Selling home baking in Ontario: what's legal and what's not

Last updated 16 August 2026 · Informational only, not legal or food-safety advice. Verify anything important with your local public health unit.

What counts as low-risk

The rule turns on whether a food needs time and temperature control to stay safe, the same test other provinces use. Multiple public health units publish very similar lists. Foods that typically qualify:

• breads and buns without meat or cream fillings
• most baked goods without custard
• cakes, brownies, muffins, and cookies, as long as any icing doesn't need refrigeration
• granola, nuts, and trail mix
• chocolate, hard candies, fudge, and brittle
• jams, preserves, and pickles that meet the required acidity
• coffee beans and tea leaves

What doesn't qualify: anything that needs refrigeration to stay safe. Cream cheese or whipped icing, custard and cream fillings, cheesecake, meat pies, curries, and pasta dishes all fall into the higher-risk category and generally need an inspected commercial kitchen, not a home one.

One thing worth knowing before you assume the list is identical everywhere: a couple of health units publish narrower lists than others, excluding things like egg-based ingredients that most units allow once baked through. Since this is enforced locally, your own health unit's list is the one that actually governs your kitchen, not the provincial guide in general terms.

Where you can sell it

The regulation is written around selling directly to the person eating it, from your home, online, or through a channel like an Instagram order form. Farmers' markets are generally fine too, though several health units require a separate Temporary Food Establishment Permit for market stalls on top of your home registration, so don't assume one covers the other.

What the low-risk exemption doesn't cover is wholesale, supplying a cafe, or anything sold on to a restaurant for resale. That's a different category and generally needs an approved commercial facility, the same distinction Alberta and most provinces draw.

Getting registered

This is the step that catches people off guard: you need to contact your local public health unit before you start selling, not after. Ontario has 34 public health units and they don't all run the process identically. Ottawa Public Health, for example, asks for at least 14 days' notice before you open, given to their Business Information Officer. Some units go further and schedule an actual kitchen visit, in Algoma's case an inspector typically reaches out within one to five business days of your application to arrange it.

The pattern across units is consistent even where the details aren't: expect to fill out a form, expect your kitchen to meet the requirements below, and expect that a low-risk exemption means less paperwork, not no contact with your health unit at all.

What your kitchen needs

Expect requirements along these lines, drawn from what several health units publish:

• a sink with hot and cold running water, liquid soap, and paper towels
• smooth, non-absorbent, easy-to-clean counters and surfaces
• adequate lighting and ventilation, with light fixtures protected from breakage
• food storage kept separate and labelled, away from your household's own groceries
• a pet-free food preparation area, with a way to keep animals out while you work

What the 2020 exemption actually changed

On January 1, 2020, Ontario amended O. Reg. 493/17 to exempt low-risk home-based food businesses from three specific requirements that apply to a normal commercial kitchen:

• a designated handwashing station separate from your main sink
• commercial dishwashing equipment
• certified food handler training (still strongly recommended, just not mandatory)

That's the whole exemption. It did not remove home-based businesses from the Health Protection and Promotion Act, and it did not remove your local health unit's authority to inspect. The Ministry of Health's own guide is explicit that home-based food businesses remain subject to periodic inspection, and some units, Ottawa among them, publish home-based inspection results publicly.

Labels

Here's the other place Ontario differs from most of the guides on this site: because the kitchen is genuinely subject to inspection, there's no "prepared in an uninspected home kitchen" disclaimer to print, and inventing one would be actively misleading. Your label still needs the standard federal elements under CFIA and Health Canada rules: the common name of the product, a full ingredient list with priority allergens called out, net quantity, your name and address, and a date marking. Check with your own health unit if you're not sure which date wording they expect.

Revenue caps and business licensing

Ontario doesn't cap how much a home-based food business can earn. The number that does matter is the federal one: GST/HST registration becomes mandatory once you pass $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters, a tax rule that applies everywhere in Canada, not a food-safety rule specific to bakers.

A municipal business licence is a separate question from health registration, and so is zoning. Home-based business rules differ by city and township, so a call to your municipality is worth the same afternoon you spend confirming things with your health unit.

Where to verify all of this

Rules change and health units update their own pages. Before you rely on any of it:

• The Ministry of Health's guide to starting a home-based food business is the provincial source everything above is drawn from.
• Ottawa Public Health's low-risk home-based food business page is one example of how a health unit applies the provincial rule.
• Find your own public health unit and ask them directly. Their answer is the one that governs your kitchen.