Las Animas Mayor Clarifies Food Sales Rules and Colorado Tamale Act Timeline

Description: Las Animas Mayor provides guidance on local food sales requirements, city business licenses, health department oversight, and Colorado’s Tamale Act, noting that guidelines and enforcement for expanded cottage food sales are expected to begin January 1, 2027...


Published: 06/25/2026
Byline: SECO News

FYI - FOOD SALES

I receive complaints daily about someone serving food illegally in Las Animas. As Mayor, it is my duty to make sure that all codes and ordinances for the City of Las Animas are enforced. The City of Las Animas follows the State guidelines for the sale of food. Our only city ordinance is to assure that a sales tax license is in place, the rest is on the Health Department. You may obtain a City Business License at no charge by coming in with the proper documentation and speaking with the City Clerk.
 
The "Tamale Act" (House Bill 26-1033) is a Colorado law that expands the state's Cottage Foods Act, legally allowing entrepreneurs to sell homemade, temperature-controlled foods containing meat or dairy (like tamales, burritos, and tortas) directly to consumers.
 
The confusion lies with the new Tamale Act. YES, the Act passed, NO the guidelines and enforcement have not been worked out. I have spoke with Health Department officials and they acknowledged that the guidelines and enforcement will not begin until January 1, 2027.
 
The act expands the 'Colorado Cottage Foods Act' (CCFA) by allowing for the sale of homemade foods that require refrigeration and foods that include meat and meat products. A producer of a food (producer) that requires time and temperature control must take a food safety course that includes food handling training concerning time and temperature control and acquire and maintain proof of course completion.
 
A producer selling products that require time and temperature control for safety may sell one type of such food product, with the ability to offer up to 5 variations of that one type of food product. The producer must specify the individual food products that require time and temperature control for safety and provide a list of such food products to the department of public health and environment (department) or a county, district, or regional health agency (public health agency) upon request.
 
A producer selling products under the CCFA is required to register with the department before selling. The department must issue a registration number to each producer and maintain an electronic registry of producers. A producer may earn up to $150,000 of net revenues under the CCFA each calendar year, increased from $10,000 . The department is required to adjust this cap annually for inflation.
 
The act authorizes a public health agency that inspects or investigates homemade food products produced pursuant to the CCFA to impose a fine for a violation of the requirements of the CCFA and to recover the cost of the inspection or investigation. If a public health agency determines that, on 3 separate occasions within 12 months, a producer has misbranded food that requires time and temperature control for safety or failed to comply with requirements related to food that requires time and temperature control for safety, the producer shall not sell foods that require time and temperature control.

Please, let's do everything the correct way! We, together as a community, can make this work in a way that is fair and right for everyone involved.

Feel free to come in and talk to me about this if you would like. (we provide info on Facebook for information only, not discussion) As always, my door is open for everyone.

- Charles Shupe, Las Animas Mayor



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