Tennessee
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Talk with others about the cottage food industry in Tennessee
online sale
This topic contains 7 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by 
David Crabill 8 years, 6 months ago.
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StephanieSo is there no way to sell items(like cake or pie) online in TN? To other states? or only with a commercial license or not at all? Thanks!
Yes, you can do it with a commercial license. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
(Sorry to dig up an old post!)
Just to clarify, could you take orders online and then customers pick them up from you? I know we can’t ship.
Lindsay, the law isn’t really clear about that, and that’s why I hadn’t specified it on the site. My guess is that the intent of the law is not to allow online sales.
I just re-researched both the home-based exemption and the domestic kitchen law, so those now have quite a bit more information. I’m now confident that you can sell online if you’re licensed as a domestic kitchen, but if you find out more about online selling via the newer law, I’d be glad to know.
Janice WeaverCan a person make bread in Tennessee but sell it at a Farmer’s Market in Indiana through paper orders? For example, Farmer’s Market in Indiana takes the orders from customers one week. Turns orders into the home bread baker in TN. Baker makes bread and sends completed product to contact in Indiana who delivers the bread to the customer the following week. Is this legal?
Sales need to be made directly between the customer and producer. A farmers market wouldn’t be able to take orders on the behalf of a vendor. A producer could probably do a paper order (pre-order) one week at the farmers market and collect money then, and then fulfill the order at the next week’s market. But I don’t think anything beyond that would be allowed unless someone became a domestic kitchen.
Janice WeaverThat’s exactly what I’m talking about. The order form will be hers. I will just be the volunteer at the farmer’s market in the booth taking the pre-order forms and collecting the money. She will bake the bread and ship it to me. I will hand deliver the bread with her label the next week to the customer. Will that work?
Since you are making the sale, this is an indirect, out-of-state order. She needs to have a license that will allow indirect and out-of-state sales, which may not be allowed with a TN domestic kitchen license. There’s a very good chance that she will need to open a commercial bakery in order to do this. Unfortunately, I can’t give a definitive answer because it largely depends on what your and her counties decide. The first step is for her to contact her ag dept.
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