Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Verified September 7, 2026. Figures quoted from the statute, rule, fee page or form.
Florida puts the whole business under one instrument. Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) requires each distributor of commercial feed to obtain a master registration every year before its brands are distributed in the state, and the fee is set by the tons distributed the year before. The lowest tier, zero up to and including 25 tons, is $40, and a first-year seller who estimates zero tons still lands there. There is no per-product or per-brand registration and no per-product fee, so five flavors cost the same as one. Florida's cottage food guidance answers the pet treat question in its own FAQ: the cottage food guidance document applies to human food only.
| Item | What Florida says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Firm instrument | YesFeed Master Registration, one per distributor, applied for on Form FDACS-13244; the FDACS web page calls the same instrument a feed distributor license | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
| Firm fee | Yes$40 per master registration per year for zero up to and including 25 tons distributed in Florida in the previous year, rising in nine bands to $3,500 for more than 5,000 tons (registration year ending June 30) | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b) |
| Firm fee period | YesAnnual; all registrations expire June 30 of each year | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
| What one firm instrument covers | YesOne master registration per distributor, covering all of its brands and products | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
| Product registration | NoFlorida has no per-product or per-brand registration, so the same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a six pound bag needs no product registration and pays no product fee; both sizes count only toward the tons that set the annual master registration band | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
| Fee per product | NoneFlorida charges no per-product fee; the only charge is the tonnage-banded annual master registration fee | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b) |
| Product registration period | NoneNo product registration exists, so there is no product period; only the annual master registration runs, expiring June 30 | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
| Small package threshold | NoneFlorida has no small-package registration or weight threshold, so the same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a six pound bag is treated alike | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b), the fee schedule that would carry a small-package threshold |
| Small package fee | NoneThere is no small-package flat fee; a maker of small packages simply falls into the lowest annual master registration band | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b), the fee schedule that would carry a small-package fee |
| Tonnage fee applies | NoFlorida charges no per-ton inspection fee; tons distributed in the previous year only select the flat annual master registration band | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b) |
| Tonnage rate | NoneNo per-ton amount appears anywhere in the fee provision; the annual master registration fee is a flat amount by tonnage band | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b), the fee schedule that would carry a per-ton rate |
| Tonnage minimum | NoneThere is no per-ton fee and therefore no tonnage minimum; the lowest annual master registration band is $40 for zero up to and including 25 tons, recorded under firm.fee | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(b), the fee schedule that would carry a tonnage minimum |
| Tonnage reporting | YesA quarterly report of tons of feed distributed in Florida, filed within 30 days after the end of each quarter (July to September, October to December, January to March, April to June); a report is due even when no tons were distributed | Fla. Admin. Code 5E-3.020(1) |
| Label goes in with the filing | NoThere is no pre-market label approval or review step; the department may request copies of labels after the fact | Fla. Stat. 580.036(3) |
| Out-of-state sellers | YesAny distributor whose feed reaches a consumer or customer in Florida must hold the master registration, wherever the distributor is located | Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) |
Three flavors. Florida charges by tonnage tier, so the count does not move the number.
This state charges no per-product fee, so the product count does not change the total.
Every figure above is multiplied out from the figures printed beside it, and each of those comes from a quote in the table. Laboratory work for the guaranteed analysis, packaging, a sales tax permit and a business entity filing are separate costs from separate agencies and are not counted here.
Apply for the Feed Master Registration
The paper form is FDACS-13244, Application for Feed Master Registration. The department's feed distributor licensing page sends applicants to its feed licensing and regulatory website to apply or to renew.
Pick your tonnage tier
The fee follows the tons of feed distributed in the state during the previous year. A distributor in business less than one year estimates the tonnage, and later years use the actual figure. A home treat maker estimating zero tons pays the lowest tier, $40.
Skip the product registration
There is no per-product, per-brand or label registration anywhere in ch. 580 or in rule ch. 5E-3. The master registration covers all of your brands, and a shop reselling your registered brand on your behalf is not a separate distributor.
Label every package
Fla. Stat. 580.051(1) asks for everything the federal Food and Drug Administration requires plus the net weight, the name and principal address of the registrant, the brand and product name, the guaranteed analysis and the common or usual name of each ingredient. Ingredient names come from the AAFCO Official Publication edition the rule fixes.
File the quarterly tonnage report
The report goes in within 30 days after the end of each quarter, on the July to September, October to December, January to March and April to June periods. A quarter with no tonnage still gets a report.
Renew before the registration lapses
All registrations expire on June 30 of each year and are renewed annually. The department's own page repeats the same date.
Rule 5E-3.021 adopts the federal animal food rules by reference, including 21 CFR Part 507 on current good manufacturing practice, hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for food for animals, revised as of April 1, 2024. Rule 5E-3.011 separately requires heat sterilization of bone meal, blood meal, meat meal and tankage against anthrax before use in commercial feed.
Rule 5E-3.003(4)(b) exempts treats from nutrient sampling and analysis and from mycotoxin sampling and analysis. That is about what the department pulls off the shelf to test, not about what the label carries: the guaranteed analysis in 580.051(1)(e) still applies to a treat.
The Florida master registration covers distribution in Florida. Every other state runs its own feed law, and AAFCO states that shipping product into a state in response to an internet purchase counts as distribution there.
Distribute in Fla. Stat. 580.031(7) means to offer for sale, sell, barter or exchange commercial feed, or to supply, furnish or otherwise provide it for use by any consumer or customer in the state. The only person outside the definition of distributor is a retailer selling a registrant's brand-name feed on the registrant's behalf.
AAFCO puts animal-part chews such as hide, hooves, ears and pizzles outside registration and labeling while no nutritional claims are made, and says jerky-type meat treats are full pet food. Florida's own rules do not repeat that carve-out; the rule defines treats to include snacks, chews, biscuits, cookies and bones intended for intermittent or supplemental feeding.
| Item | What Florida says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Required label items | YesProduct and brand name required (Fla. Stat. 580.051(1)(c)); species designation not required by Florida statute or rule, since the pet food rule 5E-3.010 was repealed 6-1-95 and no pet-food-specific label chapter replaced it; quantity statement required as an accurate statement of the net weight (580.051(1)(a)); guaranteed analysis required (580.051(1)(e)); ingredient statement required by the common or usual name of each ingredient, using AAFCO Official Publication 2019 names (580.051(1)(f), 5E-3.004(1)); nutritional adequacy statement not required by Florida statute or rule; feeding directions not required by Florida statute or rule; calorie content statement not required by Florida statute or rule; guarantor name and principal address of the registrant required (580.051(1)(b)); precautionary statements not separately required, though precautions and directions for use may appear on the reverse side of the label (5E-3.005(1)); date of manufacture or expiration required only where the department requires it by rule, which today is ratite feed only (580.051(1)(d), 5E-3.005(3)); all information required by the federal Food and Drug Administration is required in addition (580.051(1)) | Fla. Stat. 580.051(1) (Labels) |
| Guaranteed analysis | YesMinimum percentage of crude protein, minimum percentage of crude fat and maximum percentage of crude fiber, plus mineral guarantees when more than 10 percent mineral ingredients are present; no treat exception | Fla. Stat. 580.051(1)(e)1. |
| What a treat is excused from | NoneNo Florida label rule carves a treat out of any label item; the only treat exemptions in the chapter are from nutrient sampling and from mycotoxin sampling, which are compliance duties and not label items | Fla. Admin. Code 5E-3.003(4)(b)1.d. |
| AAFCO text adopted | YesThe AAFCO Official Publication 2019 is incorporated by reference for ingredient names (5E-3.004(8)) and the Official Publication 2001 for minimum standards (5E-3.013); the AAFCO Model Pet Food Regulations are not adopted by name, and no Official Publication of either year is in the snapshot | Fla. Admin. Code 5E-3.004(8) |
| AAFCO edition | YesTwo fixed editions, Official Publication 2019 for ingredient names (5E-3.004(1) and (8)) and Official Publication 2001 for minimum standards (5E-3.013); neither publication is in the snapshot | Fla. Admin. Code 5E-3.004(1) |
The full item list, both AAFCO editions and the exceptions are in the label guide, and the laboratory side of the guarantees is in where to get a guaranteed analysis.
Florida's trigger is distribution into Florida, not where you live. The fee is based on tons of feed distributed in this state, and the application asks for a city, state and ZIP without limiting them. Shipping your treats out of Florida puts you under the receiving state's feed law in the same way.
A home kitchen is outside FDA facility registration.
Facility means any establishment, structure, or structures under one ownership at one general physical location, or, in the case of a mobile facility, traveling to multiple locations, that manufactures/processes, packs, or holds food for consumption in the United States. [...] The private residence of an individual is not a facility.
Federal package rules still apply to every bag you sell.
Ingredients required to be declared on the label of a food [...] shall be listed by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight on either the principal display panel or the information panel in accordance with the provisions of § 501.2 .
Your state label rules come from an AAFCO model, not from FDA.
Pet food labeling is regulated at two levels. The current FDA regulations require proper identification of the product, net quantity statement, name, and place of business of the manufacturer or distributor, and proper listing of all the ingredients in the product from most to least, based on weight. Some states also enforce their own labeling regulations.
A widely copied third-party summary prints a January renewal date for Florida. The statute is explicit and the department's page agrees with it: all registrations expire on June 30 of each year. We follow the statute.
Florida does not adopt the AAFCO model pet food regulations by name. It fixes two different Official Publication editions for two different jobs: one edition for ingredient names, an older one for minimum standards for feed and feedstuff. Neither is the current edition.
The record for Florida carries 12 recorded gaps and 7 staleness flags from the reading pass. Those are about the documents, not about your product.
Fla. Stat. 580.121(1) sets out the ladder: a warning letter, an administrative fine in the Class I category for each occurrence, revocation or suspension of the master registration, and probation for up to 6 months. Distributing before registration is prima facie evidence of a violation, and penalties can be assessed on feed distributed before the registration existed. A violation of the chapter is also a misdemeanor of the second degree. Missing tonnage reports carry their own escalating fines under rule 5E-3.018.
A sales tax permit comes from the revenue side of the state and lets you collect tax. It is not a feed instrument and no feed office issues it.
A business entity filing or a trading name registration comes from the secretary of state or the county. It records who you are. It says nothing about feed.
A local food handler card or a home kitchen permit belongs to the human food regime. Services that bundle these three and call the bundle a license are selling you paperwork you may well need, but not the instrument on this page.
Fla. Stat. 580.041(1)(a) requires each distributor of commercial feed to obtain a master registration every year before its brands are distributed in the state. Distributor covers any person who distributes commercial feed, and the only person outside that word is a retailer selling a registrant's brand-name feed on the registrant's behalf. Someone who makes and sells their own treats is the distributor, and ch. 580 has no exemption by volume, sales or home kitchen status.
The cottage food route is defined around food for human consumption, and the department's own cottage food guidance answers the pet treat question in a FAQ line: the guidance document applies to human food only. The cottage food list is breads, cakes, candies, jams and similar human items. Pet treats go through the feed master registration instead.
Yes in the sense that matters: the registration duty attaches to distributing commercial feed for use by any consumer or customer in the state, whatever the channel. Selling from your own site, from a marketplace or from a market stall does not change the instrument or the fee, and each state you ship into applies its own feed law on top.
The master registration fee runs on nine tonnage tiers, and a home-scale seller sits in the first one: zero up to and including 25 tons is $40 for the year. There is no per-product fee and no small package fee, so the bill does not grow with the number of flavors. The registration is renewed every year.
No. Florida registers the distributor, not the product. One master registration covers all of that distributor's brands, and there is no per-brand fee, no label registration and no pre-market label approval anywhere in the statute, the rules, the application form or the department's page.
All registrations expire on June 30 of each year, whatever date they were issued, and they are renewed annually. Quarterly tonnage reports run on a separate clock: within 30 days after the end of each quarter, on the July to September, October to December, January to March and April to June periods.
Statute: yes: Fla. Stat. ch. 580 (Florida Commercial Feed Law), Secs. 580.011 through 580.141. Rules: yes: Fla. Admin. Code ch. 5E-3 (Feed), rules 5E-3.001 through 5E-3.021. Agency: yes: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Bureau of Licensing and Enforcement, Feed Section (program page).
Snapshot read and adjudicated September 7, 2026, record date 2026-09-07. 38 recorded facts for Florida.
DogTreatLicense is an informational reference about state commercial feed laws as they apply to people who make and sell pet treats in the United States. It reprints instrument names, fees, thresholds, label items and citations from state statutes, rules, fee schedules and agency forms, together with the date each state was last verified. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and fees and rules change. Confirm with the state feed control office before you register or sell.
Read the terms before you rely on any figure here.