Sell Food From Your Home Kitchen
Utah’s Home Consumption & Homemade Food Act
Have a food product you’d like to sell? Utah law gives small producers a relatively simple way to prepare many foods in a home kitchen and sell them without the usual food-production licensing, permitting, certification, inspection, packaging, and labeling requirements.
Utah originally created this pathway through HB 181 in 2018. The law has been updated since then, including significant changes made by S.B. 217 in 2026.
This guide is based on the current law, not just the original HB 181.
What This Law Lets You Do
If you follow the requirements of Utah’s Home Consumption & Homemade Food Act, you can potentially:
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Prepare qualifying food in a private home kitchen
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Avoid many of the usual state and local food-production licensing and inspection requirements
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Sell directly to customers in Utah
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Contract with someone else to sell, deliver, store, or distribute your products
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Sell at a direct-to-sale farmers market
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Start testing a food-business idea without first investing in a commercial kitchen.
The basic exemption is found in Utah Code § 4-5a-104(1).
Start small. Learn what customers want. Grow when it makes sense.
How to Get Started
1. Choose What You Want to Make
A homemade food product is defined as a food product prepared in a private home kitchen that can be used or prepared for use as food or a nonalcoholic drink, subject to the exclusions in § 4-5a-105.
See Utah Code § 4-5a-102.
This can create opportunities for:
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Bakers
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Cooks
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Farmers creating value-added products
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Small food entrepreneurs
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Anyone interested in testing a food idea on a small scale
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What doesn’t fall under this law?
The chapter does not apply to:
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Raw dairy or raw dairy products
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Most meat products
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There are specific exceptions for certain poultry and poultry products and domesticated rabbit meat.
See Utah Code § 4-5a-105.
Start with what you want to make, then make sure it falls within the law before investing heavily in equipment or packaging.
2. Check Whether Your City or Town Requires a Business License
The law broadly exempts qualifying producers from state, county, and city licensing requirements related to preparing, serving, using, consuming, or storing food.
However, there is an important exception.
Utah Code § 4-5a-104(2) says:
A producer must comply with business-license requirements in accordance with Section 10-1-203.
Utah Code § 10-1-203 governs municipal business licensing.
So the practical step is:
Check whether your city or town requires a business license for your home-based business. If it does, follow those requirements.
This does not mean that Chapter 5a itself creates a universal statewide business-license requirement for every home producer.
Utah law also places restrictions on the fees municipalities can charge many home-based businesses. See Utah Code § 10-1-203 for the details.
3. Make Your Food at Home
This is one of the biggest opportunities the law creates.
A homemade food product can be prepared in a private home kitchen.
See the definition in Utah Code § 4-5a-102.
If you meet the requirements of the chapter, § 4-5a-104(1) exempts you from many state and local requirements related to:
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Licensing
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Permitting
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Certification
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Inspection
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Packaging
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Labeling, except for the specific labeling required by the Act
That can remove a major barrier to trying a new food-business idea.
4. Make Your Food at Home
The law does still require some basic labeling.
Under Utah Code § 4-5a-104(3), your product needs:
Your name and address
Include the producer’s name and address.
These disclosures
NOT FOR RESALE
and
PROCESSED AND PREPARED WITHOUT STATE OR LOCAL INSPECTION
Allergen information
The label must state whether the food:
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Contains common allergens, or
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Was prepared in a location that also handles common allergens
The statute specifically names:
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Milk
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Soy
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Wheat
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Eggs
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Peanuts or tree nuts
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Fish
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Shellfish
Because the statute says common allergens “including” those listed above, we do not interpret that list here as necessarily exhaustive.
The labeling requirements have an exception for certain direct sales involving only minor producers. See § 4-5a-104(7).
5. Sell to an Informed Final Consumer
The food must be:
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Produced and sold within Utah
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Sold directly to an informed final consumer
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For personal or home consumption
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A product that is not excluded under § 4-5a-105(1)
What is an “informed final consumer”?
Under Utah Code § 4-5a-102, an informed final consumer is an individual who:
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Purchases the product directly from the producer or the producer’s designated representative
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Does not resell the product
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Has been informed that the product is not certified, licensed, regulated, or inspected by the state
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The producer also has a separate duty to inform the final consumer that the product is not certified, licensed, regulated, or inspected by the state, county, or city.
FAQ
Do I have to sell every product myself?
No.
This became significantly more flexible in 2026.
S.B. 217 added the concept of a designated representative.
A designated representative is someone contracted by a producer to:
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Distribute
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Sell
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Deliver
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Hold
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Store
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Offer for sale
the producer’s homemade food product.
See Utah Code § 4-5a-102.
Under § 4-5a-104(4), either the producer or the designated representative can distribute, sell, deliver, hold, store, or offer the product directly to an informed final consumer at a direct-to-sale location.
That means you don’t necessarily have to:
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Personally attend every market
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Make every delivery
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Store every product yourself
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Personally complete every sale
You can contract with someone else to help with those parts of the business.
The final buyer still needs to be an informed final consumer and cannot purchase the product for resale.
Where can I sell?
The law uses the term “direct-to-sale location.”
Under Utah Code § 4-5a-102, that can include:
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A farm
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A ranch
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A direct-to-sale farmers market
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A home
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An office
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Another location agreed upon by the producer or designated representative and the informed final consumer
This creates a lot of flexibility for small producers.
Can I sell at a farmers markET?
Yes.
Utah law specifically recognizes direct-to-sale farmers markets.
See Utah Code § 4-5a-103.
A direct-to-sale farmers market generally may include products that have not been certified, licensed, regulated, or inspected by a state or local authority.
If a direct-to-sale farmers market is associated with a conventional farmers market, the two areas must:
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Be separated
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Have signs or markings showing which area is the conventional farmers market and which is the direct-to-sale farmers market
See § 4-5a-103(1)–(2).
S.B. 217 removed the former general signage requirement that applied to direct-to-sale farmers markets. The current signage requirement applies when the direct-to-sale market is associated with a conventional farmers market and the two areas need to be identified.
What about grocery stores and restaurants?
This law is primarily built around sales to the final consumer, not ordinary wholesale resale.
An informed final consumer cannot buy the product for resale.
See Utah Code § 4-5a-102.
In addition, Utah Code § 4-5a-104(5) generally prohibits homemade food covered by this chapter from being sold to or used by a restaurant or commercial establishment.
There is an important exception
A producer may sell raw, unprocessed fruits or vegetables to a restaurant or commercial establishment.
See § 4-5a-104(5)(b).
So if your goal is conventional wholesale distribution of prepared foods through restaurants or grocery stores, this particular pathway may not be the right fit.
Is this a good fit for me?
Utah’s Home Consumption & Homemade Food Act may be a great starting point if you:
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Make something people already enjoy
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Want to test a food-business idea without first building a commercial kitchen
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Want to sell directly to your community
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Farm and want to experiment with value-added products
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Want someone else to help sell, store, distribute, or deliver your products
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Prefer to prove there is a market before making a large investment
The law creates room to start small and see what works.
Start SmalL Sell Local
See What Works
You don’t necessarily need to build a full-scale food business before finding out whether you have a good one.
Make something good. Put it in front of customers. Learn. Adjust. Grow.
Utah’s Home Consumption & Homemade Food Act gives small producers room to do exactly that.
