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Thank you for responding David.

I got a reply back from someone from the TN.gov office. They don’t know how to handle this either. They’re trying to get some information for me.

It’s a unique setup, for sure. I don’t think I’ve heard of anything quite that elaborate, though I do know CFOs who pool money to buy ingredients wholesale from existing suppliers.

I can’t claim to know anything more than UT’s ag dept, so you’ll have to wait for responses from them, but I will say that a number of states are fine with flours and…[Read more]

As long as all of the proceeds go to the nonprofit, usually there is an exemption that you can use: http://forrager.com/faq/#nonprofit

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…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

Yeah, that is what I figured. I knew it was an outside chance but I was hoping that someone might have see something that I missed.
Thank you for the insight.

https://ag.tennessee.edu/foodscience/Documents/Getting%20Started%20in%20a%20Food%20Manufacturing%20Business%20in%20Tennessee.pdf

Check this out. Page 9 says…
“It also is important to understand that “acidified foods” (pickled
vegetables, salsas) or “formulated acid foods” (marinades, hot sauces,
salad dressings, etc.) are not considered nonpote…[Read more]

I recently came across this, which should give you a pretty good idea for what’s required: https://ag.tennessee.edu/foodscience/Documents/Getting%20Started%20in%20a%20Food%20Manufacturing%20Business%20in%20Tennessee.pdf

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…[Read more]

Usually you have to talk to the health dept about getting licensed. There is a lot of paperwork and plans you need to fill out to start a commercial food business, and there may be some training required as well. The letter of the law typically states that food cannot be stored at home, but I know that health depts are lenient about that sometimes.

(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.

I think you will once again need to rent or build a commercial kitchen. Cut, fresh fruit is not allowed under the cottage food law, and you can’t sell interstate. I also don’t think you can ship products under the cottage food law.