37.110.511    REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS

(1) Registration must follow the requirements provided in 50-50-117, MCA.

(2) The registrant must provide their name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address.

(3) The registrant must provide a detailed description of cottage food product manufacturing process including equipment and utensils to be used.

(4) The registrant must dispose of sewage through an approved facility that is:

(a) a public sewage treatment plant; or

(b) an individual sewage disposal system that is operated according to law.

(5) The recipe for each product must be submitted with the application for review and kept on file at the cottage food operation location. Ingredient lists are subject to public disclosure, but recipes are proprietary and are not subject to public disclosure.

(6) At the time of registration, the registrant must demonstrate that the water for the cottage food operation is either:

(a) from an approved public water system; or

(b) meets minimum drinking water standards from a certified laboratory by providing results for total coliform and nitrates from the private well serving the domestic residence that is being registered for the cottage food operation;

(i) nitrates must be below 10 mg/L from a sample within the last 12 months;

(ii) total coliforms must be absent from a sample within the last 6 months;

(iii) failure to meet minimum drinking water standards will result in registration being withheld until samples are provided that meet the minimum nitrate and total coliform standards in this rule.

(c) Water sampling may also be required by the state or local health authority when cottage food is suspected of being associated with an illness or outbreak.

(7) A registration fee of $40.00 must be paid to the county in which the cottage food operation is registered. Once registered, a cottage food operator may sell their registered products anywhere in the state of Montana. The cottage food operation must register again with the local health authority and pay the registration fee if it wishes to change the location of its cottage food operation or produce new products. Recipe changes to an existing approved product that necessitate redetermination as to whether that product constitutes a non-potentially hazardous food or contains a major allergen are new products for the purposes of this rule. While not exhaustive, the following are examples of when a new fee must be paid:

(a) when a cottage food operator moves to a new house;

(b) when a cottage food operator changes a recipe in a way that may make the recipe potentially hazardous or adds an allergen, such as switching from a traditional frosting to one that contains cream cheese or adding walnuts to chocolate chip cookies; and

(c) when a cottage food operator wishes to make a completely new product, such as dried fruit when they had previously registered chocolate chip cookies.

(8) A department-approved certificate of registration will be provided to each new registrant. A certificate of registration must be made available to a local health authority upon request when a cottage food operator is vending to the public.

History: 50-50-103, MCA; IMP, 50-50-103, 50-50-116, 50-50-117, MCA; NEW, 2015 MAR p. 1494, Eff. 9/25/15.