Can I sell raw poultry in BC?

Slaughtered at a licensed abattoir (government inspected)

• At a farmers’ market

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

  Yes, if

  Yes — frozen, pre-packed, and after Island Health has reviewed it. Raw meat is a higher-risk food, so the market guideline allows it only if it was cut and packed at an approved premises, stays frozen until the customer takes it, and is covered by a Letter of Confirmation. Want to sell it fresh (unfrozen)? Then your stall has to meet the full Food Premises Regulation — ask Island Health first.

  • Sold frozen and kept frozen from packing to sale (−18°C or colder in the 2026 draft); thawed product can’t be refrozen and sold at a later market.
  • Cut, processed and packed at an Island Health–approved premises; no cutting or repacking at the market.
  • Each package labelled with the processing plant, your contact details, the product name, the packing date and safe-handling and cooking instructions (the 2020 guideline also asks for “Keep frozen”).
  • A Letter of Confirmation from Island Health — apply at least 30 days before the market, with your licence and food safety plan; keep all three at your stall.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• At a festival or event

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

  Ask first

  Maybe — Island Health decides booth by booth. At fairs and festivals, food that needs refrigeration must come from an approved premises and be kept at 4°C or colder; a booth that only hands it over sealed, as packed, is a “product booth”, while cutting, cooking or offering samples needs a Temporary Food Service Permit. Ask Island Health before you book (event applications are due 14 days ahead) — or sell at a farmers’ market, where the rules are written down.

  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: events aren’t one of the Board’s four sales channels.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• From your door, shop or farm gate

  Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

  Yes, if

  Yes — from your farm, or your own shop anywhere in BC. Meat slaughtered at a licensed abattoir was inspected, so the meat rules put no limit on where in BC it’s sold; what Island Health regulates is the place you store and sell it. That place needs a food premises permit — your household freezer doesn’t qualify.

  • A food premises permit from Island Health for the place where you cut, store and sell the meat — the Ministry says every processing, cut-and-wrap and sales activity needs one — separate from your living quarters (not the household freezer).
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• Online, with pickup or delivery

  Orders taken online, by message or by phone

  Yes, if

  Yes — anywhere in BC, with pickup or delivery. Inspected meat can be sold throughout the province, and BC’s rules care how you store it and keep it cold on the way, not how the order came in. It can’t go to customers outside BC.

  • A food premises permit from Island Health for the place where you cut, store and sell the meat — the Ministry says every processing, cut-and-wrap and sales activity needs one — separate from your living quarters (not the household freezer).
  • Your food safety plan covers keeping it frozen, or at 4°C or colder, all the way to the customer.
  • Packages labelled with what it is, the net weight and your name and physical address, in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”, with a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less. Raw single-ingredient meat, poultry and fish need no Nutrition Facts table — ground meat and ground poultry do.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: the Board’s channels are your farm gate, farmers’ markets, independent butcher shops and independent restaurants — an order picked up at your farm fits; home delivery isn’t one of them.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• To shops, cafés & restaurants

  Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

  Yes, if

  Yes — to any shop, café or restaurant in BC. Food businesses must buy from approved sources, and the Food Premises Regulation names a licensed slaughter establishment as one. If the meat passes through your hands on the way, Island Health must approve where you store it and how you deliver it.

  • If you store or deliver it: a permit for that storage, and a food safety plan that keeps it cold in transit.
  • Packages labelled with what it is, the net weight and your name and physical address, in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”, with a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less. Raw single-ingredient meat, poultry and fish need no Nutrition Facts table — ground meat and ground poultry do.
  • Chicken: shops and restaurants may buy only from a grower with a permit or quota.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: independent butcher shops and independent restaurants only — not grocery chains, restaurant chains, wholesalers or other shops.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• To customers outside BC

  Shipping or selling across a provincial border

  No

  No. Abattoir, Farmgate Plus and Farmgate licences are all provincial, and federal law lets meat cross a provincial border only if the animal was slaughtered in a federally licensed plant. To sell to other provinces, have your animals slaughtered at a CFIA-licensed establishment.

Slaughtered under a Farmgate Plus licence

• At a farmers’ market

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

  Yes, if

  Yes — at any farmers’ market in BC, frozen and pre-packed. Farmgate Plus meat isn’t inspected at slaughter, so every package says “Not Government Inspected”, but the licence puts no limit on where in BC it’s sold. The market guideline’s raw-meat conditions apply on top.

  • Sold frozen and kept frozen from packing to sale (−18°C or colder in the 2026 draft); thawed product can’t be refrozen and sold at a later market.
  • Cut, processed and packed at an Island Health–approved premises; no cutting or repacking at the market.
  • Each package labelled with the processing plant, your contact details, the product name, the packing date and safe-handling and cooking instructions (the 2020 guideline also asks for “Keep frozen”).
  • A Letter of Confirmation from Island Health — apply at least 30 days before the market, with your licence and food safety plan; keep all three at your stall.
  • Packages carry the slaughter establishment’s ID number and the words “Not Government Inspected”.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• At a festival or event

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

  Ask first

  Maybe — Island Health decides booth by booth. At fairs and festivals, food that needs refrigeration must come from an approved premises and be kept at 4°C or colder; a booth that only hands it over sealed, as packed, is a “product booth”, while cutting, cooking or offering samples needs a Temporary Food Service Permit. Ask Island Health before you book (event applications are due 14 days ahead) — or sell at a farmers’ market, where the rules are written down.

  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: events aren’t one of the Board’s four sales channels.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• From your door, shop or farm gate

  Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

  Yes, if

  Yes — from your farm, or a shop anywhere in BC. The licence lets you sell straight to customers across the province, as long as every package is labelled “Not Government Inspected”. Island Health must approve the place where the meat is cut, stored and sold.

  • A food premises permit from Island Health for the place where you cut, store and sell the meat — the Ministry says every processing, cut-and-wrap and sales activity needs one — separate from your living quarters (not the household freezer).
  • Packages carry the slaughter establishment’s ID number and the words “Not Government Inspected”.
  • Selling a whole, half or quarter animal: give the buyer, in writing, your slaughter establishment’s name, address and ID number, and the carcass’s net weight.
  • No more than 25 animal units (11,350 kg live weight) a year, custom slaughter included.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• Online, with pickup or delivery

  Orders taken online, by message or by phone

  Yes, if

  Yes — pickup, delivery or shipping anywhere in BC. The Ministry’s own FAQ says a Farmgate Plus holder may “ship directly to a customer within BC”. The meat can’t go to customers outside BC.

  • A food premises permit from Island Health for the place where you cut, store and sell the meat — the Ministry says every processing, cut-and-wrap and sales activity needs one — separate from your living quarters (not the household freezer).
  • Packages carry the slaughter establishment’s ID number and the words “Not Government Inspected”.
  • Selling a whole, half or quarter animal: give the buyer, in writing, your slaughter establishment’s name, address and ID number, and the carcass’s net weight.
  • Your food safety plan covers keeping it frozen, or at 4°C or colder, all the way to the customer.
  • Packages labelled with what it is, the net weight and your name and physical address, in English and French unless it qualifies as “local food”, with a best-before date if it keeps 90 days or less. Raw single-ingredient meat, poultry and fish need no Nutrition Facts table — ground meat and ground poultry do.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: the Board’s channels are your farm gate, farmers’ markets, independent butcher shops and independent restaurants — an order picked up at your farm fits; home delivery isn’t one of them.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• To shops, cafés & restaurants

  Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

  Yes, if

  Yes — to any shop, café or restaurant in BC; there’s no regional-district limit and no limit on the kind of business. The 2021 rules dropped the old Class D area limit and the old Class E ban on selling to businesses, even for licences carried over from those classes. The business must pass the “Not Government Inspected” notice on to its own customers.

  • Packages carry the slaughter establishment’s ID number and the words “Not Government Inspected”.
  • The buyer keeps your ID number and “Not Government Inspected” on packages it resells, and tells diners in writing (a menu note or sign) when the meat is served unpackaged.
  • If you store or deliver it, your own permit covers that.
  • Chicken: shops and restaurants may buy only from a grower with a permit or quota.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: independent butcher shops and independent restaurants only — not grocery chains, restaurant chains, wholesalers or other shops.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• To customers outside BC

  Shipping or selling across a provincial border

  No

  No. Abattoir, Farmgate Plus and Farmgate licences are all provincial, and federal law lets meat cross a provincial border only if the animal was slaughtered in a federally licensed plant. To sell to other provinces, have your animals slaughtered at a CFIA-licensed establishment.

Slaughtered under a Farmgate licence

• At a farmers’ market

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

  Yes, if

  Yes — but only at a market near your farm. The regulation lets Farmgate meat be sold at a market in your own regional district, or at one within 50 km of your slaughter site even if it’s in the next district, and only to people buying for themselves. For markets farther away you’d need Farmgate Plus or an abattoir.

  • The market is in your own regional district, or within 50 km of your slaughter establishment.
  • Sold to people buying for themselves.
  • Sold frozen and kept frozen from packing to sale (−18°C or colder in the 2026 draft); thawed product can’t be refrozen and sold at a later market.
  • Cut, processed and packed at an Island Health–approved premises; no cutting or repacking at the market.
  • Each package labelled with the processing plant, your contact details, the product name, the packing date and safe-handling and cooking instructions (the 2020 guideline also asks for “Keep frozen”).
  • A Letter of Confirmation from Island Health — apply at least 30 days before the market, with your licence and food safety plan; keep all three at your stall.
  • Packages carry your establishment’s ID number and “Not Government Inspected; For sale only in the regional district of [your district], or at a temporary food market within 50 km of the slaughter establishment. Not for resale”.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• At a festival or event

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

  Ask first

  Possibly, if the event is in your regional district or within 50 km of your slaughter site. The regulation lets Farmgate meat be sold at a “temporary food market” and defines that to include a stall at a public or charitable event, not only a farmers’ market — but the Ministry’s own summaries mention farmers’ markets only. Confirm with the Meat Inspection Program (bcmeatinspection@gov.bc.ca), and expect Island Health’s event rules to apply to your booth.

  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: events aren’t one of the Board’s four sales channels.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• From your door, shop or farm gate

  Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

  Yes, if

  Yes — but only on the farm where the animals were slaughtered. The regulation allows Farmgate sales only from a permitted shop on the same property as your slaughter site (plus nearby markets), so a stand or store anywhere else doesn’t count. Each sale must be to someone buying for themselves.

  • Sold from a permitted food premises on the same property as your slaughter establishment.
  • Never to a business that resells it.
  • Packages carry your establishment’s ID number and “Not Government Inspected; For sale only in the regional district of [your district], or at a temporary food market within 50 km of the slaughter establishment. Not for resale”.
  • Selling a whole, half or quarter animal: give the buyer, in writing, your slaughter establishment’s name, address and ID number, and the carcass’s net weight.
  • No more than 5 animal units (2,268 kg live weight) a year, your own animals only.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey: a BC Turkey Marketing Board Direct Vendor licence ($100, up to 300 poults a year); fewer than 50 birds is for your own table only.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• Online, with pickup or delivery

  Orders taken online, by message or by phone

  Yes, if

  Yes, if the customer picks up at your farm — but no delivery or shipping. What the regulation controls is where the sale happens, not how the order arrives, and a pickup at your permitted farm shop is a sale made there. The Ministry’s summary of this licence says sales are “at farmgate or farmers markets only”, so don’t deliver unless the Meat Inspection Program confirms it in writing.

  • Collected at your permitted on-farm premises.
  • No delivery, courier or shipping — and never outside your regional district.
  • You stay the seller: a website or app may take the order, but no business may buy and resell it.
  • Packages carry your establishment’s ID number and “Not Government Inspected; For sale only in the regional district of [your district], or at a temporary food market within 50 km of the slaughter establishment. Not for resale”.
  • Chicken: a BC Chicken Marketing Board small-lot permit ($20 a year, up to 2,000 birds a year, one per site) or quota. The 200-bird exemption is only for birds eaten on your own farm, and spent laying hens aren’t covered by the Chicken Board.
  • Turkey from a Direct Vendor: the Board’s channels are your farm gate, farmers’ markets, independent butcher shops and independent restaurants — an order picked up at your farm fits; home delivery isn’t one of them.
  • Ducks, geese and other birds: the chicken and turkey boards’ orders don’t cover them — only the slaughter licence applies.

• To shops, cafés & restaurants

  Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

  No

  No. Farmgate meat may go only to people buying it for themselves, and the regulation forbids anyone to resell it — so shops and restaurants can’t buy it. To supply businesses, have your animals slaughtered at a Farmgate Plus establishment or an abattoir, or move up to a Farmgate Plus licence.

• To customers outside BC

  Shipping or selling across a provincial border

  No

  No. Abattoir, Farmgate Plus and Farmgate licences are all provincial, and federal law lets meat cross a provincial border only if the animal was slaughtered in a federally licensed plant. To sell to other provinces, have your animals slaughtered at a CFIA-licensed establishment.

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