How to start a packaged food 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 hazardousHigher-risk foodFood that bacteria can grow in, or produce toxins in, unless it is kept cold or hot — meat, fish, dairy, eggs, cut fruit, most cooked meals. The law calls it “potentially hazardous food”. It must come from an approved kitchen, never a home one.All terms in the glossary, 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

   Grease interceptor

   The CRD in Greater Victoria; your municipality elsewhere

   If you build your own kitchen

   A food business that sends fat, oil or grease down the drain needs a grease interceptorGrease interceptorA tank on a kitchen’s drain line that catches fats, oils and grease before they reach the sewer. Most food businesses on a municipal sewer need one, sized, installed and pumped out under the local sewer rules.All terms in the glossary — a tank that catches it before it blocks the sewer. In Greater Victoria the CRD’s bylaw requires one and wants its Waste Discharge Assessment Form before you choose it; Victoria wants the CRD’s answer before it issues your building permit. Nanaimo, Courtenay, Duncan and North Cowichan have their own bylaws requiring one. Food trucks are exempt.

   Cost:

   CRD fines reach $10,000 a day.

6. 6

   Food safety plan and sanitation plan

   You write them; Island Health approves them

   Two short written documents: a food safety plan, 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.

7. 7

   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.

8. 8

   pH or water-activity test from an accredited lab

   A commercial food-testing laboratory

   For acidified or shelf-stable products

   Proves a jam, pickle, salsa or other conditional food is lower-risk — usually pH 4.6 or below, or water activitypH and water activityTwo lab measurements that show whether a food keeps safely at room temperature. pH measures acidity (4.6 or below is acidic enough); water activity measures water available to bacteria (0.85 or below is dry enough).All terms in the glossary 0.85 or below; an uncooked fresh-tomato salsa needs pH 4.2 or below. Your market managerMarket 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 or Island Health can ask you to prove it; when Island Health requires a test, use a commercial lab. Your own meter is fine while you develop a recipe and for routine quality checks. Re-test when the recipe changes.

9. 9

   A process authority for canned low-acid foods

   A thermal-processing expert (process authority)

   For low-acid foods in sealed containers

   A low-acid food (pH above 4.6 and water activity above 0.85) sealed in a jar, can or pouch and sold at room temperature must be commercially sterileCommercially sterileHeat-processed in a sealed container so that nothing in it can grow at room temperature. A low-acid food in a sealed jar, can or pouch must be commercially sterile to sit on a shelf, and the process has to be set by a thermal-processing expert.All terms in the glossary, unless it is labelled and kept “Keep Refrigerated” or “Keep Frozen”. The heat process that gets it there must be set by someone expert in thermal processing — CFIA’s example is a process authority — and to sell it at a BC market, the guideline in force requires the process to be reviewed and accepted by a qualified process authority. Every container needs a code naming where and when it was sterilised. BCCDC points to the Association of Food and Drug Officials’ directory; there is no BC list.

10. 10

    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.

11. 11

    Nutrition Facts values and a best-before date

    You, checked against CFIA’s rules

    You are responsible for your label values. Health Canada says the Canadian Nutrient File is too generic for a Nutrition Facts table; calculate from your suppliers’ nutrition data, ideally checked by a lab, because CFIA tests labels by lab analysis — with a 20% tolerance for naturally occurring nutrients, and none for added vitamins and minerals. No law sets shelf lives — you decide the best-before date, and CFIA calls a shelf-life study the most effective way to do it.

12. 12

    Barcodes for stores

    GS1 Canada

    If you sell to stores or distributors

    No law requires a barcode, but many retailers, distributors and online marketplaces do. Every size, flavour or variant needs its own number.

    Cost:

    $26.25 a year for one barcode, $157.50 for ten, $525 for a hundred (by revenue band).

13. 13

    The Buy BC logo

    Government of British Columbia

    OptionalOptional: the Buy BC logo

    A free licence to put the Buy BC logo on your packaging: producers qualify with food 100% grown, caught or raised in BC, processors with at least 51% of processing costs in BC. Label designs are approved before printing, and the licence is the entry point to the province’s cost-shared marketing funding.

    Cost:

    Free.

14. 14

    A legal-for-trade scale, if you price by weight

    Measurement Canada

    If you sell by weight

    Only matters if you charge by weight — by the pound or kilo at the counter or market table. Then the scale must be a “legal for trade” model, the kind sold for retail use with a Measurement Canada approval number, rather than a kitchen scale, and a private service company checks it every five years. It sits level, faces the customer and is zeroed, and packaging isn’t charged. Food sold by the piece, or in packs that all weigh the same, doesn’t need one; neither does portioning a burger patty.

15. 15

    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.

16. 16

    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.

17. 17

    GST registration

    Canada Revenue Agency

    Snacks and candy are taxable

    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.

18. 18

    Safe Food for Canadians licence

    Canadian Food Inspection Agency

    Only if you sell to other provinces

    Needed to make, process, pack or label food that goes to another province, and to import food; a business that only exports needs one just to get a CFIA export certificate. Not needed for food made and sold only in BC, nor by a restaurant or caterer sending food straight to its customers.

    Time:

    Valid two years.

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