Under the Tennessee Food Freedom Act, homemade foods like baked goods, candies, jams, and dried mixes can be sold directly to consumers without a license, permit, or state inspection. There is no sales cap. Proper labeling is required and some perishable items remain restricted.
The Tennessee Food Freedom Act (Tenn. Code Ann. § 53-1-101 et seq.) lets producers make and sell many non-time/temperature-controlled foods from a home kitchen without the licensing, permitting, inspection, and packaging requirements that apply to commercial food. Allowed items include breads, cookies, cakes, candies, fudge, jams, jellies, dried fruits, granola, and honey. Tennessee sets no gross-sales cap. Products must be labeled as homemade and not made in an inspected facility. Raw milk, most meats, and similar high-risk foods remain excluded. This is a state law; Hamilton County adds no separate cottage-food permit.
Selling prohibited high-risk foods, mislabeling, or ignoring the Act's conditions can void the exemption and expose the seller to state food-safety enforcement, especially during a foodborne-illness investigation.
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See how Hamilton County's cottage food operations rules stack up against other locations.
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