Utah gives home food sellers two parallel routes — and the same product can be allowed under one path and prohibited under the other. The lists below show what's open, what's restricted, and what's off-limits, with the path that applies marked on every item.
UDAF-registered, inspected, recipe-approved. Wider sales channels (direct + retail), but limited to shelf-stable foods. Items marked CF
No registration, no inspection. Direct-to-informed-consumer only, but covers nearly any food including TCS items. Items marked HB 181
These products are explicitly permitted under at least one of Utah's two paths.
Permitted, but only when specific requirements are met or under a specific path.
These products cannot be sold from a home kitchen under either Utah path.
The product restrictions in Utah's Cottage Food Program exist to keep home kitchens limited to non-potentially hazardous foods — products that don't need refrigeration to stay safe, don't support rapid bacterial growth, and don't require time-and-temperature control. These are called TCS foods (Time/Temperature Control for Safety), and they're the dividing line between what a home kitchen can handle and what needs a commercial facility.
The federal definition uses two technical thresholds: water activity at or below 0.85, or pH at or below 4.6 — at those values, most pathogens can't grow. That's why dry rubs, hard candies, and high-sugar jams pass the test, while cheesecake, custard, and cooked rice don't. Utah's Cottage Food Program follows this federal framework, which is why the prohibited list reads the way it does.
HB 181 takes the opposite approach. Instead of restricting what foods you can make, it restricts how and to whom you can sell them. Under HB 181 you can make almost anything — including TCS items, prepared meals, and fermented products — but you must sell directly to an informed final consumer (not for resale, not for restaurants, not shipped) and your label must disclose that the product was made without state inspection. The trade-off is regulatory simplicity in exchange for narrower channels.
For most Utah home food sellers, the choice comes down to one question: Do you want to reach retail shelves, or do you want to skip the paperwork? If retail is part of your plan, the Cottage Food Program is the path. If you'd rather avoid registration and inspection and you're comfortable selling face-to-face, HB 181 likely fits you better.
Describe your specific product and we'll tell you whether it's allowed under Utah's Cottage Food Program, the Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act, both, or neither — plus what conditions or label disclaimers apply.
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