Fruit, vegetables & microgreens

Can I sell microgreens (live, in their growing medium) in BC?

Whole, uncut fruit and vegetables are lower-risk. Once they are cut, sprouted or juiced they need a fridge and become higher-risk — and that includes cut microgreens.

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.

Grown or raised on your farm

  • At a farmers’ market

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

    Yes, if

    It is on the guideline’s list of Lower-risk foodFood that keeps safely at room temperature because it is too dry, too sugary or too acidic for bacteria to grow — bread, cookies, most jams, hard candy. It is the only kind a home kitchen may make for sale, and only for a farmers’ market.All terms in the glossary.

    • Sold in person at a market with a Market managerThe person in charge of a farmers’ market. They apply to Island Health for the market, keep the list of vendors and their foods, and check each vendor follows the provincial guideline. Without one, home-made food can’t be sold there.All terms in the glossary.
    • PrepackagedSealed in its package before it reaches the customer, the way it will be sold. Prepackaged food must carry the federal food label.All terms in the glossary and labelled: the common name, net quantity, your name and address.

  • At a festival or event

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

    Yes, if

    Live microgreens still in their growing medium are whole fresh vegetables, and premises that sell only whole fresh produce are outside BC’s Food premisesIn BC law, any place where food for the public is sold, prepared, packaged, stored, served or transported — a restaurant, a food truck, a bakery, a warehouse. The Food Premises Regulation sets the rules for all of them, with a few exceptions.All terms in the glossary Regulation.

    • Uncut, still in the growing medium — cut microgreens need refrigeration and an approved facility.

  • From your door, shop or farm gate

    Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

    Yes, if

    Live microgreens still in their growing medium are whole fresh vegetables, and premises that sell only whole fresh produce are outside BC’s Food Premises Regulation.

    • Uncut, still in the growing medium — cut microgreens need refrigeration and an approved facility.

  • Online, with pickup or delivery

    Orders taken online, by message or by phone

    Yes, if

    Live microgreens still in their growing medium are whole fresh vegetables, and premises that sell only whole fresh produce are outside BC’s Food Premises Regulation.

    • Uncut, still in the growing medium — cut microgreens need refrigeration and an approved facility.

  • To shops, cafés & restaurants

    Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

    Ask first

    The market guideline covers selling this at a farmers’ market. How BC’s food rules apply to selling it anywhere else isn’t spelled out — ask Island Health.

  • To customers outside BC

    Shipping or selling across a provincial border

    Yes, if

    Fresh fruit and vegetables sent to another province come under federal produce rules — lighter on labels than made food, stricter on grades.

    • A Safe Food for Canadians licence (SFC licence)CFIA’s licence for making, processing, packing or labelling food that goes to another province, and for importing food. Food made and sold only in BC doesn’t need one.All terms in the glossary if you pack and label it in a facility; growing, harvesting, sorting and trimming need none.
    • Graded and labelled with the grade, in standard container sizes. Blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, cantaloupes, crabapples and field rhubarb need no grade.
    • Label: the common name, net quantity, your name and address, in English and French. No Nutrition Facts table, ingredient list or Durable life (best-before date)How long an unopened food keeps its quality when stored properly. Packaged food that keeps 90 days or less must show a best-before date.All terms in the glossary.
    • 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.
    • A written preventive control plan once your food sales pass $100,000.
The rules behind these answers

Sources

How it’s classified

In force — 2020 guideline

Lower-risk

Sources

Proposed — 2026 draft

Lower-risk, with conditions
  • Uncut, still in the growing medium.

Sources

More in fruit, vegetables & microgreens, or every food, A to Z.

Businesses that sell it

Farms & market gardensGrowing fruit, vegetables, grains or microgreens.

Last checked 9 October 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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