# Cottage food label requirements in Montana

> Informational only, not legal or food-safety advice. Verify with your county or tribal environmental health office before printing labels. Last checked 2026-08-05.

## What goes on the label

1. The product name, in words a customer would use.
2. Every ingredient, heaviest first.
3. The major allergens, called out separately from the ingredient list.
4. Who made it: your name or your business name.
5. How to reach you.
6. The date it was made.

## The required statement

As published for Montana:

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

Published as fixed text: reproduce it exactly.
Minimum type size: 11 point.

## Enforcement

Set centrally, enforced locally, so your own office's answer is the one that counts.
Find yours: https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/EHFS/countytribalhealthdepts

## Detail

The 11-point minimum is called out explicitly and only for this statement. Label must also carry operation name and address (city, state, zip), product name, ingredients in descending order by weight with sub-ingredients in parentheses, net quantity, and allergen information. Registration is $40 one-time, submitted with a recipe AND a proposed label for each product to the LOCAL environmental health office; adding recipes or moving forces re-registration and another fee. Unpackaged items such as wedding cakes put the label information on an invoice delivered with the cake. Separate and different scheme: the 2021 Montana Local Food Choice Act (SB 199) exempts homemade food sold to an 'informed end consumer' from licensing and labeling entirely, but requires the producer to inform the consumer the food has 'not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled, or inspected under any official regulations', and confines sales to inside Montana, for home consumption or a traditional community event. Two regimes, two different label answers — establish which one the baker is under first.

## Sources

- Authority: your county or tribal environmental health office (the local sanitarian), operating under Montana DPHHS Food and Consumer Safety
- Rule: https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/publichealth/FCS/CottageFood/cottagefoodregistrationfillable2020Dec.pdf
- Authority page: https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/EHFS/cottagefoodfarmersmarkets