Melissa

The best way to protect a name is through trademarking, but first, I would highly recommend that you don’t worry about that until you are making substantial revenue from your business. Unless you are making waves in your industry, you don’t give people much reason to steal your name. You should be so lucky for people to care about your business…[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.

The cottage food law only pertains to food items, and I’m not sure if it allows extracts. You should contact the ag dept about making those.

I don’t know about other laws. I would expect anything that’s applied to skin to be regulated by the health dept. Laundry supplies… I have no idea. What I do know is that anytime you’re starting a…[Read more]