Hey friends,

I just have a question for anyone baking in Tennessee right now. I read the article about the department of agriculture's new bill to let home-based bakers operate their baking businesses. I am wondering...is anybody doing that yet or knows anybody who is, and how hard is it to get your kitchen lisenced? My husband and I have been considering moving to Nashville for a while now, and if I can sell my cakes from home legally it offers us a big incentive! Is anybody doing it now? Thank you!

Rebekka

Can you direct me to the article??? I am in Tennessee and would like to see it.

Thanks,

Cindy

My aunt just inquired on it because I am hopefully moving back to TN here soon. The gentleman she spoke to said it usually takes less than 3 months to get everything inspected, get permits, etc. She said the process seemed fairly straight forward.

BellaRosa

I have just recently started making cakes and selling them from out of my home.. But I just do it on the side since I work full time also... I wonder if I would fall into that catagory... I would love to read the article though if anyone has it available...I'm in Clarksville which is 48 miles east of Nashville...

Thanks,
Cassandra

Do you have to have a separate kitchen?

Cindy

The article can be found at

http://cakefun.blogspot.com/2005/08/tn-farmers-market-vendors-can-sell.html

I assume it applies to cake businesses?

Hey Cindy-

I'm assuming that your reply was for me... No, extra kitchen... Just the one I use for everything!

Cass

oh, no....that link doesn't work anymore. Sorry! Does anyone else have it?

In my opinion, the first thing you TN bakers need to do is to send letters to your state assemblymen (state representatives) and state senators, letting them know that you want this bill to pass. It won't do you any good to have the information on establishing a business if the law is not there that permits you to do this. You can find out who your representatives and senators are by contacting your local library, election board, or the League of Women Voters.

And if anyone has a copy of the bill, please send it to me. I would like to present this to my own state rep for consideration, here in PA.

Theresa

[moderator edited to remove email address]

Hi there! I live in Tennessee, specifically Rutherford county. Based in the information I recieved from the city and county business licensing department, you must make an annual minimum gross profit of 3,000.00 dollars in order to qualify for a business licence and tax id number. After you start doing business at this level, you can apply for legitimacy of your operation from home with the city planning commission. Then have a three compartment sink installed, OR, have a commercial grade dishwasher installed so the health department can licence your operation as well.

You could also just have the dishwasher installed and contact the Health Department about checking out your kitchen for a licence and then work on reaching the financial goal for the licences.

My understanding overall is that there are no restrictions on working out of your home as long as you stay below 3 grand a year.

Call the city's business licensing department first and they will tell you about the 3K per year requirement. They will also tell you about the county license as well. Call the Health Department in Murfreesboro and they will tell you about the sink and or the need for the installation of a commercial dishwasher to be compliant. They will come out, inspect, and upon making a reasonable score, issue you a licence, good for one calendar year for a few hundered dollars. I would get you the numbers right now, but I just finished a cake that I have worked all day on and am spent.

Good luck. Feel free to email me directly if you have any more questions!

[moderator edited to remove email address]

I think it's important to mention too that getting a business license is different than getting a license/permit to sell baked goods from your home kitchen.

There's a document here about getting started...

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/pb1399.pdf

At the time it was written, domestic kitchens had to meet the same strict requirements as commercial food manufacturing plants.

These are the changes that are supposed to be going into effect though to make it easier to sell certain baked goods from home.

http://cakefun.blogspot.com/2005/08/tn-farmers-market-vendors-can-sell.html

ksimp6577 & DoraMarie:
I just wanted to say hi. I live in Smyrna and it is nice to have some CC'ers close by.