Skip to content
Confita
Start free

Rules for Ontario · Last updated September 9, 2026

Ontario home-based food rules: what to check before selling

Yes, you can sell food from home in Ontario: low-risk things like cookies, bread and jam. You don’t need a permit: you tell your local public health unit you are operating, and they may inspect you like any other food premises.

Make an Ontario label 
QuebecManitoba
Key takeaways
  • No permit and no permit number on the label. You notify your local public health unit.
  • They may inspect you the same way they inspect any food premises.
  • A farmers market where over half the stalls are farmers sits outside the provincial rules entirely.

What Ontario actually decides

Canada has no cottage food law in the American sense, and Ontario is a good example of what that means in practice. There is one tier. You may bake low-risk things like cookies, bread, brownies and fudge in your home kitchen, you tell your local public health unit that you are operating, and they may inspect you like any other food premises. No permit number goes on the label because there is no permit.

Ontario prescribes no home kitchen notice either, so there is no sentence to print. O. Reg. 493/17 fixes wording only for service club events and wild game dinners, neither of which is a bake sale. If you have seen a "made in a home kitchen" line quoted for Ontario, it came from somewhere else.

One structural quirk is worth knowing before you book a stall. Selling at a farmers market where more than half the stalls are farmers selling their own produce takes your stall outside the provincial food premises rules altogether. Which market you choose genuinely changes which rules apply to you.

The label follows the federal rules: product name, ingredients, allergens, net quantity, your name with city and province, and a best before date. You do not need a Nutrition Facts table 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 Ontario

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.

  • Low-risk shelf-stable baking: cookies, bread, brownies and fudge
  • Jams, jellies and preserves
  • Other low-risk foods your local public health unit accepts

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 needing time or temperature control, unless your local public health unit permits it
  • Anything your local public health unit has not accepted as low risk
Up nextWhere you are allowed to sell it

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.

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 tell your local public health unit that you are operating, and they may inspect you like any other food premises.
  • Ontario prescribes no home kitchen notice, so there is no sentence to print.
  • A farmers market where more than half the stalls are farmers selling their own produce sits outside the provincial food premises rules altogether.
  • No permit number goes on the label, because there is no permit.
  • The label follows the federal rules, and no Nutrition Facts table is needed for food you made yourself and sell at a market, fair or stand.

What belongs on an Ontario label

Ontario Ministry of Health, 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 an Ontario label

Start this weekend

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

  1. Tell your local public health unit you are operating. That is the whole registration step here.
  2. Expect the possibility of inspection. You are a food premises like any other.
  3. Check the stall mix at your market. Over half farmers takes you outside the provincial rules.
  4. Do not print a home kitchen disclaimer. Ontario does not prescribe one.
  5. Build the label to the federal rules, and skip the Nutrition Facts table for your own market sales.

Nearby places

Nearby guides

Neighboring provinces and states look similar until the one difference that matters. Worth a read if you sell across a border, or if someone on the other side 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 Ontario 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. Ontario Ministry of Health 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.

Make the label Start my free week