Cottage food rules
Tennessee Cottage Food Laws: Free Rules for Home Bakers
What Tennessee's home food law frees you from, and the one ingredient line your bakes still have to clear.
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What to remember
- Tennessee calls its home food law the Tennessee Food Freedom Act.
- No state license, permit, or inspection for homemade food items.
- No state packaging or labeling rules for those same items.
- The law describes homemade items that do not contain dairy, meat, or poultry.
- You sell to the customer yourself, in person or remotely.
If you have read up on rules in other states, you know they swing from wide open to tightly controlled. Tennessee sits at the open end, and this guide walks through what that means for a home baker selling from her own kitchen. For a comparison point, see Oklahoma’s cottage food rules.
What the Tennessee Food Freedom Act exempts you from
The act is also called the Tennessee Cottage Food Law or the Cottage Food Industry Act, so all three names point to the same rules. Present Tennessee law provides that the production and sale of homemade food items are exempt from all licensing, permitting, inspecting, packaging, and labeling laws of the state. In plain terms, that is the license, the permit, the inspection, and the label, all four at once.
One guide to state cottage food laws describes Tennessee as one of the most open home food laws in the country. For a home baker, that reputation shows up in the four things the exemption removes, which are usually the four things that cost the most time and money before the first order goes out the door.
What you can sell, and who you sell it to
Tennessee permits certain low-risk foods to be prepared in home kitchens for direct sale to consumers under its cottage food provisions. The line the law draws is about ingredients and about who buys. Homemade food items that do not contain dairy, meat, or poultry must be sold by the producer to the consumer, whether in person or remotely.
Remote sales are covered by the same description, so a customer who orders from her phone and collects at your door is still buying direct from you, the producer. If you are weighing a full license for other reasons, what a license to sell baked goods from home involves walks through the whole picture.
Getting your bakes from your kitchen to your customer
Start with the recipes you already sell
Write down the bakes you make most. The group the law describes for direct sale is the homemade items without dairy, meat, or poultry, so sort your list that way first.
Sell to the person eating it
The law describes the producer selling to the consumer, in person or remotely. The customer who orders the loaf is the customer who pays for it.
Skip the state paperwork
Under the act there is no license, permit, or inspection for homemade food items, and no state packaging or labeling requirement to design around.
Know your cost before you quote
Work out what a batch costs you before a busy week arrives, so a full order list still leaves you something at the end of it.
Rules differ from state to state, and how to apply for cottage food law covers the application path for bakers in states where one exists. The state agriculture department publishes the act on its own site, which is the page to check when you add a new bake to your list.
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Two things worth holding onto. The exemption is a state law question, and it does not change what your customers expect from you when they open the box. And the ingredient line touches your recipes directly, so keep it in view every single time you add something new to the menu.
Common questions
Do I need a license to sell baked goods from my Tennessee home?
Under the Tennessee Food Freedom Act, the production and sale of homemade food items are exempt from all licensing, permitting, inspecting, packaging, and labeling laws of the state. That exemption is the reason Tennessee is described as one of the most open home food laws in the country.
Do I have to label my packaging?
The exemption covers the state's packaging and labeling laws along with licensing, permitting, and inspection. Nothing in the material behind this guide sets a state label requirement for homemade food items.
Can I take orders online instead of only in person?
Yes, as described. The law covers homemade food items that do not contain dairy, meat, or poultry, sold by the producer to the consumer, whether in person or remotely. A customer ordering from her phone and collecting from you fits that description.
What is the law actually called?
The Tennessee Food Freedom Act is the name on the state's own page. It is also commonly referred to as the Tennessee Cottage Food Law or the Cottage Food Industry Act, and all three names mean the same rules.
Which foods does the law cover?
Tennessee permits certain low-risk foods to be prepared in home kitchens for direct sale to consumers, and the description in the act is built around homemade food items that do not contain dairy, meat, or poultry. Check the state agriculture department's page on the act when you are unsure about a specific recipe.
Sources
This is general information about how the law is described in the sources listed, not legal or tax advice. Confirm the current rules with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture before you sell.