Iowa Cottage Food Law

Iowa's cottage food law sets no statewide revenue cap and no state permit or registration is required. Direct sales, farmers markets, and online sales permitted.

Watch for: Iowa has a dual-tier system: shelf-stable is permissive, refrigerated requires registration and caps your revenue.

Annual revenue cap

No cap (shelf-stable tier)

Permit / registration

Not required

Kitchen inspection

Not required

Food handler training

Not required

Acidified foods

Excluded

Interstate shipping

In-state only

Where you can sell

Direct sales, farmers markets, and online sales permitted.

Direct (in-person)
Farmers markets
Online (in-state)

What's required before your first sale

No registration for shelf-stable tier. Home Food Processing tier requires registration, inspection, and has a $50K cap.

Label requirements

Producer name plus a contact identifier — address, phone number, OR email
Common name of the food
Ingredient list in descending order of predominance by weight (with sub-ingredients in parentheses for compound ingredients)
Verbatim disclosure required by Iowa Code § 137F.20(2)(d): "This product was produced at a residential property that is exempt from state licensing and inspection."
Allergen statement naming each major allergen present, under FALCPA + FASTER Act ("Contains:" milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, sesame)
For home-canned pickles, vegetables, or fruits: the date the product was processed and canned

How Ardent Seller helps

Generate your Iowa disclosure label in one click

Ardent Seller assembles a print-ready cottage food label for Iowa from data you already track — the state's required disclosure statement rendered verbatim (and sized to meet the state's minimum type size where one applies), your operator info, ingredients in descending order by weight, the federal "Contains:" allergen line, net weight, and lot code. A validation checklist flags anything Iowa requires that's missing before you print. Included on every plan.

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