Tennessee Cottage Food Law (2026): Rules, Limits and How to Start
Do you need a license to sell homemade food in Tennessee?
Tennessee runs one of the most open home food laws in the country under the Tennessee Food Freedom Act. Food made in a home kitchen is exempt from state licensing, permitting, inspection, packaging and labeling requirements, with no sales cap and no required training. A 2025 amendment opened the law to refrigerated, time and temperature controlled items, with unpasteurized milk, alcohol, fish, shellfish and meat still excluded and poultry allowed only inside federal exemption limits. The exemption carries conditions and one of them is a label: the act requires a specific statement telling the buyer the food was produced at a private residence exempt from state licensing and inspection.
Tennessee runs one of the more permissive cottage food laws in the country. You can start selling foods like most homemade foods produced in a home-based kitchen and baked goods, candies, jams, jellies and other traditional shelf-stable cottage foods from your own kitchen with no state permit to file and no dollar ceiling on your sales. Once you meet the labeling step below you are clear to sell.
Tennessee sets no dollar limit on cottage food sales, so the ceiling on your growth is your own kitchen and time rather than a statutory cap. The other rules that matter, the label, the allowed foods and where you can sell, are in the tables below.
a 2025 amendment was enacted in 2025. Tennessee widened the foods a home producer may sell to include some time and temperature-controlled items, while keeping meat, fish, shellfish and alcohol off-limits. Confirm the current scope and effective date with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. This page reflects the rule in force today; the full history sits in the law-updates log.
How much can you sell? The Tennessee sales cap
The annual sales limit for a Tennessee cottage food operation.
| Item | Tennessee rule |
|---|---|
| Annual sales cap | No annual dollar cap in Tennessee |
| How it works | The Tennessee Food Freedom Act sets no sales limit for homemade food producers. |
What foods can you sell in Tennessee?
Allowed and prohibited categories under current Tennessee law.
| Allowed (examples) | Prohibited |
|---|---|
| Most homemade foods produced in a home-based kitchen; Baked goods, candies, jams, jellies and other traditional shelf-stable cottage foods; Time and temperature controlled (refrigerated) items since July 1, 2025, which the act permits by naming what is excluded rather than by listing what is allowed. Pasteurized dairy products such as butter, yogurt, hard cheese and kefir, plus eggs, are not on the exclusion list, so they fall inside the exemption; Poultry, poultry byproducts and poultry food products, but only where the business operates under the 1,000-bird exemption in 9 CFR 381.10(c) or uses inspected poultry bearing the official mark under 9 CFR 381.10(d). | Raw (unpasteurized) milk and raw milk products; Meat, meat byproducts and meat food products (excluded from the 2025 time/temperature-controlled expansion); Fish and shellfish products (excluded from the 2025 time/temperature-controlled expansion); Alcoholic beverages; Foods requiring interstate shipment out of Tennessee. |
Tennessee cottage food label requirements
Every package you sell needs a label with the elements below in legible print.
- The name, home address and telephone number of the producer
- The common or usual name of the homemade food item
- The ingredients of the item in descending order of predominance
- The disclosure statement above
- Format: on a label affixed to the package; or on a label on the container if sold from bulk; or on a placard at the point of sale if neither; or on the webpage if the item is offered for sale only on the internet
- Telephone and custom orders: no display is required, but the seller must disclose orally that the item is produced at a private residence exempt from state licensing and inspection and may contain allergens and must have the name, address, telephone number, product name and ingredients readily available on request
Tennessee requires this disclosure statement, word for word:
This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens.
Reproduced from Tennessee's cottage food labeling requirements. Confirm the current wording with Tennessee Department of Agriculture before you print a run of labels.
From the team behind this library
The Cottage Food Launch Kit
Want the whole path in one place? The kit turns everything on this page into one ordered walkthrough for Tennessee: your state requirement sheet, a fill-in label template with the exact required wording, the allowed-foods checker, the ordered checklist and your first-market plan. Follow it in an evening.
Where can you sell in Tennessee?
The venues and channels Tennessee cottage food operators may use.
| Channel | Allowed in Tennessee? |
|---|---|
| Direct to consumer from home | Yes |
| Farmers markets and public events | Yes |
| Retail stores | Yes. Non-time/temperature-control-for-safety items only. TCS items added in 2025 must be sold by the producer to the consumer in person, or by an agent of the producer in person such as a farm stand on the property where the food was prepared, so they cannot go through a retail store or a third-party vendor |
| Online orders with in-state delivery or shipping | Yes. Shelf-stable homemade items only. Refrigerated time/temperature-controlled items added in 2025 must be handed to the buyer in person, by the producer or by an agent such as a farm stand, so they cannot be shipped or delivered. |
| Shipping across state lines | No. Interstate shipping is not permitted under the act. |
Registration, training and inspection
Registration and permits. No registration, permit or license is required to produce and sell homemade food under the Tennessee Food Freedom Act.
Food safety training. No food safety training is required under the act.
Kitchen inspection. No home-kitchen inspection is required. The Department of Health retains authority only to investigate a reported foodborne illness.
The fees a Tennessee cottage food seller can expect.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Food Freedom Act home food production | No state fee |
Wondering how Tennessee compares? See what a cottage food license costs in every state, from the no-fee states to the priciest permits.
