.

That is § 37-205(3)(b)(i), two sentences, sentence case. The statute sets no type size. It does give you the choice of sign, label, or card, so a market table can carry one sign that covers every product on it, as long as the producer's contact information and each product's ingredient list are also provided.

Print both sentences. Don't shorten it to "made in a home kitchen" and don't borrow the old IDAPA placard language, which said the food "was prepared in a home kitchen that is not subject to regulation and inspection by the regulatory authority." That rule is gone.

Where a Nutrition Facts panel becomes required

No US state requires a full Nutrition Facts panel on cottage food products. You need one when:

1. You make a nutrient content claim — "high protein," "low sugar," "keto," "sugar free." Any of these obligates the panel that substantiates it.
2. You make a health claim — connecting your food to a disease or health condition.
3. You outgrow your state's cottage food cap and move to a commercial kitchen. At that point you are a regular food manufacturer and the cottage exemption is gone.
4. You sell wholesale or into retail. Cottage exemptions are almost universally direct-to-consumer only.
5. You sell on Amazon or another marketplace that requires a panel. Amazon's requirement is contractual, not legal, and it does not care what your state says.

Idaho has no cap, so trigger three never arrives on its own. What gets Idaho producers is trigger four. The Department of Health and Welfare is blunt: "Wholesale operations are not exempted from regulation by the Idaho Direct-to-Consumer Commerce Act." The first store account that buys from you for resale is the day you need a license and a full label.

Trigger one catches more people than the other four combined, and it catches them somewhere they don't expect. Under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(18), the exemption is void if the claim appears in advertising — not just on the package. Calling your granola "high protein" in an Instagram caption is enough to require the panel on the bag.

What you can and can't make in Idaho

Idaho now uses an exclusion model. Section 37-205(1) lets producers sell "homemade shelf-stable or perishable food products to the fullest extent permitted by applicable state and federal law." The act's own lists are illustrative, not closed.

Allowed, shelf-stable (§ 37-203(10)):

• Hermetically sealed butters, jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves, and syrups
• Fermented foods
• Tallow and lard
• Fruit leathers, pies, and turnovers
• Chocolates, candies, confections, and nonalcoholic drinks that don't need refrigeration
• Nut mixes, granola, dry soup mixes (not meat-based), roasted coffee, popcorn, honey
• Dried, dehydrated, and freeze-dried foods, "including jerky products"
• Baked goods without perishable frosting or filling

Allowed, perishable (§ 37-203(7)), kept at or below 41°F or at or above 135°F:

• Refrigerated drinks, candies, condiments and sauces, nut and seed butters, fresh pasta, raw doughs
• Sugar-free and regular jams and syrups that need refrigeration
• Baked goods with animal-product frosting or filling, cooked vegetables, pickled products
• Milk, dairy, and eggs, if you also comply with Idaho's dairy and egg chapters

Prohibited or outside the act:

Live animals, portions of live animals, domestic rabbit meat, farm-raised fish other than catfish, and meat through an animal share are all allowed.

If your product is on that prohibited list, the act is not your path. You'll need a licensed commercial or shared-use kitchen, and for meat a state or federal grant of inspection. Once you're operating out of a licensed facility you're a food manufacturer under federal law, which means full labeling, including a Nutrition Facts panel, unless you qualify for the small business exemption below.

Where you can sell

The boundary is explicit: transactions "shall occur entirely within the state of Idaho and shall not constitute or involve interstate commerce. All production, processing, packaging, sale, and delivery activities shall take place wholly within the state of Idaho." DHW adds that if you sell outside Idaho "you may need FDA approval," which is the department's way of pointing at the federal question below.

Interstate is a hard no everywhere, and the reason is jurisdictional rather than arbitrary: the moment a product crosses a state line it enters interstate commerce and FDA has authority over the whole operation that made it. Your state's cottage food exemption cannot exempt you from federal law. If you ship to one customer in another state, you have stepped outside the exemption for that shipment.

The cap, the permit, and the training

The records rule is the one obligation most people miss. It applies to every transaction, and if DHW finds during a foodborne illness investigation that you kept no records, § 37-208(7) allows a fine of up to $500. The records are confidential outside such an investigation, and a designated agent is named in the record for each sale they handle.

Local governments are preempted. Section 37-204 says agencies and political subdivisions "shall not adopt, continue in effect, or enforce" any rule on licensing, permitting, inspection, packaging, or labeling of these products that is stricter than state or federal law. A health district cannot layer a permit on top.

When you outgrow cottage food

There is no dollar ceiling in Idaho, so the exits are about what and where. Any of these ends the exemption:

• A store wants to buy from you for resale, or a restaurant wants to use your product as an ingredient.
• You want to sell to a customer in Washington, Utah, or anywhere else out of state.
• You want to make and sell your own beef, pork, lamb, or goat without inspection.
• You want to say "high protein" on the bag.
• You list on Amazon.

Whichever one gets you first, the day after it happens you are a food manufacturer, and food manufacturers label under 21 CFR 101.9. Your label now needs a Nutrition Facts panel with a serving size pulled from the RACC table in 21 CFR 101.12 — not a serving size you chose.

You might still be exempt, even out of a commercial kitchen

21 CFR 101.9(j)(18) exempts small businesses from the Nutrition Facts requirement if you have fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees and sell fewer than 100,000 units in the US in a 12-month period. You have to file an annual notice with FDA to claim it. FDA is blunt about the follow-up: "FDA DOES NOT NOTIFY FIRMS WHEN IT IS TIME TO FILE A NOTICE." That's on you.

There's a smaller carve-out under the same section: if you're not an importer, have fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, and sell fewer than 10,000 units a year, you don't have to file anything at all.

And the exemption is void — filed or not — for any product carrying a nutrient content claim, a health claim, or other nutrition information, whether that appears on the label, in labeling, or in advertising. See FDA's labeling guidance for the full text.

If you've hit one of the triggers and need the panel itself, Nutrillius builds an FDA-compliant Nutrition Facts panel from your recipe in about a minute — $39 one time, no subscription. That's against $1,609–$1,724 for a single lab-analyzed sample at Medallion Labs, or $195 and a two-to-four week wait through a university extension lab.

Verify this yourself

Cottage food law changes most legislative sessions, and Idaho has moved more than any state in this batch: SB 1283 replaced a decade-old administrative rule with a statute on March 20, 2026, and DHW says it is still "working to provide updated guidance." Before you print labels, check the current rules with the agency directly:

• Idaho Department of Health and Welfare — Food Safety (Direct-to-Consumer Commerce Act notice)
• Idaho Code § 37-205: Direct-to-consumer transactions and requirements
• SB 1283, 2026 Second Regular Session, bill text (PDF)

This page was last reviewed October 30, 2026. If you're reading it much later than that, verify the cap and the disclaimer wording before you rely on either.