Home-based food business rules in Canada, province by province

Whether you can sell food from your home kitchen in Canada depends on your province: Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan allow low-risk home-made foods such as baked goods, jams and candy, while British Columbia and Manitoba mostly limit home-prepared food to farmers' markets and similar events. Quebec allows a home kitchen only with a MAPAQ permit and a monthly quantity limit. Meat, dairy, cream fillings and anything that needs refrigeration generally need an inspected commercial kitchen everywhere.

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This is general information as of October 2026, not legal advice. Your local public health unit or health authority has the final word, and your city sets zoning and business licence rules.

The rules at a glance (as of October 2026)

The other provinces and territories weren't checked for this page: ask your provincial health department.

Ontario: low-risk food from a home kitchen

Ontario's Food Premises Regulation (O. Reg. 493/17) treats the part of your home where you prepare, cook and store food for sale as a food premises. Low-risk food is food that isn't "potentially hazardous", meaning it doesn't need time and temperature control to stay safe. A premises that prepares and serves only low-risk food is exempt from three requirements: dedicated handwashing stations, commercial dishwashing or three-compartment sink equipment, and having a trained food handler on site.

York Region Public Health gives these examples:

What you still need to do:

1. Notify your local public health unit before you open. In Toronto, a home kitchen preparing food for sale counts as a food premises and you notify the Medical Officer of Health online.
2. Pass an inspection. Inspectors check clean, smooth surfaces, safe water, an approved sanitizer, thermometers in fridges and freezers, and ingredients from approved sources.
3. Check zoning and licences with your municipality. Some cities need a business licence for a home business.
4. Consider food handler training. It isn't required for low-risk-only kitchens, but public health units recommend it.

Alberta: no permit, but label everything

Since 1 June 2020, Alberta's Food Regulation lets you sell low-risk home-prepared foods without a permit, a commercial kitchen or routine inspections. You can sell from home, including online or by mail order, at special events such as craft fairs and festivals, and at farmers' markets. Meat, poultry, seafood, raw milk and home-bottled water aren't allowed.

Every item needs a label (a tag, sticker or card is fine) showing:

• a statement that the food was prepared in a home kitchen not subject to inspection;
• a statement that it's not for resale;
• your name or business name, and your email or phone number;
• the name of the food and the date you made it.

Other conditions: only you and members of your household may prepare the food; ingredients must come from inspected sources where that applies, so you can't use someone else's home-made jam in your tarts; no on-site dining at your home, though free samples are fine; and Alberta Health Services can still inspect after a complaint.

Saskatchewan: low-risk foods since 2016

Saskatchewan amended its Food Safety Regulations on 1 August 2016 to allow home-processed, low-risk, non-perishable foods such as baked goods, pastries, fruit pies, jams, jellies and candies. Meat and dairy products are excluded. Home processors must take food safety training, make sure their water is safe and label products so buyers know where they came from. Products can be sold directly to the public and through retail stores.

British Columbia: markets, not your front door

BC's Food Premises Regulation allows home-prepared, prepackaged, lower-risk foods at temporary food markets, such as farmers' markets. The province's guideline, written by the BC Centre for Disease Control with the health authorities, says this doesn't mean you can sell the same food from home or in shops. Lower-risk here means a water activity of 0.85 or less, or a pH of 4.6 or less, and vendors must be able to prove it if asked.

Lower-risk market vendors don't need to apply to their health authority first, but they should post a sign at the stall saying the food comes from a kitchen that isn't inspected by a regulator. Interior Health says home-based kitchens are generally not allowed, and online sales need food made in an approved kitchen. To sell from home or online in BC, plan on renting a permitted commercial or shared kitchen.

Manitoba: markets and bake sales only

Manitoba prohibits preparing and serving food to the public from a home-based business. The exception is non-potentially hazardous food sold at a farmers' market, flea market, craft sale or bake sale under the province's farmers' market guidelines. Anything else needs a commercial kitchen and a health permit.

Quebec: a MAPAQ permit, with limits

In Quebec, preparing meals for sale from a home kitchen is a restaurant activity under MAPAQ's permit system, and portioning products for resale needs a retail permit. A home kitchen can operate under a "general preparation" permit if:

• it handles no more than 100 kg of food a month;
• customers buy directly from you, with no sales to grocery stores or other resellers;
• you follow food safety rules, including the cold chain;
• you've completed MAPAQ's food establishment manager training.

Quebec's permits page listed the general preparation permits at C$367 when it was updated on 17 September 2026.

The federal layer: CFIA licences and labels

• Licence: making and selling food that stays inside your province doesn't need a Safe Food for Canadians licence. Making, packaging or labelling food to be sold in another province does. Some commodities, such as dairy, eggs and meat, have their own rules.
• Labels: prepackaged food must follow federal labelling rules. Food sold only at a roadside stand, craft show, flea market, fair, farmers' market or sugar bush by the person who made it is usually exempt from the Nutrition Facts table, but it loses that exemption if the label makes nutrition or health claims. That exemption doesn't cover sales from your own website, so check CFIA's labelling guidance before you sell online.
• Allergens: tell customers what's in each item. Menuthere's free allergen label maker prints labels from the allergens you tick.

Worked example: a home baker in Calgary

Priya bakes from home in Calgary and sells two products, prices as of October 2026:

Her label for the cookies: "Brown butter cookies, made 18 October 2026", a line saying they were made in a home kitchen not subject to inspection, "Not for resale", her business name and email, plus the allergens (gluten, milk, eggs).

Tax: her sales are well under C$30,000 a year, so she's a small supplier and doesn't have to register for GST (see GST/HST on restaurant food). A dozen cookies would be zero-rated anyway, since six or more single servings of sweet baked goods are basic groceries.

Orders: on Menuthere's Free plan she takes up to 50 orders a month for pickup, paid at the door, with no commission. When she moves to Lite (US$17 a month) for pre-orders and card payments, a C$65.00 cake paid by card through her own Stripe account costs a Stripe fee of 2.9% + C$0.30 = C$2.19, and she receives C$62.81. Menuthere takes 0%.

Price your cakes with the cake price calculator (choose CAD as the currency).

Taking orders online for a home food business

A free ordering page helps in the provinces where you can sell from home (Ontario within your public health unit's approval, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec with a permit):

• Free plan: your own ordering page and QR code, pickup or delivery, orders sent to your WhatsApp, up to 50 orders a month, 0% commission, no card needed.
• Lite (US$17 a month): pre-orders so customers choose a pickup date, online card payments through your own Stripe account, coupons and your own domain. Lite has a 7-day free trial; a card is needed to start and nothing is charged until it ends.
• Every plan: tick the 14 allergens and add calories on each item (allergens and nutrition).

In BC and Manitoba, an online page for food made in your home kitchen generally isn't allowed; use one once you cook in a permitted kitchen. See the home bakery website, online ordering for bakeries and connecting Stripe. Plans: pricing.

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Checklist before your first sale

• Check your province's row in the table above.
• Confirm each product is low-risk (no fridge needed, no meat, dairy fillings or custard).
• Notify your public health unit (Ontario) or get your MAPAQ permit (Quebec).
• Check zoning and any business licence with your municipality.
• Label every item, including allergens; in Alberta, use the four required details.
• Keep all sales inside your province unless you hold a CFIA licence.
• Track your sales against the C$30,000 GST/HST small supplier limit.