Iowa cottage food law for home bakers

The short version

Iowa's cottage food exemption is among the most permissive in the country: no license, no fee, no sales cap, and the statute itself (not agency guidance alone) names online and telephone ordering plus mail delivery as allowed.

A second, licensed track (chapter 137D, the Home Food Processing Establishment) exists for a baker who wants to sell TCS/refrigerated items from home, with its own fee, a lower revenue ceiling, and periodic inspection. It is not needed for ordinary shelf-stable baked goods.

Registering

The rule is administered by No agency administers the cottage food exemption itself (it is a full exemption from licensing). Iowa's Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing (DIAL) licenses the separate Home Food Processing Establishment track.; the guide reads Iowa Code §137F.20 ("Cottage food: requirements"), added by 2022 Iowa Acts, chapter 1129, §10. The parallel Home Food Processing Establishment license is Iowa Code chapter 137D, originally 88 Acts ch. 1220 (1988), most recently amended by 2023 Acts ch. 82.

No registration, license, or permit of any kind is required for cottage food under 137F.20; the HFPE license (137D.2) is a separate, optional, fee-based track relevant only to TCS foods.

Where you can sell, and whether online counts

137F.20 explicitly names internet and telephone sales and mail delivery inside the statute's own text, unlike most cottage food states, where such permissions (if any) come only from agency guidance.

The statute does not address out-of-state sale, so it is treated as not allowed by this project's conservative default, even though nothing in the text forbids it.

What goes on the label

• Name and address, phone number, or email of the person preparing the food
• Common name of the food
• Ingredients in descending order of predominance
• The exemption statement quoted above
• If the food contains a major food allergen, an additional statement naming each allergen by its common name
• If home-processed and home-canned pickles, vegetables, or fruits, the date the food was processed and canned

What you can bake and sell

The 'made-to-order, immediately consumed' clause is a second, separate door into the exemption alongside the plain non-TCS door; it is more relevant to a walk-up stand than to a delivery/shipping business model.

• Allowed: Any food that is not time/temperature-control-for-safety (TCS) food, including baked goods, jams, and dry mixes; also made-to-order food that is promptly served or delivered and intended for immediate consumption, even if it would otherwise be TCS.
• Not allowed: Unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice, raw sprout seeds, food containing game animals/fish/shellfish, alcoholic beverages, bottled water, packaged ice, consumable hemp products, food destined for further processing at a food processing plant, reduced-oxygen-packaged TCS food, regulated milk/milk products, and regulated meat/poultry products (narrow exemptions exist for small-scale USDA-exempt poultry/meat producers selling directly to the end consumer).

The sales cap

Iowa sets no cap on cottage food sales.

See what your state allows, online orders included, with the cottage food sales cap checker.

Questions people ask

Do I need to register to sell cottage food in Iowa?

No, Iowa does not require registration. None. Cottage food under §137F.20 is exempt from all state licensing, permitting, and inspection. Fee: Not stated. The statute affirmatively exempts cottage food from licensing and fees; there is no fee-setting body to name.

What is the cottage food sales cap in Iowa?

Iowa sets no cap on cottage food sales.

Can I take orders online in Iowa?

Yes, you can take orders online. You can hand an order over in person or send it anywhere inside the state.

Can I deliver or ship cottage food in Iowa?

Delivery is allowed. Shipping inside the state is allowed.

What does my Iowa cottage food label need to say?

The label must say: This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state licensing and inspection.

Sources

Laws change; check the linked source before you sell.

• Iowa Code §137F.20, Cottage food: requirementslegis.iowa.gov
• Iowa Code chapter 137D, Home Food Processing Establishmentslegis.iowa.gov