Tennessee's cottage food law is the Tennessee Food Freedom Act, section 53-1-118, in effect since July 1, 2022. Homemade food made at your residence is exempt from the state's licensing, permits, inspections, packaging and labeling laws; the Department of Agriculture issues no permit and doesn't inspect. Shelf-stable food can be sold in person, by phone or online, delivered by mail or carrier, and sold through grocery stores and shops. Since July 1, 2025, food that needs refrigeration is allowed too, sold only in person, with no meat, fish or raw milk. There's no sales limit, and all sales stay within Tennessee. In place of the usual label rules, the buyer gets your name, address and phone, the product's name and ingredients, and a two-sentence statement. In the example below, a Maury County baker sorts six products. Below are the rules, the label, refrigerated food, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- No license, permit or inspection; the Department of Health steps in only to investigate a foodborne illness.
- Shelf-stable food: sell in person, by phone or online, through an agent or a store; deliver yourself, by carrier, or through the store.
- Food needing refrigeration: since 2025, sold only in person, by you or an agent such as a farm stand where it's made.
- No meat, fish, shellfish, raw milk or alcohol in refrigerated homemade food; poultry only under federal exemptions.
- Sales within Tennessee only; no sales limit.
- Cities and counties can't ban or regulate homemade food.
- Disclose: name, home address, phone, product name, ingredients, and "This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens."
- TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What section 53-1-118 says |
|---|---|
| What it covers | Food, including non-alcoholic drinks, produced and packaged at the producer's private residence |
| Exemption | From all state licensing, permitting, inspecting, packaging and labeling laws, except a Department of Health illness investigation |
| Shelf-stable food: selling | By the producer, in person or remotely, by phone or internet; or by an agent or a third-party vendor such as a retail shop or grocery store |
| Shelf-stable food: delivery | By the producer, an agent, a third-party vendor or a third-party carrier |
| Refrigerated food | No raw milk, alcohol, fish, shellfish or meat; poultry only under 9 CFR 381.10(c) or (d); sold in person by the producer or an agent, such as a farm stand on the property |
| Where | Intrastate sales within Tennessee only |
| Local rules | Counties and cities can't prohibit or regulate homemade food |
| Taxes | Still apply |
The Act is Public Chapter 862 (2022), and the refrigerated food rules came in Public Chapter 431 (2025). The Department of Agriculture's Food Freedom Act page says it issues no permits or licenses and conducts no inspections under the Act, and can take action on homemade food sold outside it. This is general information, not legal advice.
The label
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Producer | Your name, home address and telephone number |
| Product | The common or usual name |
| Ingredients | In descending order of predominance |
| Statement | "This product was produced at a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens." |
The information goes on a label on the package, on the container for food sold from bulk, on a placard where unpackaged food is sold, or on the webpage for food sold only online. For phone and custom orders, tell the buyer the food is made at an exempt private residence and may contain allergens, and have the rest ready if they ask. The Act doesn't require a net weight or a Contains line, but naming the allergens the food has is a kindness the statement alone doesn't do; how to work them out is in allergen matrix template.
Refrigerated food since 2025
Public Chapter 431 opened homemade food that needs time or temperature control for safety: banana pudding, cream pies, cheesecake, and the like. Three limits come with it. No meat, fish, shellfish, raw milk or alcohol. Poultry only under the federal exemptions, from a small producer's own birds or from inspected and passed poultry. And it's sold in person, by you or your agent, for example at a farm stand on the property where it's made; not online, and not through a store. Which foods count as needing refrigeration is in TCS foods list.
An example: a Maury County baker
Duck River Bakery, a made-up home baker in Columbia, Tennessee, I use in these examples, sells at a farmers market, ships bread around the state, and stocks a grocery in town:
| Product | Allowed? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Sourdough bread | Yes | Shelf-stable: online, shipped in Tennessee, or through the grocery |
| Chow-chow | Yes | Shelf-stable, if the recipe makes it so |
| Banana pudding | Yes, in person | Needs refrigeration: sold only face to face |
| Chicken salad | Ask first | Poultry only under the federal exemptions |
| Country ham biscuits | No | Meat isn't allowed |
| Catfish dip | No | Fish isn't allowed |
The banana pudding sells from a cooler at the market and never goes to the grocery; the bread does both. With the grocery, the market and shipped loaves, Duck River sold $35,400 by September, and Tennessee sets no limit. How a home food business starts is in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the checklist
Download the Tennessee homemade food checklist. Three sheets: the disclosure, each line with a column for yours; products, each with whether it's allowed and how; and sales by month, with no cap set. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
No inspection means no inspector asking questions, until a customer gets sick and the Department of Health does. Then the questions are which batch, made when, and who else bought it, across a grocery, a market and shipped boxes.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each batch's lot and which stores it went to.
Each batch dated. A batch of sourdough gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and lot labels print with it.
Stores as customers. The grocery is a customer with its own orders, and each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows every store and customer a batch reached.
Market sales too. TaroStack connects to Square for market sales, so the grocery, the market and online sit together.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's date | Written on the bag | The batch's lot and dates |
| Who got a batch | Not recorded | One recall report |
| The grocery's invoices | Written by hand | From its orders |
Lots, batches, orders and lot labels are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.