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Rules for Nova Scotia · Last updated September 9, 2026

Nova Scotia home-based food rules: what to check before selling

Nova Scotia is the one Atlantic province whose exemption covers selling straight to the customer, not only at markets. No permit, as long as the food is shelf stable.

Make a Nova Scotia label 
New BrunswickNewfoundland and Labrador
Key takeaways
  • No permit for shelf-stable food, sold direct to customers or at a market.
  • The only Atlantic province whose exemption reaches direct sales, not just markets.
  • Anything hot or cold is Schedule A: a Public Market Vendors permit plus a commercial kitchen.

What Nova Scotia actually decides

You can bake at home and sell direct to customers or at a market with no permit, as long as the food is shelf stable and needs no refrigeration. Cookies, bread, cakes, jam and pickles all count. That direct-sale reach is what sets Nova Scotia apart from its Atlantic neighbours, where the equivalent permission is usually written for markets only.

The boundary is temperature. Anything that has to be kept hot or cold is Schedule A, and that needs a Public Market Vendors permit plus a permitted commercial kitchen. There is no partial version of that step.

Nova Scotia prescribes no home kitchen notice, so there is no sentence to print. The public market guide points you at the federal rules instead, which is where your label content comes from.

No Nutrition Facts table is needed when you sell what you made yourself at a farmers market, a craft fair or a roadside stand.

The short version

what the rule is calledHome-based food guidance
when an inspector comesRoutine
annual sales limitNo cap

What you can sell in Nova Scotia

Straight from the official record. Read these as categories rather than a menu, because one recipe can cross the line on its own: a filling that needs refrigeration, a pH that needs testing, or a process that needs an authority to sign it off.

  • Shelf-stable baking that needs no refrigeration: cookies, bread and cakes
  • Jam and pickles
  • Other shelf-stable food sold direct to customers or at a market

What is outside the rule

If your product is on this list, the answer is not "ask nicely". It is a different licence, a different kitchen, or both.

  • Anything that has to be kept hot or cold, which is Schedule A and needs a Public Market Vendors permit plus a permitted commercial kitchen

Where you are allowed to sell it

The researched record lists direct sales, farmers markets, online orders, delivery.

One channel being open does not open the rest. Shipping, delivery and wholesale each turn on the product and where it is going, so check the route you actually plan to use.

Up nextPaperwork, training and inspections

Paperwork, training and inspections

The researched record does not list a general permit for this tier. The label record does not establish a province-wide permit. Check your local public health unit and municipality.

No training is recorded as universally required. Training varies by product and local authority. Confirm it before selling.

Routine is what the record says about inspections. Confirm what that means for your product and your local authority, because the two can differ.

Kitchen rules people miss

None of these fit on a label, which is exactly why they get skipped. Read them before the first batch, not after.

  • You can bake at home and sell direct to customers or at a market with no permit, as long as the food is shelf stable.
  • Anything that must be kept hot or cold is Schedule A: a Public Market Vendors permit plus a permitted commercial kitchen.
  • Nova Scotia prescribes no home kitchen notice, so there is no sentence to print.
  • The public market guide points you at the federal label rules.
  • No Nutrition Facts table is needed for food you made yourself and sell at a market, fair or stand.

What belongs on a Nova Scotia label

Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, checked September 9, 2026

  1. 01Product name
  2. 02Ingredients by weight
  3. 03Allergens
  4. 04Metric net quantity
  5. 05Name and city
  6. 06Best before date
  7. 07English or French
  8. No permit number. Required text at least 1.6 mm tall, the federal minimum, which is about 4.5 point. A Nutrition Facts table is usually not required for food you make and sell yourself; confirm it before you print.
Make a Nova Scotia label

Start this weekend

In this order, so the label is the last thing you check and not the first thing you guess.

  1. Confirm your product is shelf stable. That is the whole test for the permit-free route.
  2. Use the direct-sale reach if it suits you. Nova Scotia allows it where its neighbours do not.
  3. Get a Public Market Vendors permit and a commercial kitchen if anything needs holding hot or cold.
  4. Do not print a home kitchen disclaimer. Nova Scotia prescribes none.
  5. Build the label from the federal rules, and skip the Nutrition Facts table for your own sales.

Nearby places

Nearby guides

Neighboring provinces look similar until the one difference that matters. Worth a read if you sell across a border, or if someone next door gave you advice.

Pairs well with

Keep going

ToolCottage food label makerTurn your recipe, allergens and required statement into a printable label.GuideCottage food business guideThe wider framework: product, kitchen, sales channel, label and local checks.GuideCottage food label requirementsEvery field a cottage food label needs, in the order to check them before you print.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Details were checked against public sources on September 9, 2026. Confirm current prices, policies, or provider instructions before relying on them.

Is this the whole Nova Scotia rule?

No, and you should not treat it as one. This is the official source read carefully on September 9, 2026 and put in one place. Your city, your county, the market you sell at and your own product can each add a layer this page does not know about. Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change is the authority, not us.

Can I just use the label maker and skip this?

The label maker opens with the fields this jurisdiction requires, so it will get the sticker right. What it cannot do is tell you whether the recipe is allowed, whether your kitchen qualifies, or whether you can sell through the channel you had in mind. A correct label on a product you are not allowed to sell is still a problem.

Does the right label make me compliant?

No. The label is the last step and the most visible one, which is why it gets all the attention. The recipe, the kitchen, the training, the registration and the sales route all sit upstream of it, and any one of them can be the thing that is actually wrong.

More cottage food laws

Cottage food laws

Selling somewhere else too?

The rule changes with the kitchen, the product and the sales route. Pick another place to compare.

Free label maker

Rule in front of you? Make the label.

The label maker opens with these requirements already loaded. Build it, then read the finished sticker back against the official source before you print a full sheet.

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