How to start a kombucha, juice or coffee business on Vancouver Island

1. 1

   Your own approval in a shared or rented kitchen

   Island Health

   If you rent a kitchen

   Renting time in someone else’s approved kitchenApproved kitchenA kitchen Island Health has approved to make food for sale: its plans were approved before it was built, and it holds an operating permit or approval. A home kitchen is not one, unless it is a separate kitchen that went through the same approval.All terms in the glossary doesn’t put you under their permit — a permit can’t be transferred. Island Health tells kitchen owners who rent to others that every renter must contact it “for necessary approval”. It publishes no separate process for renters, so call your local office before you start.

2. 2

   Zoning for a shop, café or kitchen

   Your municipality

   If you set up your own kitchen

   Before you sign a lease, check that the zoningZoningThe municipal rules that say what each property may be used for. A café, a bakery or a food processor needs a property zoned for that use before any permit is worth applying for — check it before you sign a lease.All terms in the glossary at that address allows your use. Cities split food businesses into separate uses — restaurant, take-out, drive-through, food processing, retail — and a use a zone doesn’t list is not allowed there; making food with no counter is often an industrial use. Victoria’s 2018 zoning bylaw bans drive-throughs in every zone it covers.

   Cost:

   Looking it up is free. A written confirmation costs $80 to $210 where a municipality sells one — see the table on this page.

3. 3

   Island Health plan approval

   Island Health

   If you build your own kitchen

   Before you build, renovate or fit out a restaurant, café, bakery, food processor, commissary, food truck or food shop, Island Health must approve your floor plan and equipment. You send the plans first, build only once they are approved, and an inspector checks the finished space before you open. A shop selling only whole fresh produce, or prepackagedPrepackagedSealed 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 foods that aren’t potentially hazardous, is exempt.

4. 4

   Building permit for a renovation or change of use

   Your municipality

   If you build your own kitchen

   Altering a commercial space — or only changing its use, say a shop becoming a café — needs a building permit from your municipality, even with no construction; painting and other cosmetic work don’t. You can’t open until the building inspector’s final inspection and occupancy permit. A change of use can bring seismic, fire-separation, accessibility and sprinkler upgrades, and most municipalities want Island Health’s approved plans with it.

   Cost:

   Set by each municipality, from a percentage of the construction value to a fee per $1,000 — see the table on this page. Starting work without a permit usually doubles it.

   Time:

   Most municipalities publish no processing time. Victoria expects four to six months for extensive changes; Nanaimo targets 8 weeks for a tenant improvement.

5. 5

   Food safety plan and sanitation plan

   You write them; Island Health approves them

   Two short written documents: a food safety planFood safety planYour written account of where food could become unsafe in your kitchen and how you prevent it — cooking and cooling temperatures, for example, and what you do when one is missed. BC requires one from every food premises, alongside a sanitation plan.All terms in the glossary, saying how you keep each food safe and what you do when something goes wrong, and a sanitation planSanitation planYour written routine for cleaning and sanitizing, pest control and garbage: what is cleaned, how, how often and with what. BC requires one from every food premises, alongside a food safety plan.All terms in the glossary, saying how you clean and sanitise. Every restaurant, caterer, food processor and kitchen needs both, and Island Health approves them before it issues your permit or approval.

6. 6

   Approval to operate

   Island Health

   What Island Health gives a food premisesFood 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 that doesn’t serve food to eat on the spot — a food processor, a bakery with no retail counter, a food shop, a commissary — instead of an operating permitOperating permitIsland Health’s permit to run a restaurant, café, food truck or other food service business. You get it after the pre-opening inspection, pay its fee each year, and post it where customers can see it.All terms in the glossary. It follows the same plan approvalPlan approvalIsland Health’s review of your floor plan, equipment and menu before you build or renovate a food premises. Nothing gets built until it is approved, and the pre-opening inspection checks you built what was approved.All terms in the glossary and pre-opening inspection, and must be in place before you open.

   Cost:

   No yearly fee: the Health Act Fees Regulation charges only operating permits.

7. 7

   Keeping kombucha and other ferments at or under 1% alcohol

   Island Health (your food safety plan); LCRB above 1%

   For kombucha, water kefir and other fermented drinks

   In BC a drink is liquor once it holds more than 1% alcohol, and making liquor needs a manufacturer licence. Kombucha — and, by the same chemistry, water kefir and ginger beer — can keep fermenting in the bottle; a BC study found 70% of BC kombucha makers had products above 1%. Your food safety plan should show how you keep it under the line, including testing at bottling and at the end of shelf life; at 1.1% or more, federal rules also require the alcohol percentage on the label.

8. 8

   Federal food labels

   CFIA and Health Canada rules

   Prepackaged food needs a common name, net quantity, ingredients and allergens, your name and a physical address (a website doesn’t count), a best-before dateDurable 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 if it keeps 90 days or less, a lot code or other identifier that tells batches apart, a Nutrition Facts table, a front-of-pack “High in” symbol if it is high in saturated fat, sugars or sodium, and English and French — English-only is allowed for food sold only in the municipality where it’s made and its neighbours. Selling only at markets yourself removes the Nutrition Facts table and the front-of-pack symbol, unless the label makes a nutrition claim. There is no exemption for online sales, and a product may not be advertised online without a proper label.

9. 9

   Deposits on drinks in containers

   BC Recycling Regulation (Encorp / Return-It)

   For drinks sold in containers

   Anyone selling a drink in a sealed container must collect a deposit of at least 10¢ per container, shown on the receipt — unless it is drunk on your premises. A business that makes a drink in BC is its “producer” and must be covered by an approved stewardship plan: for non-alcoholic drinks, register with Encorp (Return-It) and pay its recycling fee per container. There is no small-producer exemption.

   Cost:

   2026 recycling fees: plastic 7¢, glass 13¢, aluminum 0¢ per container, on top of the 10¢ deposit the customer pays.

10. 10

    BC PST registration

    BC Ministry of Finance

    Kombucha and other sweetened fizzy drinks

    Food, candy included, is exempt from PST. Sweetened carbonated drinks — kombucha included — are taxed at 7%, and liquor at 10%. Sell only exempt food and you don’t register; sell soda beverages and you do, unless you are a small seller with $10,000 or less in sales and no shop.

11. 11

    GST registration

    Canada Revenue Agency

    Most groceries are zero-rated, but candy, snacks, carbonated drinks, hot food, catering and sweet baked goods sold in packs of fewer than six are taxable at 5%. You must register once your sales pass $30,000 in a quarter or over four quarters — and zero-rated grocery sales count toward it.

12. 12

    Municipal business licence

    Your municipality

    Every municipality on the Island requires a business licenceBusiness licenceYour municipality’s permission to do business there, renewed each year in most towns. It is separate from Island Health’s permits and from zoning: you usually need all three.All terms in the glossary — for a restaurant, café, shop or kitchen, for a business run from home, and for a food truck. For a storefront it is usually $100 to $200 a year, set by floor area; Nanaimo charges $165, Campbell River $150, and Courtenay’s fees rise in 2027. It is normally the last approval you get: most municipalities issue it only once zoning, building, fire and Island Health have signed off, and you can’t open before it’s issued.

13. 13

    Registering your business name

    BC Registries

    Trading under your own name needs no registration. Any other name means reserving it and registering within 3 months of first using it; a partnership registers within 3 months of forming. Incorporating is the alternative, and only a corporation, co-op or society gets exclusive use of its name.

    Cost:

    Name request $30 (reserved 56 days); sole proprietorship or partnership registration $40; incorporation $350, then a $43.39 annual report.

What you can sell

Rules where you are

Business licences, zoning and home-business rules differ by municipality.

• City of Victoria
• District of Saanich
• City of Langford
• Township of Esquimalt
• District of Oak Bay
• City of Colwood
• Town of Sidney
• City of Nanaimo
• City of Duncan
• Municipality of North Cowichan
• City of Courtenay
• City of Campbell River