Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
Verified September 7, 2026. Figures quoted from the statute, rule, fee page or form.
Iowa counts pet food, treats included, as commercial feed. Iowa Code 198.4 requires a commercial feed license for each facility, and the fee is $20 for a two-year term that expires July 1 of the odd-numbered year after issue. Each pet food product sold in packages of ten pounds or less is then registered at $50 per product per year in lieu of the tonnage fee, due January 1. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship says plainly that bakeries, homemakers and farmers market sellers must license, register and label according to state and federal law, with no exception in the law. The cottage food exemption covers food for human consumption only.
| Item | What Iowa says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Firm instrument | YesCommercial feed license, one per facility, applied for on the IDALS Commercial Feed License Application | Iowa Code § 198.4(2) (Licenses) |
| Firm fee | Yes$20 per license per two-year term (the license expires July 1 of the odd-numbered year following issue, and the agency prints a June 30 expiry, so the fee falls in each odd-numbered year) | Iowa Code Sec. 198.4(4) (Licenses) |
| Firm fee period | YesTwo years; the license expires July 1 of the odd-numbered year following the date it is issued and may be renewed for a two-year period, while the agency documents print a June 30 expiry | Iowa Code Sec. 198.4(4) (Licenses), first half of the sentence, split by a page break in the snapshot |
| What one firm instrument covers | YesOne license per facility; the section reaches a person who manufactures commercial feed in Iowa, who distributes commercial feed in or into Iowa, or whose name appears on the label as guarantor | Iowa Code § 198.4(1)(a)-(c) and § 198.4(2) (Licenses) |
| Product registration | DependsEach pet food or specialty pet food product distributed in packages of ten pounds or less must be registered, at $50 per product, in lieu of the per ton rate, while the same product distributed in packages of more than ten pounds pays the inspection fee instead, so the same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a six pound bag is registered once and, if it is also sold above ten pounds, pays both; IDALS separately exempts plain bones, chews, rawhides, hooves, ears, animal ears, ligaments and snouts, and chews or toys made of animal skin, hide, wood or man-made material, from registration whether flavored or unflavored, until the label claims the product is animal food, carries feeding directions or a guaranteed analysis, claims nutritional value, or combines an exempt item with a non-exempt one | Iowa Code Sec. 198.9(1)(b) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Fee per product | Yes$50 per product per year (calendar year, due January 1, renewal postmarked February 16 or later carries a late penalty) | Iowa Code Sec. 198.9(1)(b) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Product registration period | YesAnnual, calendar year; the fee is due January 1 and labels expire December 31 | IDALS Animal Food Due Dates Guide, Small Package Pet Food block, first bullet |
| 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 and, if it is also sold in a package over ten pounds, that larger package pays tonnage as well | Iowa Code § 198.9(1)(b) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Small package fee | Yes$50 per product per year in lieu of the per ton rate (calendar year, due January 1) | Iowa Code § 198.9(1)(b) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Tonnage fee applies | DependsYes for pet food and specialty pet food in packages that exceed ten pounds and for all other commercial feed; no for a seller whose only products are pet food packages of ten pounds or less, who owes the registration instead | IDALS Commercial Feed License Application, tonnage block on page 1 |
| Tonnage rate | Yes$0.12 per ton as the rate in force, fixed annually by the secretary; the statute sets only a ceiling of not more than sixteen cents per ton | Iowa Code Sec. 198.9(1)(a) (statutory ceiling) |
| Tonnage minimum | Yes$20 per tonnage filer per semiannual report (periods January to June and July to December), due even when net tonnage is zero | Iowa Code Sec. 198.9(1)(a)(4) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Tonnage reporting | YesA semiannual statement of net tons with payment, for the periods January to June and July to December; the statute sets the last day of January and July, while the agency form and guides administer August 15 and February 15 | Iowa Code Sec. 198.9(2)(a)(1) (Inspection fees and reports) |
| Label goes in with the filing | DependsA listing of each product and a label must be submitted with the small-package registration, at $50 per product; the snapshot does not state whether IDALS reviews the label before sale | IDALS Commercial Feed program page, FAQ 'How do I apply for a pet food license?' |
| Out-of-state sellers | YesThe license section reaches a person who distributes commercial feed in or into Iowa and a person whose name appears on the label as guarantor, wherever located | IDALS Commercial Feed License Application, page 1 introductory paragraph (statutory basis: Iowa Code § 198.4(1)(b)) |
Three flavors, every one of them sold in packages of 10 lb or less. The license fee covers a two-year term, so the second year costs the product renewals alone.
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.
File the Commercial Feed License Application
One license per facility. Iowa Code 198.4 reaches a person who manufactures commercial feed in Iowa, who distributes it in or into Iowa, or whose name appears on the label as guarantor. The fee is $20 and the license runs to July 1 of the odd-numbered year following issue, so a first term can be shorter than two years.
List every small-package product and attach a label
Each pet food product in packages of ten pounds or less is registered at $50 per product, in lieu of the per ton rate. The product list and a label for each go in with the license application or through the department's online system. There is no separate product registration form in the snapshot we read.
Pay the product side by January 1 each year
The $50 product fee runs on the calendar year, is due January 1, and labels expire December 31. The department applies a late penalty of ten percent or $50, whichever is greater, to a renewal postmarked February 16 or later.
Decide whether a tonnage return applies to you
Pet food in packages over ten pounds pays the inspection fee at $0.12 per ton instead of registration, on a semiannual statement for January to June and July to December, with a $20 minimum per report even at zero tons. A seller whose only products are small packages owes the registration and not the tonnage return.
Put the Iowa label items on every bag
The label needs the product and brand name, the words Dog Food or a similar designation on the principal display panel, a quantity statement, the guaranteed analysis in the pet food order, the ingredient statement and the guarantor's name and principal mailing address with street, city, state and ZIP. A product prominently identified as a snack or treat is excused from the nutritional adequacy statement.
Renew the license in each odd-numbered year
The license expires July 1 of the odd-numbered year and may be renewed for a further two-year period. The department's documents print a June 30 expiry, so file before the end of June rather than on the statutory day.
The $50 registration is for a product distributed in packages of ten pounds or less, tested package by package. The same recipe sold in a two pound bag and a twelve pound bag is registered on the small package and pays tonnage on the larger one. Tonnage runs at $0.12 per ton with a $20 minimum per semiannual report.
Iowa Admin. Code 21.41.1(3) keeps raw meat outside commercial feed only when it is unground, not mixed or intermixed with other materials and not adulterated. Grinding, mixing or a feed claim brings the product back inside the license and the registration, and a raw treat sold as dog food is a feed claim.
The Iowa license and registration cover distribution in or into Iowa. 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.
Iowa Code 198.4(2) exempts only a person making retail sales of commercial feed that carries the label of a licensed manufacturer, guarantor or distributor who has assumed responsibility for the inspection fee. A maker whose own name is on the bag is the guarantor and is inside the license, and the department names farmers market sellers directly in its guidance.
The department exempts plain bones, chews, rawhides, hooves, ears, ligaments and snouts, and chews or toys made of animal skin, hide, wood or man-made material, from product registration, flavored or unflavored, until the label carries feeding directions or a guaranteed analysis, claims nutritional value, or combines an exempt item with a non-exempt one. That is agency guidance rather than rule text, so keep a copy of it with your file.
| Item | What Iowa says | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Required label items | YesProduct and brand name required (Iowa Admin. Code 21.41.2 item 1 with 41.3(1)); species designation required, the words Dog Food or Cat Food or a similar designation on the principal display panel (21.42.2(10)), and a purpose statement is separately required on the general feed label (21.41.2 item 3 with 41.3(3)); quantity statement required (21.41.2 item 8); guaranteed analysis required in the fixed pet food order (21.41.2 item 4, 21.42.2(2)); ingredient statement required as feed ingredients (21.41.2 item 5 with 41.3(5)); nutritional adequacy or purpose statement required except on a dog or cat food prominently identified as a snack or treat (21.42.2(14)); feeding directions required only for dog and cat foods labeled as complete and balanced (21.42.2(16)); calorie content statement not required as such, though 21.42.7 governs a calorie content claim when one is made; guarantor name and principal mailing address required (21.41.2 item 7 with 41.3(7), and 21.42.2(3) adds street, city, state and ZIP); precautionary statements required with directions for use (21.41.2 item 6 with 41.3(6)); a drug statement is required if a drug is used (21.41.2 item 2 with 41.3(2)) | Iowa Admin. Code r. 21.41.2(198) (Label format), the whole eight-item principal display panel list |
| Guaranteed analysis | YesA guaranteed analysis is required on every commercial feed label (Iowa Code 198.5(1)(c), Iowa Admin. Code 21.41.2 item 4 with 41.3(4)); on a pet food label the guarantees run in the order crude protein minimum, crude fat minimum, crude fiber maximum, moisture maximum, with additional guarantees following moisture (21.42.2(2)) | Iowa Admin. Code r. 21.41.2(198) (Label format), item 4, the provision that imposes the guaranteed analysis |
| 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 by 21.42.2(10), needs no statement of nutritional adequacy or purpose (21.42.2(14)) and, not being labeled complete and balanced, owes no feeding directions either (21.42.2(16)); the guaranteed analysis, the ingredient statement, the quantity statement, the name and address, the species designation and the small-package registration all still apply | Iowa Admin. Code 21.42.2(198), subrule 42.2(14) (Label format and labeling) |
| AAFCO text adopted | YesThe rules adopt the AAFCO official definitions of feed ingredients and the AAFCO official feed terms, and ch. 42 relies on the AAFCO Dog or Cat Food Nutrient Profiles; no AAFCO Official Publication is in the snapshot | Iowa Admin. Code 21.41.1(198), subrule 41.1(1) (Definitions and terms) |
| AAFCO edition | DependsNo AAFCO Official Publication year is named anywhere in the rules, so the reference is open-ended, and no Official Publication is in the snapshot, so the operative edition cannot be read here | Iowa Admin. Code 21.41.6(198), subrule 41.6(1) (Ingredients) |
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.
Iowa Code 198.4 reaches a person who distributes commercial feed in or into Iowa and a person whose name appears on the label as guarantor, wherever they are located, so an out-of-state maker shipping to Iowa buyers is inside the license and the registration. The same logic points the other way when you ship out of Iowa: 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.
Iowa Code 198.9(2) sets the last day of January and July for the semiannual statement, while the department's form and guides administer later dates in February and August. We print the statutory dates; the agency dates are the ones printed on the form.
Iowa Code 198.9(1)(a) caps the inspection fee at sixteen cents per ton and lets the secretary fix the rate annually. The rate in force in the documents we read is $0.12 per ton. Check the current order before filing a large return.
The statute expires the license on July 1 of the odd-numbered year; the department's documents print June 30. One day apart, same year, and the earlier date is the safe one to file by.
The record for Iowa carries 10 recorded gaps and 9 staleness flags from the reading pass. Those are about the documents, not about your product.
Iowa Code 198.13(1) makes a violation of the chapter a simple misdemeanor. An inspection fee not remitted within fifteen days after the due date carries a delinquency fee of ten percent of the amount due or fifty dollars, whichever is greater, and the department applies the same ten percent or $50 to a small-package registration renewed on or after February 16. The fine range behind a simple misdemeanor sits in the general sentencing sections, which we did not read.
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 Iowa text we read leaves no route around it. Iowa Code 198.4 licenses each facility that manufactures commercial feed in Iowa or distributes it in or into the state, pet food is a class of commercial feed under 198.3, and the department states that bakeries, homemakers and farmers market sellers must license, register and label according to state and federal law, with no exception in the law.
No. The cottage food exemption in Iowa Code ch. 137F covers cottage food, which that chapter defines by reference to food, and food there means an edible substance intended for human consumption. Dog treats are commercial feed under ch. 198 and take the feed license and the product registration instead.
Yes, the same one. The license attaches to manufacturing and distributing commercial feed, and direct, farmers market and internet sales make no difference to it. Shipping into other states adds their feed laws on top, and a buyer's state may want a license or registration of its own.
The commercial feed license is $20 for a two-year term. Each product sold in packages of ten pounds or less is $50 per product per year, due January 1. Three flavors in small bags means $20 once per term and $50 three times over each year, which is $170 in the first year.
Yes, where the product is sold in packages of ten pounds or less. Iowa Code 198.9(1)(b) registers each pet food product in that size at $50 per product in lieu of the per ton rate, and a label goes in for each. The department exempts plain bones, rawhides and similar chews from registration until the label makes a nutritional claim.
The product and brand name, the words Dog Food or a similar designation on the principal display panel, a quantity statement, the guaranteed analysis in the order crude protein minimum, crude fat minimum, crude fiber maximum and moisture maximum, an ingredient statement, and the guarantor's name and principal mailing address with street, city, state and ZIP. A product prominently identified as a snack or treat needs no nutritional adequacy statement and, not being labeled complete and balanced, no feeding directions. Everything else still applies.
Statute: yes: Iowa Code ch. 198 (Iowa Commercial Feed Law), Secs. 198.1 to 198.15. Rules: yes: Iowa Admin. Code agency 21 (Agriculture and Land Stewardship), ch. 41 Commercial Feed and ch. 42 Pet Food. Agency: yes: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Commercial Feed and Fertilizer Bureau (program page).
Snapshot read and adjudicated September 7, 2026, record date 2026-09-07. 38 recorded facts for Iowa.
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.