Georgia Department of Agriculture
Verified September 7, 2026. Figures quoted from the statute, rule, fee page or form.
Georgia counts pet food as commercial feed and licenses the firm before the first bag is sold. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-5-5-.01 requires a commercial feed license of any person who manufactures a commercial feed in Georgia or whose name appears on the label as guarantor, and a new application is $75. Every pet food distributed in packages of ten pounds or less is then registered before distribution at $40 per product per calendar year, due January 1. Georgia charges no per-ton fee; the prior year's tonnage only sets the license renewal band. The department's cottage food page answers the treat question directly: cottage foods are intended for human consumption, and pet food and pet treats require a feed license from Agriculture Inputs.
| Item | What Georgia says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Firm instrument | YesCommercial feed license issued by the Commissioner, one per firm | O.C.G.A. § 2-13-6(a) |
| Firm fee | Yes$75 per license for a new application, and on renewal $75 to $2,000 per license per year set by a band of prior-year tonnage (calendar year January 1 to December 31, due January 31, with penalty bands after that date); the license fee plus all product registration fees are capped at $2,000 per annum for any licensee | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-5-.02 (Commercial Feed License Fees), whole Schedule of Fees and Penalty |
| Firm fee period | YesAnnual, calendar year January 1 to December 31; licenses and registrations expire December 31 | GDA "Feed Licenses and Product Registrations" page, "Fees and License Period" |
| What one firm instrument covers | YesOne license per firm, statewide, reaching an in-state manufacturer, a label guarantor and a distributor, except a distributor moving only a licensee feed unchanged | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-5-.01(a)-(c) |
| Product registration | DependsEvery pet food or specialty pet food distributed in packages of ten pounds or less must be registered before distribution, at $40 per product, so the same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a six pound bag is registered once; a product distributed only in packages over ten pounds needs no registration, and its tonnage instead feeds the license fee band | O.C.G.A. Sec. 2-13-6(d) |
| Fee per product | Yes$40 per product per year (calendar year, due January 1, with penalty bands of $55, $70 and $80 for renewals received after January 31), and all registration fees together with the license fee are capped at $2,000 per annum for any licensee | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-5-.03, whole Registration Fees and Penalty table |
| Product registration period | YesAnnual, calendar year; registrations expire December 31 and the fee is due January 1 | O.C.G.A. § 2-13-6(d) |
| Small package threshold | YesPackages of ten pounds or less, tested package by package, so the same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a six pound bag is registered on the small package while the larger package is unregistered and its tonnage counts toward the license fee band | O.C.G.A. Sec. 2-13-6(d) |
| Small package fee | Yes$40 per product per year (calendar year, due January 1), the same money as product.fee_per_product, capped with the license fee at $2,000 per annum | GDA "Feed Licenses and Product Registrations" page, "Fees and License Period" |
| Tonnage fee applies | NoGeorgia charges no per-ton fee; tons distributed in the previous calendar year only select the flat annual license fee band, and registered small-package tonnage is excluded from that calculation | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-5-.02 (Commercial Feed License Fees), the fee schedule that would carry a per-ton rate |
| Tonnage rate | NoneNo per-ton amount appears anywhere in the Georgia fee provisions; prior-year tonnage only selects the flat annual license fee band | O.C.G.A. Sec. 2-13-6(b), the fee provision that would carry a per-ton rate |
| Tonnage minimum | NoneThere is no per-ton fee and therefore no tonnage minimum; the lowest annual license fee band is $75 for 0 to 2,500 tons, recorded under firm.fee | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-5-.02 (Commercial Feed License Fees), the fee schedule that would carry a tonnage minimum |
| Tonnage reporting | YesThe licensee declares the prior calendar year tons of commercial feed distributed in Georgia once a year on the license application, and that figure sets the license fee band; tonnage of registered small-package products is excluded, and there is no separate periodic tonnage report | O.C.G.A. Sec. 2-13-6(b) |
| Label goes in with the filing | YesLabels of products must be submitted with any first-time application for a feed license, and a label is uploaded per registered product | GDA "Feed and Pet Food Labeling Requirements" page |
| Out-of-state sellers | YesA nonresident licensee must, at the time of licensing and before distributing commercial feed in Georgia, also comply with O.C.G.A. Title 2, ch. 5 | O.C.G.A. § 2-13-7 |
Three flavors, every one of them sold in packages of 10 lb or less, licensed and registered in the same calendar year and paid before January 31.
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 commercial feed license
One license per firm, statewide. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-5-5-.01 reaches any person who manufactures a commercial feed in Georgia and any person whose name appears on the label as guarantor. A new application is $75. The license runs on the calendar year and expires December 31.
Submit your labels with the first application
Labels of products must be submitted with any first-time application for a feed license, and a label is uploaded for each registered product. The department's brochure accepts Dog Treat as the designation on the front of a treat label alongside Dog Food.
Register every product sold in packages of 10 lb or less
O.C.G.A. 2-13-6(d) registers every pet food distributed in packages of ten pounds or less before distribution, at $40 per product per calendar year, due January 1. A product sold only in packages over ten pounds is not registered; its tonnage feeds the license fee band instead.
Pay by January 31 to stay in the lowest bands
The license renewal is due January 31 and the registration fee January 1. After January 31 the penalty bands take the lowest license fee from $75 to $90, $105 and $150, and a registration from $40 to $55, $70 and $80. The license fee plus all registration fees are capped at $2,000 per year for any licensee.
Declare last year's tonnage on the renewal
Georgia charges no per-ton fee. The renewal asks for the tons of commercial feed distributed in Georgia in the prior calendar year, and that figure sets the license fee band, from $75 in the lowest band upward. Tonnage of registered small-package products is excluded from the count.
Put the Georgia label items on every bag
Product and brand name, the words Dog Food or Dog Treat conspicuously on the principal display panel, the net weight, the guaranteed analysis in the pet food order, the ingredient statement by common or usual name in descending order, and the guarantor's name and address. A product prominently identified as a snack or treat needs no nutritional adequacy statement.
Registration is tested package by package. The same recipe in a two pound bag and a six pound bag is registered once at $40. A package over ten pounds is not registered, and its tons count toward the license fee band on the next renewal. There is no per-ton fee in Georgia at any size.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-5-1-.01(3) keeps raw meat outside commercial feed only when it is unground and not mixed or intermixed with other materials. Grinding, mixing or a feed claim brings a raw product inside the license and, in small packages, the registration.
The Georgia license and registration cover distribution in Georgia. Every other state runs its own feed law with its own instrument and its own fee, and AAFCO states that shipping product into a state in response to an internet purchase counts as distribution there.
The only license exemptions are for feed made for your own domestic animals, livestock or poultry, and for a distributor moving a licensee's feed unchanged in its original packages or in bulk with the licensee's label information. A maker who manufactures and labels their own treats is inside the license whatever the channel.
Neither O.C.G.A. ch. 2-13 nor the rules define treat or snack or carve animal-part chews out of registration, and the department's brochure regulates dog treats as pet food. Until the department says otherwise in writing, a chew sold as a treat in a package of ten pounds or less is registered like any other product.
The license fee and every product registration fee together are capped at $2,000 per year for any licensee. A home bakery with a handful of flavors never approaches it, but a maker with a long product list should know the ceiling exists before budgeting a registration for every recipe.
| Item | What Georgia says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Required label items | YesProduct and brand name required (O.C.G.A. 2-13-8(a)(2)); species designation required, the words Dog Food or Cat Food or a similar designation conspicuously on the principal display panel (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-8-.02(11)), which the GDA brochure states as Dog Food, Cat Food or Dog Treat; quantity statement required as net weight (2-13-8(a)(1)); guaranteed analysis required in the fixed pet food order (2-13-8(a)(3), r. 40-5-8-.02(3)); ingredient statement required by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight (2-13-8(a)(4)); nutritional adequacy statement required except on a product prominently identified as a snack or treat (r. 40-5-8-.02(15)); feeding directions required by rule only for dog and cat foods labeled as complete and balanced (r. 40-5-8-.02(17)), which a plain treat is not, although the GDA brochure instructs treat makers to include feeding instructions; calorie content statement not required by Georgia statute or rule; guarantor name and principal mailing address required (2-13-8(a)(5), r. 40-5-2-.01(1)(g)); precautionary statements required with adequate directions for use (2-13-8(a)(6)-(7), r. 40-5-2-.01(1)(d) and (1)(h)) | O.C.G.A. Sec. 2-13-8(a)(1)-(3) (Labeling) |
| Guaranteed analysis | YesCrude protein minimum percentage, crude fat minimum percentage, crude fiber maximum percentage and moisture maximum percentage, in that order, on the pet food label | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-8-.02(3)(a)-(d) |
| What a treat is excused from | DependsA dog or cat food prominently identified as a snack or treat, as part of the designation required on the principal display panel, needs no statement of nutritional adequacy (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-8-.02(15)) and, not being labeled complete and balanced, owes no feeding directions by rule either (r. 40-5-8-.02(17)); the GDA brochure separately instructs treat makers to include feeding instructions, which is agency guidance rather than the rule | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-8-.02(15) |
| AAFCO text adopted | YesGa. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-1-.01(1) adopts the AAFCO Official Definitions of Feed Ingredients, and O.C.G.A. 2-13-12(b)(1) names the 1992 AAFCO official publication and supplements thereto; no AAFCO Official Publication of any year is in the snapshot | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 40-5-1-.01(1) |
| AAFCO edition | DependsThe statute fixes the 1992 AAFCO official publication and supplements thereto (O.C.G.A. 2-13-12(b)(1)) while the rules adopt the AAFCO definitions with no edition named (r. 40-5-1-.01(1)); no Official Publication of either kind is in the snapshot, so the operative edition cannot be read here | O.C.G.A. § 2-13-12(b)(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.
The license reaches a person whose name appears on the label as guarantor of commercial feed distributed in Georgia, wherever they are based, and O.C.G.A. 2-13-7 has a nonresident licensee also comply with Title 2, chapter 5 at the time of licensing and before distributing in Georgia. The same logic points the other way when you ship out of Georgia: the destination state's feed law applies there.
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.
The only full text of O.C.G.A. Title 2, ch. 13 in our snapshot is the department's reprint, current through the 2022 Regular Session. Every Georgia fee, label and penalty value on this page rests on it and on the rules pages, which print no effective date. Amendments after 2022, if any, are not reflected here.
House Bill 398 amended the Georgia cottage food law with effect from July 2025, and the department labels its posted copy Under Revision while rule 40-7-19 still carries the older text. None of that reaches dog treats: the department's answer that pet food and pet treats require a feed license from Agriculture Inputs stands on the feed law, not on the cottage food rule.
The rule's license fee table heads its second column Feb. 29, a date that exists only in leap years, and the registration rule as officially published reads in packages often pounds or less where ten pounds is meant. We read both as typographic slips and print the amounts as they stand.
The record for Georgia carries 14 recorded gaps and 13 staleness flags from the reading pass. Those are about the documents, not about your product.
O.C.G.A. 2-13-23 makes any violation of the chapter a misdemeanor, and the fine range sits in the general Georgia sentencing sections, which we did not read. The money consequences the feed rules themselves print are the penalty bands: a lowest-band license fee moves from $75 to $90, $105 and $150 as payment slips past January 31, and a product registration from $40 to $55, $70 and $80.
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.
The Georgia text we read gives no route around it. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 40-5-5-.01 licenses any person who manufactures a commercial feed in Georgia and any person whose name appears on the label as guarantor, pet food is a class of commercial feed under O.C.G.A. 2-13-1, and the only exemption is feed made for your own domestic animals, livestock or poultry.
No. The department states that cottage foods are intended for human consumption and that pet food and pet treats require a feed license from Agriculture Inputs. Dog treats take the commercial feed license and, in packages of ten pounds or less, the product registration.
Yes, the same one. The license attaches to manufacturing commercial feed in Georgia or being the guarantor on the label, not to the channel. A marketplace listing, your own site and a market table all count. Shipping into other states adds their feed laws on top, and a buyer's state may want a license or registration of its own.
A new commercial feed license is $75. Each pet food sold in packages of ten pounds or less is $40 per product per year, due January 1. Three flavors in small bags means $75 plus $40 three times over, which is $195 in the first year. Pay after January 31 and the penalty bands raise both figures.
Yes, where the product is distributed in packages of ten pounds or less. O.C.G.A. 2-13-6(d) registers every such pet food before distribution at $40 per product per calendar year, and a label is uploaded for each registered product. The same recipe in two small sizes is one registration.
The product and brand name, the words Dog Food or Dog Treat conspicuously on the principal display panel, the net weight, the guaranteed analysis in the order crude protein minimum, crude fat minimum, crude fiber maximum and moisture maximum, the ingredient statement by common or usual name in descending order, and the guarantor's name and address. A product prominently identified as a snack or treat needs no nutritional adequacy statement and, by rule, no feeding directions, though the department's brochure asks treat makers to include feeding instructions anyway.
Statute: yes: O.C.G.A. Title 2, ch. 13 (Commercial Feeds), Secs. 2-13-1 through 2-13-23. Rules: yes: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. ch. 40-5 (Commercial Feeding Stuffs), Subjects 40-5-1 through 40-5-9, with licensing and fees at 40-5-5 and pet food at 40-5-8. Agency: yes: Georgia Department of Agriculture, Plant Industry, Agriculture Inputs (Feed Program) (program page).
Snapshot read and adjudicated September 7, 2026, record date 2026-09-07. 38 recorded facts for Georgia.
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.