Starting a home food business in Ontario: tiffins, meal prep and the rules
Ontario allows home-based food businesses, but the rules for a tiffin service are much stricter than for a home baker. Here's what the province asks, and what Toronto, Peel, York, Ottawa and Hamilton add.
· 2 min read
What Ontario allows
Ontario's Food Premises Regulation allows home kitchens to be used for food businesses. The province's own guide, A guide to starting a home-based food business, walks through it.
The key split is low-risk food. Home businesses that make only low-risk foods (ones that don't need refrigeration, like cookies and bread) are exempt from some requirements, such as certain handwashing sink rules. A tiffin service makes cooked meals, which are not low-risk, so the full rules apply.
Step 1: notify your public health unit
Every home-based food business in Ontario must tell its local public health unit before opening. An inspector then contacts you, explains the requirements and may inspect your kitchen. Inspection results are often posted online.
Step 2: meet the kitchen requirements
For higher-risk food, health units look for the same basics as any food premises. Peel Public Health, for example, lists:
- A 2- or 3-compartment sink, or a commercial dishwasher, to clean and sanitize dishes (a home dishwasher isn't accepted).
- A handwashing sink with liquid soap, paper towels, and hot and cold running water.
- Safe drinking water, and a sewage consultation if you're on a private septic system.
- All food from inspected or approved sources.
- Business food and equipment stored separately from your family's, and labelled.
- Food handler certification.
Step 3: check zoning and licensing with your city
Public health doesn't decide whether a business can run from your address. Your municipality does, through zoning, property standards, fire code and business licences. Peel says to contact your city before opening.
City by city
Toronto
Anyone opening a food premises in Toronto must notify the Medical Officer of Health first, and a home kitchen used for commercial food counts as a food premises. A Toronto Public Health inspector will then explain the requirements. See Starting a food business.
Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon (Peel Region)
Notify Peel Public Health before opening, expect inspections, and check with the City of Brampton, Mississauga or Caledon about zoning and licences. Peel's page lists the kitchen requirements above.
York Region (Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill)
York Region says home-based food businesses may use a home kitchen under the Food Premises Regulation and must be inspected by York Region Public Health.
Ottawa
Notify Ottawa Public Health at least 14 days before opening. Ottawa now allows low-risk home food businesses in residential zones, but businesses making medium- to high-risk food are not permitted in residentially zoned locations and must use commercially zoned, inspected premises. That rules out a home-kitchen tiffin service in residential Ottawa. See Ottawa Public Health.
Hamilton
Hamilton's public health inspectors check food premises under the same Ontario regulation. Contact Hamilton Public Health about a home kitchen before you start.
If your kitchen can't meet the rules
Rent time in a shared commercial kitchen. The GTA has several, and many community and religious centres rent their kitchens by the hour. See the options in home food business rules in Canada.
Then: GST/HST (HST is 13% in Ontario once you must register), food labels, and how to start a tiffin service in Canada.
Questions
Do I need a licence for a home-based food business in Ontario?
You must notify your local public health unit before you start, and you may be inspected. Your city may also need a business licence, and zoning must allow a home business at your address.
Can I sell tiffins from my home kitchen in Ontario?
Cooked meals are not low-risk, so your kitchen must meet the full Food Premises Regulation (for example, Peel lists a 2- or 3-compartment sink or commercial dishwasher, and a separate handwashing sink) and pass inspection. Some cities, like Ottawa, don't allow higher-risk home food businesses in residential zones.
What counts as a low-risk food in Ontario?
Foods that don't need time and temperature control, such as cookies, muffins, bread, brownies and trail mix. Home businesses making only these are exempt from some requirements.