Colorado’s Forbidden Flavors: The Meats You Can’t Legally Purchase

Colorado is a state that loves BBQ. Most types of meat you cook with your grill or smoker in the backyard are 100% up to you. Meats that are illegal to distribute in the Centennial State are the kind that are sold through improper sales, processing, or preparation.

Profiting from the sale or distribution of wild game, for example, is illegal in our state. You can gift deer meat to your neighbor, but your not supposed to charge them for it. Let's take a closer look at 5 types of meats that are 'illegal' to sell or distribute here in Colorado.

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Cultivated (Lab-Grown) Meat

The Colorado General Assembly House Bill 25-1064 prohibits selling, offering to sell, manufacturing, or distributing cultivated meat. This is defined as food products that come from animal cells grown in a lab. Lab-grown meats cannot be legally sold, distributed, or barbequed, for that matter.

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Wild Game Meat

In Colorado, you can hunt for all kinds of wild game and harvest the animal to your liking. However, selling wild game meat like elk or deer to your neighbors to use in their smoker is against the law under Colorado Revised Statutes § 33-6-113. Profiting from the sale or distribution of wild game meat is a Class 5 felony in Colorado. Extreme cases can get your hunting and wildlife license banned for life.

Meat from Uninspected Sources

Colorado law is friendly toward what we call 'cottage foods' SB 12-048 (nuts, honey, candies, and jellies). Meats such as bacon, jerky, or chicharrones that are not made under proper inspection or sold without proper licensing are against the law.

Meat from a Certain Animal Shares

Colorado’s ‘Ranch to Plate Act’ (SB21-079) allows the sale of meat through animal-share agreements. Residents can purchase shares of animals for future delivery, but this only applies to cattle, sheep, rabbits, goats, etc. The Colorado General Assembly excluded fish from this provision. So, no matter how many fish you catch, you cannot fillet them and sell them out of your garage as a side hustle.

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Protected or Endangered Species

The law says it is illegal to hunt, possess, or consume meat from an endangered animal. Birds, mammals, and protected species are prohibited from being served at anyone’s BBQ in Colorado. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 33, Parks and Wildlife, § 33-6-109 explains that processing wildlife that is the property of the state of Colorado is illegal. This includes our state’s endangered and threatened animals.