Home kitchen label rules in Ontario

Last checked 5 August 2026 · Informational only, not legal or food-safety advice. Verify anything important with your local public health unit before you print a run of labels.

What goes on the label

1. The product name, in words a customer would use.
2. Every ingredient, heaviest first.
3. The major allergens, called out separately from the ingredient list.
4. Who made it: your name or your business name.
5. How to reach you.
6. The date it was made.

Ontario asks for no "not inspected" line

The kitchen is inspected before any sale, so there is nothing to disclaim. Everything else above still applies.

Who actually enforces this

Ontario sets the rules centrally but they are enforced locally, so the answer that counts is your own office's rather than the province's. Find the office nearest you.

The detail

Ontario is the opposite of a cottage food state and printing a not-inspected line here would be actively WRONG. The Ministry of Health's 'A Guide to Starting a Home-based Food Business' (November 2021) says plainly: "All food premises, including home-based food businesses, are subject to the requirements of the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA), the Food Premises Regulation and periodic inspection by inspectors from their local public health unit." So the kitchen IS inspected. The January 1, 2020 changes to O. Reg. 493/17 only exempt low-risk home-based businesses from three things: specified handwashing stations, commercial dishwashing requirements, and food handler training certification. Step 2 of the guide requires the operator to contact their local public health unit to register as a new food operator before starting. Ottawa Public Health, for example, publishes home-based food business inspection results publicly within one day. Labelling therefore falls to federal CFIA and Health Canada rules (common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, dealer name and address, date markings), not to a provincial disclaimer.

Make one

Free, nothing saved, no account. It leaves the inspection line off, as Ontario asks, and prints a sheet.

What it is What is in it, heaviest first Make the labels

Where to verify all of this

Rules change, and this page can lag behind them. Before you rely on any of it:

• The rule itself
• The office nearest you