Tennessee Can you legally sell food from home in Tennessee?
Cottage Food Law
In 2022, Tennessee passed a food freedom law (HB 813) to replace their old cottage food law, and they amended it in 2025 (HB 130).
Producers in Tennessee can sell most types of food (including many perishable foods) at most venues throughout the state, including selling from home, at markets, via retail stores, or online (including in-state shipping). There is no sales limit, and no license, permit, inspection, or training is required to sell.
There are only three main restrictions: producers (1) cannot sell some types of perishable products, (2) cannot sell products through restaurants, and (3) cannot sell perishable products wholesale (via retail stores).
Otherwise, producers are free to sell their homemade food, as long as they adhere to the labeling requirements. Tennessee has one of the best food freedom laws in the country!
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Selling Where can you sell homemade food products?
You can only sell perishable products (products requiring refrigeration) in-person to consumers. You can have an agent (e.g. an employee) sell them in-person for you, but you cannot sell them at wholesale (via stores, restaurants, etc) or remotely (online, via shipping, or using a third-party carrier).
Allowed Foods What food products can you sell from home?
Unlike most states that say which items you can sell, Tennessee specifies which items you can’t sell. All other products are allowed.
Your products cannot contain these items:
- Meat, meat products, or meat byproducts
- Seafood, including fish and shellfish products
- Alcoholic beverages
- Unpasteurized milk
You can only sell poultry products if:
- You sell federally or state inspected poultry and adhere to the exemption requirements in 9 CFR 381.10(d) (most notably, a consumer cannot buy more than 75 pounds of poultry from you at a time)
- You raise your own poultry and fall within the 1,000-poultry exemption, and you only use exempted poultry
You can only sell perishable products (products requiring refrigeration) in-person to consumers. You can have an agent (e.g. an employee) sell them in-person for you, but you cannot sell them at wholesale (via stores, restaurants, etc) or remotely (online, via shipping, or using a third-party carrier).
You can sell up to 150 gallons per year of honey from home (see TCA 53-1-102 “Selling”).
Limitations How will your home food business be restricted?
Labeling How do you label cottage food products?
Chocolate Chip Cookies
"This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens."
Forrager Cookie Company
123 Chewy Way, Cookietown, TN 73531
Phone: (123) 456-7890
Ingredients: enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), butter (cream, salt), semi-sweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lecithin, natural flavors), brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract (vanilla bean extract, alcohol, sugar), baking soda, salt (salt, calcium silicate)
If you sell items from a bulk container, you must put the label on the container.
If your products are neither packaged nor sold from a bulk container, you must put the label on a placard at the point of sale.
If you sell online, you must put the labeling information where your products are being sold online.
If you sell over the phone or through a custom order, you must inform the customer that the product is homemade and is exempt from state licensing and inspection, and that it may contain allergens. You must provide any other labeling information to the customer upon request.
Resources Where can you find more information about this law?
- Organization
- Consumer and Industry Services
- Department
- Tennessee Department of Agriculture
- Requests.Food@TN.gov
- Telephone
- 615-837-5193
Food Safety Section
- January 2007
- TN Rules & Regulations 0080-04-11-.04
- May 2012
- SB 3547
- April 2017
- SB 1187
- July 2022
- HB 813
- July 2025
- HB 130
Prior to 2017, Tennessee had two laws: one for “home-based kitchens”, which allowed direct sales of certain nonperishable foods, and the other for “domestic kitchens”, which allowed indirect sales, but required an extensive application process.
In 2022, Tennessee entirely replaced their law with an updated food freedom law.
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