Starting a food selling business
Ontario's food sellers give consumers the opportunity to enjoy their food purchases in a variety of locations. Food selling is commonly organized into two groups - food retail and foodservice. While food stores tend to sell pre-packaged food and foodservice outlets tend to be locations where food is served as a meal, these separations are blurring.
Restaurants now sell consumers their favourite sauces and dressings from beside the cash register and retail stores sell prepared meals from a "hot & fresh" counter.
Different rules apply to these different retail activities. So when you start a food selling business, it's important to see which rules apply to you.
For food retailers: Ontario is home to over 12,000 food retailers. This includes:
- convenience stores
- farm markets
- roadside stands
- grocery stores
- warehouse clubs
- drugstores selling food items
- websites.
For food service companies and Broader Public Service establishments: Ontario is home to over 30,000 foodservice outlets. This includes:
- bakeries
- caterers (including those who run outlets such as employee cafeterias)
- cafés
- foodservice
- vending trucks and chip trucks
- home delivery services
- Broader Public Service (hospitals, schools, prisons).
Both types of outlets are governed by food safety rules contained in Ontario's Food Premises Regulation 493/17 under the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
These guides will help you deal with Ontario regulations, financing, taxation, managing your business, advertising and much more:
For more information:
Toll Free: 1-877-424-1300
E-mail: ag.info.omafra@ontario.ca