Mar 25, 2026
If you have been thinking about turning your famous sourdough starter or custom chocolate bars into a legitimate side hustle, the City of Ottawa may be about to make your life a lot easier.
For years, the barrier to entry for a small home-based food business included a $233 annual licensing fee and a fair bit of paperwork. But according to a new staff report heading to the emergency preparedness and protective services committee on March 23, that could soon be a thing of the past.
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City staff are recommending a comprehensive overhaul of the Food Premises Licensing Bylaw. The most exciting part for the "cottage industry" crowd is a proposal to exempt home-based businesses selling "low risk" foods from needing a municipal business license altogether (1).
What counts as low risk
You may be wondering what exactly the city considers safe enough to bypass the licensing office. According to the report, "low-risk foods include breads and buns without meat or cream fillings; most baked goods without custards; chocolate, fudge, toffee, brittles and hard candies; granola, trail mix, nuts seeds; cakes, brownies, muffins and cookies that do not require refrigeration; and coffee beans and tea leaves."
This move is not just about being friendly to bakers. It is about catching up with provincial standards. In 2020, the Ontario government updated the Food Premises Regulation to allow home-based sales of these specific items, provided they meet provincial health standards.
As city staff noted in the report, "This approach balances public health protection with economic opportunity, while ensuring that food safety standards are upheld through targeted enforcement and oversight."
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The fine print for home entrepreneurs
Before you fire up the oven, there are still rules to follow. While you may save the $233 licensing fee, you’re still regulated under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. You also have a legal obligation to notify Ottawa Public Health before you start selling to the public.
The city’s new Zoning Bylaw is also being aligned to ensure that if you are only preparing these low-risk items, you are in the clear to operate out of your primary residence.
Streamlining the process
For those who still need a license, the city is finally moving into the digital age. A new online licensing solution is expected to launch this fall. Staff describe it as a "one-stop-shop" that will allow business owners to handle applications and renewals without trekking down to a municipal office.
The report suggests that while the current system has worked since its last major review in 2002, these updates are necessary to "account for shared commercial kitchens" and "address emerging business areas."
If approved, these changes represent a significant shift in how Ottawa supports small-scale food entrepreneurs, making it cheaper and simpler to start a business right from your own kitchen counter.
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
