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A practical guide for home makers

Wyoming Cottage FoodLaws & Label Requirements

Understand your options, prepare your labels and take the next step toward your first sale.

Editable label template + example + starting checklist

A little help getting started

Your Wyoming
label kit.

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Wyoming label resources
Official sources

Ovenbell / WY

Your label,
made your own.

Product name
Ingredients & allergens
Business details & disclosure

EDITABLE TEMPLATE · DOCX

Your first sale

A little plan.
A clearer start.

Check your products
Apply the state’s requirements
Prepare your labels
Plan your first sale

STARTING CHECKLIST · PDF

Two useful tools. One free Wyoming kit.

The essentials

Wyoming, at a glance

The Wyoming Food Freedom Act can cover many homemade foods, including some refrigerated foods, with no routine state food license for a qualifying operation.

Your product determines who may sell it and which retail rules apply. Two annual limits matter: 250,000 individual products and $250,000 gross food-and-drink revenue. Both must be respected.

Sales limits

A producer must not produce more than 250,000 individual food or drink products annually AND must not exceed $250,000 annual gross revenue from food and drink products.

Registration & permits

Compliant homemade WFFA products are exempt from state licensure, permits, inspection, packaging and labeling except where the Act specifies otherwise.

  • All applicable product, transaction, disclosure and annual producer-limit conditions met
View official sources (1)

One step at a time

Your first 2 steps

  1. Define the product and transaction first

    Prepare homemade products in a private home kitchen.

    Write down each recipe, whether it needs refrigeration, who owns it until the customer buys it, and where delivery happens. Check the annual producer limits and any meat exception before listing products. Prepare the customer disclosure and any required retail label or sign. Keep your product classification and sales arrangement together for future changes.

  2. Set up records for growth

    Use a simple running count of individual products alongside gross sales, and keep written agent designations when someone helps you sell.

    Save label versions and ingredient information as practical traceability records. These records make it easier to check a new sales channel and notice when you are approaching either annual ceiling.

View official sources (4)

Make what you love

Can you sell what you make?

These are examples. Check the complete recipe, preparation method and sales route before offering a product.

Bread, granola and preserves

Check the conditions

Bread without a hazardous filling, granola, popcorn, qualifying jam and pickled vegetables are examples within the non-potentially hazardous category.

That category can use authorized third-party retail sales. Evaluate the finished recipe and storage needs: adding a filling that needs refrigeration changes the analysis even if the base recipe remains the same.

Refrigerated meals need a different sales arrangement

Check the conditions

A meat-free cooked-bean dish falls within the statute’s potentially hazardous category.

For these foods, other than the separate eggs-and-dairy category, the seller must be the producer or a designated agent. Do not treat a grocery store buying and owning that dish for resale as equivalent to your own direct sale.

Raw dairy, poultry, rabbit and fish

Check the conditions

Raw dairy is addressed by the WFFA, while meat has narrow exceptions.

Poultry must meet the own-raised, not-more-than-1,000-birds conditions and applicable federal requirements. Domestic rabbit and qualifying farm-raised fish are separate exceptions; catfish and wild game are not general permissions. Confirm the complete product and handling plan before adding an animal product.

View official sources (3)

From your kitchen to your customers

Where and how you can sell

Sales channels and conditions in Wyoming
Selling methodWhat matters
Direct sales and online orders

Sales may take place at qualifying farms, ranches, markets, homes, offices or agreed locations. WDA allows internet orders for delivery within Wyoming. The transaction must remain intrastate, and an out-of-state producer cannot simply use a Wyoming pickup point to claim the exemption. Give the required disclosure with the actual customer transaction.

Shops and grocery resale

Non-potentially hazardous products, eggs and dairy have an express third-party retail route. The retailer must follow the applicable disclosure and display rules. Shelf-stable food and dairy at retail need the specific warning and separation from licensed products. A blanket “no wholesale” rule misses this pathway, but the pathway does not cover every refrigerated food.

A designated agent is different from a reseller

Name a designated agent in writing. The agent may market, transport, store and deliver your food, but cannot take ownership. This can support qualifying direct sales of products that cannot use ordinary third-party resale. Keep the arrangement consistent in practice: calling a buyer an agent does not change who actually owns the inventory.

Restaurants and mixed retail spaces

Homemade food generally cannot become a restaurant ingredient or be served by a commercial food establishment; the raw-produce exception is narrow. A qualifying retail space selling other potentially hazardous foods alongside a commercial operation needs more than a separate shelf: door, checkout, signs and storage separation requirements can apply. Review the proposed layout first. WDA’s April 2026 interpretation confirms that a commercial coffee shop cannot use raw milk as an ingredient merely because its operator also produces that milk.

View official sources (3)

Your label, explained

Every field has a purpose.

Use the example to understand the structure. Follow the Wyoming requirements below for your product and sales route.

ANATOMY OF A LABEL · ILLUSTRATIVE

Your product
name

1Product & quantity

Your product name and actual net quantity

2Ingredients & allergens

Your complete recipe and supplier ingredients

3Business & approval details

Operation or producer name; full business address (see state notes)

4Applicable disclosure

The statement for your state, product and sales route

Shelf-stable retail food · not the egg carton

A guide to the fields, not a ready-to-print label. Use your actual product and business details.

1

Name it. Measure it.

Identify your product and its actual net quantity. Check the state’s formatting and unit requirements below.

2

Use your actual recipe.

Check every ingredient and supplier label. Use the applicable ingredient and allergen declarations for your product.

3

Identify your operation.

Operation or producer name; full business address (see state notes)

4

Use the wording for your route.

Requirements can differ by product and sales channel. Keep the disclosure, placement and type-size conditions together.

Retail warning for shelf-stable food and dairy

For non-potentially hazardous food and dairy sold at a retail location or grocery store, prominently use: “this food was made in a home kitchen, is not regulated or inspected and may contain allergens”.

Keep those products off the same shelf or display as licensed food. Retail spaces also need the uninspected-food sign required by the Act.

Direct sales still require an informed customer

General direct-sale disclosure is not the same as a universal full commercial label requirement.

Tell the customer the product is not certified, labeled, licensed, packaged, regulated or inspected. A clear written disclosure plus product identity, ingredients and contact details is a useful approach; distinguish those helpful additions from the specific requirements for your product and channel.

Egg cartons need special attention

Follow WDA’s direction to keep eggs clean and refrigerated.

Its carton guidance calls for the producer’s name and address, packaging date, “ungraded” and “keep refrigerated”; mark out old information if reusing a suitable clean carton. Current UW retail guidance also recommends “this food is not regulated or inspected”. Confirm your retail carton before printing in volume.

The wording for your label

Shelf-stable retail food · not the egg carton

this food was made in a home kitchen, is not regulated or inspected and may contain allergens
Placement, scope & formatting ↑
View official sources (3)

A useful head start

Your Wyoming label kit.

Editable template, example label and starting checklist.
Personalize it for your products and business.

Enter your email. Get the files immediately.

A little help getting started

Your Wyoming
label kit.

Get the editable label template, example label and starting checklist. Enter your email to unlock the files immediately.

Your kit will be ready to download immediately.

Your kit request won’t create a shop account. Privacy policy.

Wyoming label resources

Before your first sale

A few details worth getting right.

An example

A friend offers to sell your chilled meals

For an eligible non-meat chilled meal outside the eggs-and-dairy category, a friend can potentially act as your designated agent.

Name the agent in writing, retain ownership and plan the customer disclosure and delivery. If the friend instead purchases the meals as their own stock, the ordinary third-party resale provision does not supply the same permission.

Do not read the new meat clause as immediate permission

The statute includes a direct red-meat provision whose activation depends on a governor’s certification following specified federal legalization.

Its inclusion in the law is not proof that it is available today. Animal shares have their own written ownership, warning and distribution conditions and should not be confused with ordinary packaged-meat sales.

View official sources (1)

A few more answers

Common questions

Are licenses, fees and training required?

A compliant WFFA operation uses the statutory state food-license exemption; Chapter 49 does not create a WFFA registration fee, renewal process or required food-handler course. That does not settle every business, market or animal-product obligation. Use CHS to check a proposed activity outside the exemption, and budget for safe preparation, packaging and handling.

View sources for this answer (2)
Can I cook at a farmers market?

WDA distinguishes selling home-prepared food from preparing food onsite as a temporary food stand. Its FAQ describes licensing for onsite preparation, with a narrow home-prepared sampling exception. Confirm your actual cooking and sampling plan with the market and CHS; do not assume the home-kitchen exemption automatically covers a cook-to-order booth.

View sources for this answer (2)

Keep it handy

Your first-sale checklist

Use this free checklist to keep track of your next steps. The conditions in this guide still apply.

0 of 2 completed · Restoring progress…

Official guidance

Sources, updates & your next step

Get an answer for your actual sales model

Contact Wyoming Consumer Health Services at 307-777-7211 or valerie.taro1@wyo.gov. Describe the food, preparation location, refrigeration needs, ownership arrangement and proposed sales location. Ask about any special product or retail-space requirements. The agency can provide assistance; this guide does not imply that your operation or product has already been inspected or approved.

Consumer Health Services and staff contacts
Official sources 6 references
  1. Wyoming Food Freedom Act, Chapter 49

    Wyoming Department of Agriculture / Wyoming Legislature · Reviewed September 14, 2026

  2. Wyoming Food Freedom Act FAQ

    Wyoming Department of Agriculture · Reviewed September 14, 2026

  3. Wyoming Food Freedom Act Guideline, B-1413

    University of Wyoming Extension / Wyoming SBDC · Reviewed September 14, 2026

  4. Food Product Labeling Requirements in Wyoming, B-1415

    University of Wyoming Extension / Wyoming SBDC · Reviewed September 14, 2026

  5. Consumer Health Services and staff contacts

    Wyoming Department of Agriculture · Reviewed September 14, 2026

  6. WDA interpretation letter to Hippy Cow Creamery

    Wyoming Department of Agriculture; Wyoming Legislature interim committee archive · Reviewed September 14, 2026

Guide updates September 14, 2026

Reviewed Wyoming’s product eligibility, sales routes, starting requirements and label guidance against the official sources below. Current conditions and any dated changes are explained in the relevant sections of this guide.

View sources for this update (2)

This guide is a starting point. Confirm requirements for your products and location with the relevant authority. Examples are illustrative and are not a compliance approval.

Put your plans into practice

Your next chapter.
Your own little shop.

Give customers a place to order, organize your pickups and keep your sales in one place with Ovenbell.

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Create your Ovenbell shop