The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Commercial Feed Regulatory Program (CFRP) is funded by the feed industry with an annual license fee and tonnage tax. The 2026 license fee was $500 for each location or $100 for each location that is solely engaged in diversion of human food by-products defined in California Code of Regulations, Title 3 (3 CCR), Section 2804.
Each application for a commercial feed license includes feed operation classifications which apply to the location. Since 2023, CFRP has been conducting routine field verification activities to ensure that selected classifications are correct. Field verification activities cannot be completed for out-of-state firms, and therefore feed operation classification may be inaccurate for some out-of-state firms.
As of September 22, 2026, CFRP had 2,051 commercial feed licenses. Each location is designated as “feed at this location” or “no feed at this location,” and then categorized by all applicable feed operation classifications. Table 1 shows the total number of in-state and out-of-state locations which fall under each feed operation classification. Full descriptions of the feed operation classifications and which types of feed fall under each classification can be found in the Commercial Feed License Application Guide.
*Note: The count of classifications will not equal the number of licenses; more than one classification can be selected per license.
** The count of eligible human food by-products classification is not equal to the number of firms which are eligible for the $100 license, because they are not all solely engaged in diversion of eligible human food by-products and only in-state firms are eligible. There were 83 licenses approved at the reduced rate in 2025-2026.