Selling Food Across Provinces in 2026: What Changed, What Didn’t

A distributor in Ottawa with restaurants in Gatineau. One in Kenora with customers in Winnipeg. A Kelowna wholesaler delivering to Calgary. Each sells food across a provincial line, and that trade is under federal food rules. The past year changed a lot about trade between provinces and very little about food. Here is why, and a checklist. For your own business, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has the final word; we link to its pages throughout.

What changed in 2026

Two things, both aimed at goods in general:

• A mutual-recognition agreement. On 17 November 2025, all the provinces, the territories and the federal government signed the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement, led by British Columbia. Global News reported it was to take effect in December 2025: a good that can be lawfully sold in B.C. would no longer need more testing, certification or approvals to be sold elsewhere. The B.C. government said it covers thousands of products, “except for food.”
• A federal law. The Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act came into force on 1 January 2026. For goods moving between provinces, it says a good produced, used or distributed in line with a provincial or territorial requirement “is considered to meet any comparable federal requirement”.

Why food is not included

The regulations under that law list the exceptions. Section 3 says the rule does not apply to a federal requirement under the Safe Food for Canadians Act, nor under the laws behind supply management and collective marketing: the Agricultural Products Marketing Act, the Canadian Dairy Commission Act and the Farm Products Agencies Act.

The federal government’s own summary is plain: the Act “will not apply to food safety requirements for products under the Safe Food for Canadians Act.” It says industry, provinces and territories wanted the federal food system to stay the basis of food trade.

So for food, the question is the same as it was in 2025: what do the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) ask of a business that sends food to another province?

Do you need a licence?

Under the SFCR, a licence follows what you do to food, not what kind of business you are. CFIA’s guidance is direct: “you do not need a licence if your sole activity is to distribute food from one province to another.” Its guidance says the same of storing food, including in a cooler or freezer to keep its condition, and of transporting it.

Two things change that:

• What you do to the food. Cutting, deboning, packaging or labelling food for another province needs a licence. Labelling includes relabelling and over-stickering, and packaging includes moving bulk food from one container to another. Shrink-wrapping a pallet, or putting fully labelled packs into a shipping case for a restaurant or a store, does not.
• Where the food came from. CFIA adds that when you trade food across provincial borders, “you are responsible to make sure” it was manufactured, processed, treated, preserved, graded, packaged or labelled by a licence holder. Before you ship a product across the line, look up the business that made, packed or labelled it in CFIA’s public registry of Safe Food for Canadians licence holders.

Not needing a licence does not mean no rules. CFIA lists preventive controls, preventive control plans, traceability, packaging, and labelling, standards of identity and grades as SFCR requirements that may still apply to you.

Fresh produce: DRC membership

Produce has an extra rule. Under section 122 of the SFCR, selling, buying, receiving or sending fresh fruits or vegetables across a provincial line is prohibited unless you are a member in good standing of the Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC), or an exception applies. The exceptions include businesses that buy, sell or ship less than one metric ton of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, growers selling only what they grow, and sellers to consumers only who paid less than $100,000 for that produce in the last 12 months. Nuts, wild fruit and wild vegetables are outside the rule. DRC membership is not a licence, and some businesses need both.

Traceability: the records you keep

Section 90 of the SFCR applies to “any person who sends or conveys a food from one province to another” — so to you, licence or not. When you provide a food to someone, keep documents that show:

• the food’s common name, a lot code or other unique identifier, and the name and principal place of business of whoever made, prepared, stored, packaged or labelled it;
• one step back: who supplied it to you, their address, and the date;
• one step forward: who you provided it to, their address, and the date;
• if you made the food from other foods, what went into it and where each came from.

Keep them for two years, accessible in Canada. When CFIA asks for them, you have 24 hours — or a shorter or longer period it sets — and an electronic copy must come “in a single file and in plain text” that standard commercial software can open. The food must also carry or come with a label showing the first line above: the name, the lot code or identifier, and the business behind it.

The hard part is usually the lot code. An order records the customer, the address and the date. It does not, by itself, record which lot went into which order; that has to be written down when you receive and when you pack. CFIA’s traceability tool takes about five minutes and tells you which of these rules apply to you.

What is still moving

• Red meat from provincial plants. In July 2026 CFIA announced proposed, time-limited changes to the SFCR: a four-year exemption for low volumes of raw, single-ingredient red meat to move between provinces under provincial oversight, where slaughter capacity is short and both provinces agree. Comments closed on 26 August 2026. The consolidated regulations, current to 30 September 2026, do not include it, and we found no final version.
• Help for provincially licensed businesses. The national food security strategy commits $12 million over three years to give up to 4,000 provincially licensed food establishments hands-on guidance to meet federal requirements. CFIA runs a concierge service for small and medium-sized businesses that want to sell across provinces: one-on-one help to work out whether you need a licence and to prepare for one. If a supplier you would like to ship from holds only a provincial licence, point them to it.

A checklist before your first delivery across the line

• Write down what you do to the food. Cut, repack or relabel anything for the other province, and you need a licence. If you only buy, store, sell and deliver, CFIA says you don’t — confirm it with CFIA’s licensing tool.
• Check that every product you will ship comes from a licence holder, in the registry.
• If you sell fresh fruits or vegetables, check whether you need DRC membership.
• Set up traceability: lot codes recorded at receiving and at packing, one step back and one step forward, kept two years, and ready as one file within 24 hours.
• Make sure the name, the lot code and the business behind it travel with the food.
• Sales tax: GST/HST on taxable items follows the province the goods are delivered to. Ask your accountant what the new province means for your registrations before the first delivery.

Where Supligo fits — and where it doesn’t

To be straight with you: Supligo does not keep lot codes or traceability records, does not hold or apply for a licence for you, and is no substitute for CFIA’s guidance. What it does for a business selling into two provinces is the ordering side: each order’s sales tax — GST/HST, and PST, RST or QST — worked out by the province of delivery, for the taxes you are registered for, and delivery days offered by area. One caution if you sell into Quebec: Supligo is in English today. More on sales tax.