Homecooks get green light: Colorado allows meat, dairy sales from home kitchens

Colorado: Government has restored the freedom ofpeople to prepare and sell homecooked food to one another in Colorado. Under the new “Tamale Act,” residents can cook and sell foods that require temperature control — including meat and dairy — if they complete a food safety course. Previously, state law banned sales of any temperature-controlled homecooked food. Only room-temperature-safe items like coffee beans or pickles were allowed.

House Majority Leader Monica Dura said the law gives people a chance to turn family recipes and cooking skills into a business opportunity.“In the times that we are in, people can take that talent and that gift they have of these special foods that they make around their family table and share them,” Dura said. She added that consumers have the agency and awareness to decide for themselves whether to buy informally cooked food.

The move is expected to boost Colorado’s informal economy by unlocking the commercial power of home cooks. CBC News Colorado spoke to Arta Montoya, whose homemade food helped keep her income afloat after a kidney disease diagnosis in 2021.“I’m not going to just lay there. I will find a way, and I did,” Montoya said.