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 562 under the Health Protection and Promotion
Act.
Learn more, visit Foodland.com
These guides will help you deal with Ontario regulations, financing,
taxation, managing your business, advertising and much more:
