Baked goods

Can I sell cookies in BC?

Plain baked goods keep safely at room temperature, so BC lets you bake them at home for a farmers’ market. Milk, butter and eggs are fine baked into a dough or batter. A moist filling or topping — cream, custard, cheese, meat, pumpkin, meringue — needs a fridge, and that makes the whole item higher-risk. The 2026 draft also rules out animal fats like lard, and fresh fruit added after baking.

A new guideline would change this

Changing: BC’s new market guideline (2026 draft, expected final this fall) lists it as lower-risk, with conditions. Today’s 2020 guideline has it as lower-risk.

Made in your home kitchen

  • At a farmers’ market

    A market with a market manager — farmers’ markets, Christmas markets, craft fairs

    Yes

    It is a lower-risk food, which BC lets you make at home and sell at a farmers’ market without applying to the health authority.

    • Sold in person at a market that has a market manager.
    • A sign at your table says the food was made in a kitchen that is not inspected by a health authority.
    • Packaged and labelled: the food’s common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, and a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less (doughnuts excepted). French is also needed unless you sell only in your own municipality and the ones next to it. A Nutrition Facts table isn’t needed while you sell it only at markets yourself and make no nutrition or health claim.

  • At a festival or event

    Fairs, festivals, sports events, fundraisers — anything that is not a market

    No

    Island Health does not allow home-prepared food at fairs, festivals or other events; food prepared ahead must come from an approved kitchen. Markets with a market manager — farmers’ markets, craft and Christmas markets — are the exception.

  • From your door, shop or farm gate

    Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

    No

    The home-kitchen allowance covers farmers’ markets only. The guideline says it “does not mean you can sell this food from home”.

  • Online, with pickup or delivery

    Orders taken online, by message or by phone

    No

    The home-kitchen allowance covers selling at a farmers’ market, not online orders or delivery. Selling any other way needs a kitchen approved by the health authority, and BC requires that kitchen to be separate from your living quarters. Make it in a kitchen approved by Island Health — your own, or rented time in a shared kitchen with your own approval. Taking an order ahead that the customer collects at your market stall isn’t addressed by the guideline — ask your market manager.

  • To shops, cafés & restaurants

    Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

    No

    The home-kitchen allowance covers farmers’ markets only; the guideline says it “does not automatically confer approval for sale at retail/commercial food stores”. Selling to a shop, café or restaurant needs a kitchen approved by the health authority, and a home kitchen can’t be one.

  • To customers outside BC

    Shipping or selling across a provincial border

    No

    Food made in a home kitchen may only be sold at farmers’ markets in BC.

The rules behind these answers

Sources

Made in a kitchen approved by Island Health

  • At a farmers’ market

    A market with a market manager — farmers’ markets, Christmas markets, craft fairs

    Yes, if

    Lower-risk food from an approved kitchen can be sold at a farmers’ market without applying to the health authority.

    • Packaged and labelled: the food’s common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, and a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less (doughnuts excepted). French is also needed unless you sell only in your own municipality and the ones next to it. A Nutrition Facts table isn’t needed while you sell it only at markets yourself and make no nutrition or health claim.

  • At a festival or event

    Fairs, festivals, sports events, fundraisers — anything that is not a market

    Yes, if

    Sealed, packaged food from an approved kitchen needs no permit at an event — Island Health calls that a product booth. Serving, sampling or portioning it there does.

    • Sold prepackaged and labelled, with no open food or samples. The event coordinator lists your booth and confirms your kitchen’s approval; some coordinators still ask every vendor for Island Health’s application form.
    • Serving, sampling or portioning at the event needs a Temporary Food Service Permit from Island Health — apply at least 14 days ahead; it covers up to 14 days a year.
    • Packaged food carries the federal label: its common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less, a Nutrition Facts table, and a front-of-pack “High in” symbol if it is high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium. French is also needed unless it is sold only in your own municipality and the ones next to it.

  • From your door, shop or farm gate

    Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

    Yes, if

    An approved kitchen can sell from its own premises.

    • Your kitchen holds Island Health’s approval to operate — or an operating permit, if you serve food for immediate eating (restaurant, take-out, catering).
    • Your food safety plan and sanitation plan, approved by Island Health, cover the foods you sell and how you store and transport them.
    • You sell from the approved premises. Selling from your home instead is limited to prepackaged food that doesn’t need refrigeration.
    • Packaged food carries a label: its common name, net quantity, your name and address, and, if it keeps 90 days or less, the packing date and how long it keeps. Food made and packed where you sell it needs no Nutrition Facts table.

  • Online, with pickup or delivery

    Orders taken online, by message or by phone

    Yes, if

    An approved kitchen can sell online and deliver — BC’s rules cover how food is handled, stored and transported, not which way the order arrives.

    • Your kitchen holds Island Health’s approval to operate — or an operating permit, if you serve food for immediate eating (restaurant, take-out, catering).
    • Your food safety plan and sanitation plan, approved by Island Health, cover the foods you sell and how you store and transport them.
    • Packaged food carries the federal label: its common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less, a Nutrition Facts table, and a front-of-pack “High in” symbol if it is high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium. French is also needed unless it is sold only in your own municipality and the ones next to it.
    • CFIA hasn’t said how the one-language rule for local food applies to deliveries — check before relying on it.

  • To shops, cafés & restaurants

    Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

    Yes, if

    Shops and restaurants may buy from an approved kitchen.

    • Your kitchen holds Island Health’s approval to operate.
    • Packaged food carries the federal label: its common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less, a Nutrition Facts table, and a front-of-pack “High in” symbol if it is high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium. French is also needed unless it is sold only in your own municipality and the ones next to it.
    • Food you sell to a café or restaurant to cook with or serve needs no Nutrition Facts table.

  • To customers outside BC

    Shipping or selling across a provincial border

    Yes, if

    Food made or packed in BC for customers in another province comes under federal rules as well as BC’s.

    • A Safe Food for Canadians licence from CFIA — not needed by a restaurant, caterer or similar business sending food straight to its customers. For a bakery or maker shipping to a customer, CFIA’s own guidance is unclear; use its licensing tool or ask CFIA.
    • Packaged food carries the full federal label in English and French: its common name, ingredients and allergens, net quantity, your name and a physical address, a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less, a Nutrition Facts table, and a front-of-pack “High in” symbol where it applies.
    • Tax: you must register for GST/HST once your taxable sales (zero-rated groceries included) pass $30,000 over four quarters. A registered seller charges the delivery province’s rate — 13% HST in Ontario, for example — on taxable foods: candy, chocolate, chips and snacks, and sweet baked goods sold in packs of fewer than six. Most groceries (bread, jam, flour, produce) are zero-rated everywhere.
The rules behind these answers

Sources

How it’s classified

In force — 2020 guideline

Lower-risk

Sources

Proposed — 2026 draft

Lower-risk, with conditions
  • Dairy and egg only baked into the dough, batter or crust; only lower-risk glazes and toppings, such as sugar icing; nothing fresh added after baking; no meat, cheese or other higher-risk filling or topping.
  • No lard or other animal fat (butter is fine).

Sources

More in baked goods, or every food, A to Z.

Businesses that sell it

BakeriesA commercial bakery, with or without a counter.Caterers & personal chefsCooking for events, offices or private clients.

Last checked 26 September 2026. We check this guide regularly against Island Health, provincial and municipal sources, but regulations and laws change often and we can’t guarantee it is complete or current. Confirm with Island Health and your municipality before you apply, build or sell.

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