Food Freedom States: Which States Let You Sell Almost Anything From Home in 2026

If you sell in a food freedom state and want local customers to order ahead, you can set up a Homegrown storefront and try it free for 7 days.

A food freedom law lets you sell homemade food straight to the person who will eat it, with no food license, permit or kitchen inspection. Wyoming passed the first one in 2015. Since then, North Dakota, Utah, Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas have passed their own versions, and Texas widened its cottage food law in 2025 to cover almost everything except meat. The catch most lists skip is meat: no state law can override federal meat inspection, so "sell almost anything" never means home-butchered beef sold over the counter. This guide walks through what each state actually allows, state by state, with the statute linked in each row.

What Is a Food Freedom Law?

A food freedom law is a state statute, first passed in Wyoming in 2015 and now on the books in 8 states, that exempts homemade food sold directly to the person who eats it from state licensing, permitting and inspection. Instead of treating home food as a regulated food business, it treats the sale as a private deal between you and an informed buyer. You tell the buyer the food was not inspected, and the state stays out of the kitchen.

Traditional cottage food laws work the opposite way. They start from the idea that all food production is regulated, then carve out a list of "low-risk" foods (bread, cookies, jam, dry mixes) you may make at home. A cottage food vendor usually has to follow a set label format, stay under a sales cap, and sell only foods on the list. A food freedom vendor in Tennessee, for example, has no sales cap at all in the statute.

Here is the key distinction in one sentence: cottage food laws list what you can sell, and food freedom laws list what you cannot. In a food freedom state the allowed list is long and the banned list is short, but the banned list always includes meat that federal law covers.

If you want the legal background on how these laws were passed and why they exist, our companion article on food freedom law explained walks through the policy history in plain language.

Which States Have True Food Freedom Laws?

Eight states have laws that skip food licensing and inspection for direct sales, listed here by the year they passed: Wyoming, Maine, North Dakota, Utah, Arkansas, Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Iowa and New Hampshire often show up on these lists too, but when we read their statutes, Iowa splits home food into a no-license shelf-stable track and a licensed track, and New Hampshire allows only foods that do not need refrigeration. Here is each state with the year its law passed, what it covers, and what it says about meat.

Swipe left to see the meat rule and the cap for each state.

We read each statute or agency page on October 14, 2026. "Shelf-stable" means a food that does not need refrigeration for safety; "perishable" means one that does (agencies call these TCS foods, for time and temperature control for safety). Caps can change: Oklahoma's rises on November 1, 2026.

Wyoming's 2015 Food Freedom Act was the first of these laws and still has the widest product list. It lets you sell perishable meals, eggs and dairy products, and it even lets a retail shop or grocery store sell your shelf-stable foods, eggs and dairy for you. The limit is a cap: under the Wyoming statute, a vendor may not make more than 250,000 food or drink products or more than $250,000 in gross revenue a year.

Most of the laws that followed borrow Wyoming's basic structure: the sale goes straight to your customer, you tell them about the home kitchen, and most of them keep the food out of restaurants.

Can You Sell Meat Under a Food Freedom Law?

No, not beef, pork, lamb or goat from animals you raise and slaughter at home, in any of the 8 food freedom states we read, apart from Wyoming's two buy-before-slaughter routes, a portion of a live animal or an animal share, where a customer owns a stake in the animal before it is slaughtered. Every one of them either keeps meat out of the law or allows only narrow exceptions: small-flock poultry under the federal exemption for up to 1,000 birds a year in five of them, domestic rabbit, farm-raised fish and animal shares in Wyoming, and rabbit pending USDA approval in Utah. Maine leaves all meat and poultry to its state inspection program, which has its own small-flock exemption for a farmer's own birds. That is because the federal meat and poultry inspection laws apply no matter what a state passes. Under federal rules, meat from a custom slaughter is stamped "Not for Sale" (9 CFR 303.1), so it can go to the animal's owner but not to a customer. That is the legal route in any state: sell the animal while it is alive, and the buyer who owns it has it custom-slaughtered for their own household (9 CFR 303.1(a)(2)).

Here is what each state's text says about meat:

• Wyoming: transactions may "not involve the sale of meat products," except poultry, live animals, portions of live animals sold before slaughter for future delivery, domestic rabbit, farm-raised fish that is not catfish, and meat delivered through an animal share. A section allowing home-slaughtered cattle, sheep, pigs and goats exists, but it takes effect only when the governor certifies that federal law allows those sales.
• North Dakota: no "uninspected products made from meat," and poultry only from birds the vendor raised, capped at 1,000.
• Utah: the act "does not apply to the sale of" meat products, except poultry under the USDA 1,000-bird exemption and domestic rabbit pending USDA approval.
• Montana: meat processed anywhere, even at a state-licensed or federally approved plant, may not be used in homemade food sold under the act. Poultry is allowed if you slaughter fewer than 1,000 birds a year and keep the federal records.
• Maine: the state still enforces its meat and poultry inspection program "without exception," even in towns with a food sovereignty ordinance. Maine's inspection law has its own exemption for a registered farmer who slaughters fewer than 1,000 of their own birds a year on the farm and sells them whole, in Maine only, labeled as not inspected (22 MRSA 2517-C).
• Oklahoma: homemade food "shall not contain seafood or meat" or poultry, as the federal rules define them.
• Tennessee: perishable homemade foods may not include meat, fish or shellfish, and poultry is allowed only under the federal 1,000-bird exemption or with inspected poultry under the retail exemption.
• Arkansas: the state guide says the act "does not allow for the sale of any products that contain meat, poultry or seafood."

The federal poultry exemption these states borrow is narrow. Under 9 CFR 381.10(c), a farmer can skip federal inspection for birds "of his own raising on his own farm" only if they slaughter "not more than 1,000 poultry during the calendar year," do not buy or sell other poultry, and none of the birds move across state lines. If you want to sell beef or pork, you need a USDA- or state-inspected processor, and our guide to selling smoked meats from home explains which inspection reaches which buyer.

Can You Sell Raw Milk and Dairy in a Food Freedom State?

Raw milk depends on the state and on which law you read. Wyoming's act names dairy products without carving out raw milk, Montana's covers raw milk from a small dairy, and a Maine town ordinance can cover it. North Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas leave raw milk out of their food freedom laws, but each has a separate raw milk route: direct sales to consumers in North Dakota; farm, farmers market, natural food store and farm delivery sales in Arkansas; farm, agent delivery and inspected store sales in Utah; farm sales in Oklahoma; and herd shares only in Tennessee. Maine also licenses raw milk sales statewide.

Swipe to see the source for each raw milk rule.

Read October 14, 2026. Federal law bans raw milk in final package form from crossing state lines (21 CFR 1240.61), in every state.

North Dakota is the clearest example of why you read more than one law. The state's raw milk guide says House Bill 1515 made raw milk sales to the end consumer legal on August 1, 2023, and that a later session added cream, cheese and yogurt. That law, not the cottage food act, is what covers a North Dakota raw milk sale, and it bans donations and sales to stores. For every state's raw milk rule, not just these, see our raw milk laws by state guide.

How Does Food Freedom Compare to Traditional Cottage Food Laws?

Food freedom and cottage food laws both let you sell from a home kitchen, but food freedom laws usually cover perishable foods and skip the license, while cottage food laws stick to a list. The meat rule is the same under both, because it comes from federal law. Here is a side-by-side comparison of what changes when you move from a cottage food state to a food freedom state.

Scroll sideways to compare both systems.

Cottage food figures come from the Florida Department of Agriculture page, the University of Minnesota Extension cottage food page and the Texas DSHS page; food freedom figures from each state's statute. All read October 14, 2026.

The products you gain in a food freedom state are the ones that can carry a real price. A Wyoming vendor can sell a frozen lasagna or a quart of chili made with beans at a farmers market stand. A Florida cottage food vendor works from a list of shelf-stable foods, and the Florida Department of Agriculture cottage food page starts that list with loaf breads, cakes, candies, honey and jams. A Montana vendor can sell raw milk from a small herd. A Utah vendor can sell chicken from a backyard flock under the 1,000-bird exemption.

This matters because cookies, jam and granola are allowed under nearly every cottage food law, so home vendors everywhere can make them. Prepared meals and dairy foods are open to home kitchens in far fewer states, so fewer home vendors can offer them.

What Can You Sell Under a Food Freedom Law?

You can sell most foods you make at home, as long as you sell them directly to your customer and say they were made in an uninspected home kitchen. Four states also let a store sell your shelf-stable foods for you, and Wyoming adds eggs and dairy. The exact list depends on the state. Here is what the 8 food freedom laws allow, with the states that limit each one.

Commonly allowed under food freedom laws:

• Baked goods: cookies, bread, cakes and pies, including cream pies in states that allow perishable foods (Arkansas allows only shelf-stable ones, and North Dakota wants refrigerated bakes kept and delivered frozen)
• Jams, jellies and preserves: allowed under all 7 statewide laws, and in Maine where a town ordinance covers them
• Pickles and acidified vegetables: allowed, but Arkansas requires a tested recipe or a pH reading of 4.6 or lower for each batch
• Dried mixes and spices: allowed; Wyoming's statute names dry soup mixes, "excluding meat based soup mixes"
• Dairy products: foods made with pasteurized dairy (cheesecake, cream pies) in Utah, Wyoming, Tennessee, Montana and Oklahoma, and, kept and delivered frozen, North Dakota; raw milk under the act only in Wyoming, Montana (from a small dairy) and in Maine under a local ordinance that includes it, while North Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma and Arkansas allow it under separate dairy laws, Tennessee allows herd shares, and licensed Maine dairies can sell it statewide
• Eggs: Wyoming's act names eggs, and a store can sell them for you there
• Poultry: birds of your own raising, within the federal yearly bird limit, in Tennessee, Montana, Utah, North Dakota and Wyoming, and under Maine's own small-flock exemption (whole birds, sold in Maine)
• Cooked meals without meat: soups, beans, casseroles and prepared entrées in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, and in North Dakota if the meals are kept and delivered frozen
• Fermented foods: kraut and kimchi; Wyoming's statute lists pickled vegetables as a food that does not need refrigeration
• Honey: Arkansas's guide lists honey, creamed honey and honey flavored with dry spices

Products that stay off-limits even in food freedom states:

• Red meat from animals slaughtered at home or at a custom plant, sold over the counter (federal inspection law); the exception is a buyer who owns the animal before slaughter, explained in the meat section above
• Any meat or poultry at all under Oklahoma's and Arkansas's acts, and any meat other than small-flock poultry in Montana, even from an inspected plant
• Food sold to a restaurant or used in one (barred in the Utah, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota statutes and in Arkansas's state guide)
• Food sold across state lines in Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Tennessee
• Raw milk across state lines (21 CFR 1240.61), and raw milk under Utah's, Oklahoma's and Tennessee's food freedom acts (each state's separate dairy law covers raw milk instead, in Tennessee through herd shares only)

The federal restrictions on meat are non-negotiable. Even Wyoming's food freedom law does not let you sell home-slaughtered beef to the public today, because that is a federal inspection issue, not a state one; its live-animal-portion and animal share routes work only because the customer already owns part of the animal when it is slaughtered, the same buy-before-slaughter logic behind the federal custom exemption that applies in every state (9 CFR 303.1). Poultry is the exception because federal law has its own small-flock exemption for birds you raise on your own farm.

For a full state-by-state breakdown of which products are allowed in each traditional cottage food state, our cottage food laws by state guide covers the rules everywhere else in the country.

Is Texas a Food Freedom State?

No, Texas is not a food freedom state in the legal sense, but since September 1, 2025 its cottage food law lets home kitchens sell almost any food. Under Senate Bill 541, the Texas DSHS cottage food page says allowable foods "now include any foods, except" meat and poultry, seafood, ice and ice cream, low-acid canned goods, CBD or THC products, and raw milk.

What makes Texas a cottage food state rather than a food freedom state:

• A yearly cap of $150,000 in gross income
• A food handler course for every operator
• DSHS registration if you sell foods that must stay cold
• A required label statement and safe handling instructions on refrigerated foods
• Meat and poultry banned outright, with no 1,000-bird exemption

So a Texas home cook can sell bean chili, cheesecake or frozen vegetable soup, but not chicken soup. Our Texas cottage food law guide walks through every rule.

What Are the Labeling and Record-Keeping Rules in a Food Freedom State?

Most food freedom states require a short statement that the food was made in a home kitchen and not inspected, plus your contact details, and a few require nothing printed at all. The point of food freedom is a lighter load, not zero consumer protection, so every statewide law here requires you to tell the buyer about the home kitchen; in Maine, the local ordinance decides.

Swipe to read each state's exact wording.

Statement wording is quoted from each statute or agency guide, read October 14, 2026. Utah's agriculture department words it "Not for Resale – Processed and prepared without the benefit of state or local inspection."

Typical label contents across these states:

• Your name and address, or a state-issued number where the state offers one (Oklahoma and Arkansas)
• The common name of the food and its ingredients, heaviest first
• The "not inspected" statement in your state's words
• An allergen statement (Utah and Oklahoma require an allergen list; Tennessee's and Arkansas's statements say the food "may contain allergens")
• The date made, which Arkansas requires and the other statewide laws here do not

Record-keeping is usually lighter than in cottage food states, but four rules require records. Montana's small dairies keep milk and brucellosis test results for 2 years. Montana poultry vendors follow the federal poultry record rule (9 CFR 381.175). Maine's small-flock poultry sellers give every bird sold a lot number and keep a record of lot numbers and where each was sold (22 MRSA 2517-C). Arkansas pickle makers keep a batch number, the recipe source or pH reading, and the date for every batch.

The University of Minnesota Extension cottage food page shows the other end of the scale. Minnesota cottage food vendors register with the state every year, and those selling $7,665 to $78,000 a year complete a food safety course every three years. That is the gap between a cottage food state and a food freedom state, and it shows up in how much paperwork you carry every year.

Compare that with Florida, a cottage food state with no permit at all: the Florida Department of Agriculture lets cottage food vendors sell "without obtaining a food permit" up to $250,000 a year, the same dollar cap as Wyoming. What Florida limits is the product list and the label, which must say "Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations."

How Do You Actually Start Selling Under a Food Freedom Law?

You start by reading your state's statute, then labeling your product honestly and selling directly to customers. No state on our list of 8 requires a state food license or a kitchen inspection. Utah still requires a business license, Oklahoma requires a food safety course before you sell perishable foods, and in Maine the town ordinance sets the terms.

Here is the typical setup, in order:

• Confirm your state's specific law. Each statute has quirks. Maine's law applies only under a local ordinance, Montana bans all meat except small-flock poultry, and Arkansas covers only shelf-stable foods. Read the statute linked in the table above.
• Pick your products. Start with what you already make well, and check each one against the meat and dairy rules before you list it. Do not use food freedom as an excuse to launch products you have not tested.
• Take any required course. Oklahoma requires food safety training of up to 8 hours, such as ServSafe Food Handler, before you sell perishable foods.
• Design a label. Include your state's exact statement plus the food's name, ingredients, allergens and your contact details.
• Pick a sales channel. Farmers markets, farm stands, home pickup and delivery you arrange fit every law here (Utah wants a separate area at the market). Restaurant sales are barred in five of the states, so ask before you try one anywhere.
• Set prices. Food freedom does not set your prices. Price on your cost and the local market, not on cottage food norms.
• Start small. Aim to find 10 reliable customers in your first month rather than launching 20 products.
• Track production dates for anything perishable, so you can answer a customer or a health department quickly if a question comes up.
• Handle taxes normally. Tennessee's law says outright that it does not exempt you from any tax law. Report your sales on Schedule C and check your state's sales tax rules.

The biggest mistake new food freedom vendors make is assuming the rules match across states. They do not. Chicken soup made with your own birds can be legal in Wyoming and illegal in Oklahoma, and a third-party store can sell your cookies in Tennessee but your perishable meals must go hand to hand. Always check your own state's statute before launching.

If you want the full walkthrough on the business side of launching, our complete guide to starting a cottage food business covers pricing, packaging, labeling, and first-customer tactics that apply in any state.

Where Can You Sell Under a Food Freedom Law?

You can sell at a farmers market, a farm stand, your home, or a place you and the buyer agree on in all 8 states, but online orders, delivery and third-party stores vary. The rule underneath all of it is the same: the sale ends with the person who will eat the food.

Swipe to see every sales channel by state.

From each statute or agency guide, read October 14, 2026. "Not addressed" means the statute does not mention it; ask your state agriculture department before relying on it.

Utah adds one more wrinkle for markets. Under Utah Code 4-5a-103, homemade food has to be sold in a "direct-to-sale farmers market" area that is separated from the regular farmers market and marked with signs. Ask the market manager where that area is before you book a booth.

What Are the Limitations of Food Freedom Laws?

Food freedom laws are the loosest home food rules in the country, but they come with three real limits every vendor should understand before growing.

Limitation 1: Direct to the end customer. Four statutes (Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming) bar restaurant sales outright, and Arkansas's state guide does too. Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas let a retail store sell your shelf-stable foods for you, and Wyoming adds eggs and dairy, but other perishable foods still have to go from you, or in some states your agent, straight to the buyer. That is the biggest scaling limit: outside Wyoming's eggs and dairy, you cannot wholesale a perishable food freedom product.

Limitation 2: State lines. Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Tennessee laws end at the state border, so shipping to another state is out there. Arkansas and Oklahoma allow out-of-state sales only if you follow federal law, and North Dakota's statute bars only poultry from crossing the line. To sell across state lines regularly, plan on federal food rules, which usually means a licensed kitchen.

Limitation 3: Federal meat and poultry rules. Food freedom does not override federal inspection of red meat. Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck) is the exception under the federal small-flock rule, or in Maine under the state's own exemption for fewer than 1,000 of a farmer's own birds, and Oklahoma's and Arkansas's acts allow neither. Montana goes further and bars meat from inspected plants too.

Here is what this means in practice. A Wyoming vendor can:

• Sell up to $250,000 a year in home-prepared meals without meat at farmers markets
• Sell eggs, jam, bread and kombucha at a farm stand, and let a local store sell the jam and bread
• Sell chickens they raised, within the federal limit
• Sell dairy products directly to customers, including through a store

A Wyoming vendor cannot:

• Ship baked goods to a customer in Colorado
• Sell prepared meals to a local restaurant
• Sell beef from home-slaughtered cattle (the routes run through buying the animal before slaughter, explained in the meat section above)
• Sell through an online marketplace that ships to other states

Once you understand the limits, you can design a business that works inside them. A farmers market booth, a farm stand and pickup orders from your own ordering page are the direct sales these laws are built around, and none of them needs a middleman (in Tennessee and Utah, read the in-person rule below before you take payment online).

How Does Food Freedom Change What You Can Build?

Food freedom changes what you can build because it removes the short product list that holds list-based cottage food vendors to baked goods and jam, and in Tennessee, Utah, Montana and North Dakota it removes the yearly sales cap too. With access to perishable meals, eggs, small-flock poultry and, in a few states, dairy, a home vendor can sell what people eat every week, not just weekend treats (eggs and small-flock poultry also have separate permit routes in some other states, as the farm-to-door model below shows).

Here are the business models that work under food freedom rules but not under list-based cottage food laws like Florida's or New Hampshire's:

• Home meal delivery. Prepare weekly meals without meat (bean chili, vegetable lasagna, soups) and deliver them yourself. Legal in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Montana and Wyoming, and in North Dakota if the meals are kept and delivered frozen. In Tennessee and Utah the sale itself must happen in person, so ask the state agency before you take payment online for these meals.
• Farm-to-door poultry and eggs. Sell eggs and chicken you raised directly to families, staying under the federal bird limit. Legal in five of the 8 states, plus Maine under its own state small-flock exemption; Wyoming adds domestic rabbit. Eggs and small-flock poultry also have routes outside food freedom laws: Florida issues a limited poultry and egg farm permit for up to 1,000 laying hens and 20,000 birds a year, and Nebraska gives a free egg number to anyone selling eggs from fewer than 3,000 hens, so check your state's egg and poultry rules too.
• Small dairy. Sell dairy products from a small herd in Wyoming, or raw milk in Montana from a herd small enough to count as a "small dairy." Ghee is one of the easier small-dairy products to start with, because a well-made jar keeps at room temperature, and Utah and Wyoming both allow it from a home kitchen, as our guide to selling ghee from home shows with each state's exact rule.
• Fermented food operations. Sell kraut, kimchi and pickled vegetables. Arkansas wants a tested recipe or a batch pH reading of 4.6 or lower for acidified vegetables, so check your state's process rule.
• Multi-product farm stands. Sell produce, baked goods, eggs, poultry and prepared foods from one roadside stand. Wyoming even lets a store at your farm sell homemade food, as long as it posts a sign saying the food is uninspected.

The business models food freedom unlocks are the ones most home vendors cannot legally run. A home cookie business can start in any cottage food state. A weekly dinner pickup for ten families needs a law that allows perishable meals.

For soups and stews specifically, our guide to selling homemade soup goes state by state on which versions are legal, since a chicken noodle soup and a lentil soup fall under different rules.

How Do You Take Food Freedom Orders Without Living in Your DMs?

Use one ordering page that lists this week's meals, takes payment up front and tells each customer when to pick up, because food freedom laws push every meal sale through you, or in some states your agent (in Tennessee and Utah, read the in-person rule below before you take payment online). Taking weekly meal orders through Instagram DMs gets messy fast once you are matching payments to messages and counting portions by hand.

Homegrown is $10 per month with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing ($10 billed annually, or $12.50 billed monthly, with a 7-day trial and no charge until day 8). Card processing is 2.9% + $0.30 per order, paid by you, with no fee added to your customer's total. It fits a food freedom vendor in four specific ways:

• Pickup and delivery you control: customers choose pickup from your house, farm stand or market booth, or delivery to their door, which keeps the hand-off direct
• Room for your required statement: each product description can carry your state's "not inspected" wording, ingredients and allergens before the customer pays
• Pre-orders: customers pay before your cooking day, so you make the exact number of meals instead of guessing (in Tennessee and Utah, see the in-person rule below first)
• One link: a storefront you can set up in about 15 minutes and share on social media, at your booth, or by text

Tennessee's law says perishable homemade food must be sold by you or your agent "in person" (T.C.A. 53-1-118(b)(3)(C)), and Utah's agriculture department says everything sold under its act "must be sold in-person." Homegrown takes card payment online at checkout, so an order a customer pays for online before pickup may not match that wording for Tennessee perishable foods or for anything sold under Utah's act. In those two states, ask the state agency before you take paid online orders for those foods.

Compare that with Etsy, which is built for shipping shelf-stable products to strangers, something four of the 8 states (Tennessee, Montana, Utah, Wyoming) do not allow across state lines. Etsy has no required monthly plan (Etsy Plus is an optional $10 a month) but charges a 6.5% transaction fee, 3% + $0.25 processing, and a $0.20 listing renewal each time a product sells. Shopify Basic is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly) and is built for online retailers who ship, not a home vendor handing 20 meal orders a week to neighbors.

Swipe to compare all three options.

Checked October 14, 2026 on findhomegrown.com/signup, Etsy's Fees and Payments Policy and Etsy Payments Policy (US rate), and shopify.com/pricing. Processing is figured on the $20 price; sales tax and tips are left out. The Etsy figure is $0.40 in listing renewals, $1.30 transaction fee and $0.85 processing.

Homegrown customers create an account to place their first order, and while your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link. Homegrown does not tell you what your state's food freedom law allows, write your label, or drive your deliveries. It gives you the ordering page that turns scattered DM orders into a list you can cook from.

If you already sell at a market and want those regulars to order between market days, set up a Homegrown storefront and put the link on your booth sign this weekend.

What Do Federal Rules Still Control in a Food Freedom State?

Federal law still controls meat, poultry, raw milk across state lines, and any food you package for interstate sale, no matter how loose your state's law is. North Dakota's raw milk guide notes the interstate ban on raw milk has stood since 1987. State food freedom laws can only release you from state rules, and several of them say so in their own text.

The federal rules that matter most for a home vendor:

• Meat inspection: beef, pork, lamb and goat sold to the public must be inspected; custom-slaughtered meat is marked "Not for Sale" under 9 CFR 303.1
• Poultry: the 1,000-bird small-flock exemption in 9 CFR 381.10(c) is the one these state laws point to, and it requires that none of the birds move across state lines
• Raw milk: 21 CFR 1240.61 bans packaged raw milk in interstate commerce
• Packaged food sold across state lines: Oklahoma's statute says it must be "sold and labeled in accordance with federal law," and Iowa's cottage food section says its exemption "does not represent compliance with federal law"

Utah's act also says the state keeps running its meat inspection program at a level "at least equal to" the standards of the federal Meat and Poultry Products Inspection Act. Read with the federal rules above, it means "food freedom" and "home-butchered beef" do not go together in Utah.

How Do You Know If Your State Is About to Pass Food Freedom?

Watch your legislature's bill list each session, because most recent changes widened existing laws rather than creating new ones. The last few years show the pattern: states keep adding perishable foods and raising caps, and none we read lets you sell uninspected red meat over the counter; Wyoming's two routes are selling portions of a live animal before slaughter (W.S. 11-49-103(c)(v)(C)) and an animal share (W.S. 11-49-104), in which the meat goes only to people who bought into the herd, and they cannot resell it.

What to watch:

• Bills with "homemade food," "food freedom," "food sovereignty" or "local food choice" in the title
• Bills that add perishable (TCS) foods to an existing cottage food law
• Bills that raise or remove the yearly sales cap
• Bills that rename a cottage food law, as Oklahoma's did

Recent changes we confirmed in the statutes and agency pages:

• Tennessee passed its Food Freedom Act in 2022 and added perishable foods on July 1, 2025.
• Texas opened its cottage food law to almost any food except meat, poultry and a short list on September 1, 2025, with a $150,000 cap.
• Oklahoma raises its cap from $75,000 to $250,000 and renames its law the Local Food Freedom Act on November 1, 2026 (HB 3720, approved by the governor May 5, 2026), and widens the law from home kitchens to businesses at any location except restaurants.
• Colorado passed the Tamale Act (HB26-1033), which starts January 1, 2027 and adds perishable foods to its cottage food law for registered vendors; meat in those foods must come from an approved source: USDA-inspected meat, or poultry covered by a federal or state small-farm exemption.
• Montana amended its Local Food Choice Act in 2023 and again in 2025; the current text includes the small-dairy raw milk rules.

Two states that sometimes appear on wish lists are moving more slowly. New Mexico's Homemade Food Act covers only foods that do not need refrigeration, and Nebraska's cottage food law excludes "any part of an animal," which its agriculture department says means meat, lard, tallow and bone broth.

If you want to push your state toward food freedom, the most effective step is to contact your state representative with a concrete example of a business you would like to start that your current rules make illegal. Specific stories from real vendors carry more weight with legislators than general arguments.

Ready to start selling locally? The easiest way to take local orders and get paid is an online storefront. See the best platform to sell food from home, or set up a Homegrown storefront in about 15 minutes ($10 a month billed annually, 0% commission).

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many States Have True Food Freedom Laws?

Eight states have laws that let you sell homemade food directly with no food license or kitchen inspection: Wyoming, North Dakota, Utah, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Maine in places that adopt a local food ordinance. Iowa and New Hampshire often appear on food freedom state lists, but Iowa licenses perishable home food and New Hampshire allows only shelf-stable foods. Texas widened its cottage food law in 2025 but still has a cap, a course and registration for perishable foods.

What Is the Difference Between Cottage Food and Food Freedom?

Cottage food laws allow a list of low-risk homemade foods, usually with a set label format and a revenue cap. Food freedom laws allow most homemade foods sold directly to your customer, often including perishable meals, with a short "not inspected" statement. Neither one lets you sell home-slaughtered beef or pork over the counter, because federal inspection law covers meat in every state. Wyoming's law names two narrow routes, selling part of a live animal before slaughter and an animal share, where the buyer co-owns the animal and may not resell the meat. In any state, a buyer who owns the live animal can have it custom-slaughtered for their own household (9 CFR 303.1), but that meat is marked "Not for Sale".

Can I Ship Food Freedom Products Out of State?

Usually not. Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Tennessee limit sales to their own state, and federal law bans packaged raw milk and small-flock poultry from crossing state lines. Arkansas and Oklahoma allow out-of-state sales only if you meet federal food rules, and North Dakota's statute restricts only poultry, though the buyer's state law still applies.

Do I Need a License to Sell Under a Food Freedom Law?

Not a food license in the 8 food freedom states, though there are exceptions to know. Utah requires a business license, Oklahoma requires a food safety course before you sell perishable foods, and Iowa requires a $50 yearly license for perishable home food. You still label your products, follow any meat or poultry limits, and report the income on your taxes.

Can I Sell to Restaurants or Grocery Stores Under Food Freedom?

Restaurants are out in four states whose statutes bar homemade food from being sold to or used by one (Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming), and Arkansas's state guide says the same. Grocery stores are different in four states. Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas let a retail store sell your shelf-stable foods for you, and Wyoming adds eggs and dairy, as long as the store tells buyers the food is uninspected.

Is Raw Milk Legal in Food Freedom States?

Raw milk is covered by some food freedom laws and left out of others, but each of the 8 states has some legal route to it. Wyoming's act covers dairy products without excluding raw milk, Montana allows it from a small dairy of up to 5 cows, 10 goats or 10 sheep, and a Maine town ordinance can cover it. North Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas leave raw milk out of their food freedom laws but handle it under separate dairy laws: North Dakota allows direct sales to consumers, Utah allows farm, agent delivery and inspected store sales, Oklahoma allows sales at the farm, Arkansas allows farm, farmers market, natural food store and farm delivery sales, and Tennessee allows herd shares only. Maine also licenses raw milk sales statewide, and federal law bans packaged raw milk from crossing state lines.

What Is the Best Food Freedom State to Live In for a Home Vendor?

Wyoming has the widest product list, covering perishable meals, eggs, dairy, small-flock poultry and rabbit, and it lets stores sell your eggs, dairy and shelf-stable foods, but it caps sales at $250,000 a year. Tennessee has no cap in its statute and allows perishable foods without meat. For raw milk under the food freedom law itself, Wyoming and Montana are the friendliest, and for shelf-stable foods sold online and by mail, look at Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Related Reading

These 7 guides pick up where this list stops, each on a question food freedom readers ask next. Start with the first one if you want the history behind the 8 laws, or jump to your own product.

• Food freedom law explained: how these laws came about and the policy argument behind them.
• Cottage food laws by state: the rules in every state that runs a traditional cottage food program.
• Raw milk laws by state: where raw milk is legal, state by state.
• Can you sell homemade soup?: which soups are legal from a home kitchen, including the meat question.
• TCS food and cottage food: what "time and temperature control for safety" means and which states allow those foods.
• Texas cottage food law: the state that opened almost every food to home kitchens in 2025.
• How to sell smoked meats from home: which inspected processor, federal or state, unlocks which buyers when you want to sell beef or pork.

Take Advantage of What Your State Already Allows

If you live in one of the 8 food freedom states, from Wyoming (2015) to Tennessee (perishable foods since July 1, 2025), you already have more legal room than most home vendors in the country, as long as you leave red meat to inspected processors. The bottleneck is rarely the law; it is order management. A vendor who moves off DMs and onto a simple ordering page can see every order, payment and pickup time in one place, which makes it far easier to grow a weekly dinner pickup past the first 10 families.

Start with the steps that take a day: read your state's statute, write your label statement, and pick the three products you make best. Then set up your ordering page and start selling what your state already allows you to make.

*This guide is general information, not legal advice. Food freedom laws change, so verify the current rules in your state's statute or with your state agriculture department before you start selling. Last verified: October 14, 2026.*