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Tennessee cottage food law: selling food from home

General information, not legal advice. Rules change, and counties add their own. Check with your state and county before you start selling.

"Cottage food" is the term most states use for food made in a home kitchen and sold directly to customers. What it covers, and whether your state uses the phrase at all, differs by state.

The short answer

Yes, and Tennessee is one of the most permissive states in the country about it. The Tennessee Food Freedom Act took effect on 1 July 2025. There is no license, no permit, no registration, no fee, no kitchen inspection and no limit on what you can earn.

Two things separate Tennessee from almost everywhere else. It lets you sell refrigerated food — the kind most states ban outright — provided you hand it over in person and keep it below 41 °F. And it lets a grocery store stock your shelf-stable products. What it does not let you do is cross the state line, or sell to a restaurant.

The exemption — and what it does not exempt you from

T.C.A. 53-1-118 is unusually blunt. The production and sale of homemade food under the Act "are exempt from all licensing, permitting, inspecting, packaging, and labeling laws of this state, except when the department of health is investigating a reported foodborne illness."

Read that twice, because it oversells itself. The University of Tennessee's own summary of the Act calls the broad reading of that sentence "misleading" — and it is right. The same Act that exempts you from the state's labeling laws then tells you exactly what your label must say. The exemption means you are outside the ordinary permit-and-inspect regime; it does not mean the Act imposes nothing.

So the honest summary is: no license, no permit, no fee, no inspection, no cap — and a short list of duties that come from the Act itself. Those are the next five sections. UT Extension, Tennessee Food Freedom Act

What you can make

Tennessee does not work from a closed list of approved products the way Ohio does. It works from where the food is made and how it is handed over. The food has to be produced at a private residence (T.C.A. 53-1-102), and from there the Act splits into two tracks:

Non-TCS food
Shelf-stable food — baked goods, jams, candy, dry mixes. TCS stands for time/temperature control for safety: food that has to be kept hot or cold to stay safe. Non-TCS food is food that does not. You may sell it in person or remotely, and through a third-party vendor such as a grocery store.
TCS food
Allowed, which is rare. Most states on this site ban it entirely. In Tennessee you may sell it — but only in person, direct to the consumer, and it must be held below 41 °F.
Poultry
Allowed if you are a producer exempted for slaughtering fewer than 1,000 birds a year, or if the bird was inspected under 9 CFR 381.10(d).

There is one more rule that catches people out: no health claims. You cannot tell a customer your product treats, prevents or cures anything.

How much can you sell, and to whom

Annual limit
None. The Act sets no cap on gross sales, which puts Tennessee among the thirteen states on this site with no ceiling at all: Georgia, New York, Illinois, Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and New Mexico.
Direct to customers
Yes — for both tracks. This is the only way TCS food may move.
Online, phone, mail
Yes, for shelf-stable food. The Act allows remote sales of non-TCS products. TCS food is in-person only.
Grocery stores and other third-party vendors
Yes, for non-TCS food. A grocery store may carry your products — a route New Jersey and Washington both close off.
Restaurants, food trucks, catering
Not allowed. The Act does not extend to food service.
Outside Tennessee
Not allowed. The Act is a Tennessee law and reaches Tennessee sales. Crossing a state line puts you under federal rules and the other state's law.

The shape of it is worth holding onto: Tennessee is generous about what you may make and who may stock it, and strict about the state line and the restaurant door.

What has to be on the label

This is the part the headline exemption hides. Every package carries:

This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens.

There are no alternatives offered. Some states let you substitute a registration number for your street address — Oregon and South Carolina both do. Tennessee does not. If you sell under this Act, your home address is on the package, and that is a real decision to make before you start, particularly if you sell to strangers.

UT Extension summary · Tennessee Department of Agriculture

Food safety training

The Act requires no course and no certificate.

We are not going to invent a requirement that is not there. But Tennessee is one of the few states that lets a home kitchen sell refrigerated food, and that is precisely the category where mistakes make people ill. If you are going to use that permission, a food handler course is the cheapest thing you will ever buy — and if you ever end up in the one situation the Act carves out, a health department investigating a reported illness, you will be glad you can show it.

Is your kitchen inspected?

No. There is no routine inspection of a homemade food operation under the Act, and no permit to inspect against.

The exception is narrow and specific, and it is the one sentence of the exemption worth memorizing: the exemption does not apply "when the department of health is investigating a reported foodborne illness." At that point the ordinary powers come back. So the practical reading is that nobody will knock on your door for a routine check — and that your records, your labels and your temperature discipline are what you would have to stand behind if someone got sick.

Sales tax and local rules

No license is not no tax. Whether what you sell is taxable, and whether you have to register to collect, belongs to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, and we are not going to print a rate that could change.

Local rules are a separate question too. The Act removes the state's permit regime; it does not rewrite your city's zoning or your subdivision's rules about running a business from the house. Ask locally before you start.

Official sources

Last verified: 31 October 2026. Every number on this page is linked to the official page it comes from.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need a license to sell food from home in Tennessee?

No. The Tennessee Food Freedom Act, effective 1 July 2025, requires no license, no permit, no registration and no fee, and there is no kitchen inspection. T.C.A. 53-1-118 exempts homemade food from the state's licensing, permitting, inspecting, packaging and labeling laws — with one carve-out, for when the department of health is investigating a reported foodborne illness.

How much can I sell in a year in Tennessee?

There is no limit. The Act sets no cap on gross sales at all, which puts Tennessee among the thirteen states on this site with no ceiling: Georgia, New York, Illinois, Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and New Mexico.

Can I really sell refrigerated food made in my home kitchen?

Yes, and that genuinely is unusual — most states on this site ban it outright. Tennessee allows TCS food, meaning food that needs time or temperature control to stay safe, but only sold in person directly to the consumer and held below 41 °F. It cannot be shipped, sold online or placed in a store.

Can a grocery store sell my products?

Yes, for shelf-stable food. The Act allows sales of non-TCS homemade food through a third-party vendor such as a grocery store. Refrigerated food may not go that route — it is in-person only. Restaurants, food trucks and catering are outside the Act entirely.

Can I take orders online and ship within Tennessee?

Yes for shelf-stable food: the Act allows remote sales of non-TCS products. Refrigerated food has to be handed over in person. Either way the sale stays inside Tennessee — the Act is state law and does not cover crossing a state line.

Does my home address really have to be on the label?

Yes. The label carries your name, your home address and your telephone number, the common name of the food, the ingredients in descending order by weight, and the statement "This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens." The Act offers no alternative to the address, unlike Oregon or South Carolina, which let a state-issued number stand in its place.

If the state does not inspect my kitchen, can anyone ever check on me?

Yes, in one situation. The exemption in T.C.A. 53-1-118 stops applying when the department of health is investigating a reported foodborne illness. There is no routine inspection, but that carve-out is real, and it is the reason to keep your labeling and your temperature control tight even though nobody is coming to look.

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