Can I sell eggs in Ontario?

Do I need a license to sell eggs in Ontario?

Ontario's egg regulation asks no licence or registration for one kind of sale: a producer selling ungraded eggs, produced on premises it owns or operates, to a consumer, on those premises, if the eggs are clean and not leaking. A "consumer" is someone who buys for their own or their household's use, not for resale.

Two questions sit outside that rule. Egg Farmers of Ontario, the marketing board, requires quota to market eggs, except for an exempt producer keeping up to 100 hens over nineteen weeks old (see the next question). And the Ministry says to talk to your local public health unit about what is permitted at a food premises on a farm.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, ss. 5(1) and 5(2), Ontario: egg grading, distribution, sales and processing and Egg Farmers of Ontario, General Regulations, ss. 2.1, 2.8 and 2.17.

How many eggs can I sell without a license in Ontario?

Not in the farm-gate rule. O. Reg. 171/10 section 5 puts no limit on hens, dozens or eggs. Its limits are where the sale happens (the producer's own premises) and who buys (a consumer).

Quota is a separate rule, and it has a flock line. R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 407 lets Egg Farmers of Ontario require that eggs be marketed on a quota basis, and make its own regulations that exempt a person or class of persons. The board's General Regulations say eggs are marketed on a quota basis, and that no one without quota may market eggs. They then say an "exempt producer may possess up to a maximum of 100 fowl without a quota", where a fowl is a domestic hen more than nineteen weeks old. That is up to 100 hens over nineteen weeks old. The conditions: the person owns or rents the land the hens are kept on, no one else keeps hens on the same land, and the person breaks no rule of the Act, the regulations or the board.

The regulations define an "exempt producer" as one "who has been exempted by the Board from the requirements to hold quota", and the text we read does not say how a small flock is exempted or whether you must apply. It also says to read the regulations with the board's Egg Quota Policy, which we did not find. The copy we read is the board's regulations effective 2012-11-01, as the Internet Archive kept the board's file on 2023-06-18, and we found no later version, so the board may have changed the line since. Ask Egg Farmers of Ontario whether your flock needs an exemption and what it is today. A flock over 100 hens needs quota, apart from a few long-standing producers on a list the board keeps at its office, who may keep up to 500.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, s. 5, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 407, ss. 4, 5, 7 and 16, Egg Farmers of Ontario, General Regulations, ss. 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.9 and 2.17 to 2.22 and Egg Farmers of Ontario.

Can I sell eggs at a farmers market in Ontario?

Not ungraded ones. The ungraded-eggs exception covers a sale on the producer's own premises, and a market stall is not the farm. Everywhere else in Ontario, eggs must be graded, packed, marked and labelled at an egg-grading station.

The Ministry's page says the food premises regulation, O. Reg. 493/17, requires all domestic hen eggs at retail to be graded, "This includes eggs sold at farmers' markets and other retail outlets." That regulation says in its own text that it does not apply to farmers' market food vendors. The two do not line up, and we settle neither. Ask your local public health unit.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, ss. 4(1) and 5(1), Ontario: egg grading, distribution, sales and processing and O. Reg. 493/17, s. 2(2).

Can I sell eggs to a restaurant, a store or someone who resells them in Ontario?

Not ungraded. A buyer for resale is not a "consumer", so the farm-gate exception does not reach them. The regulation lets a producer sell ungraded eggs to only two buyers: an egg dealer licensed by Egg Farmers of Ontario, or the operator of an egg-grading station.

The food premises regulation adds that the operator of a food premise may not store, handle, serve, sell or offer for sale ungraded eggs. Selling graded eggs to a store or restaurant means your eggs are graded at a grading station first, a step beyond what this directory is built for.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, ss. 1(1), 4(1) and 5, O. Reg. 493/17, s. 47(1) and Health Protection and Promotion Act, s. 1(1).

Do I need to grade or label my eggs in Ontario?

The regulation names no carton label for ungraded eggs sold on the farm. Its labelling words are for graded eggs, which are marked and labelled at a grading station. Never pack, mark or label eggs so a buyer would think they were graded.

Advertising: an ad for eggs must state the grade, but a producer selling on its own premises may advertise without that statement. No ad may say anything untrue or misleading about the eggs' quality or size.

The federal egg rules the CFIA lists cover eggs imported, exported, or sent from one province to another, not a sale on an Ontario farm. The sources we read say nothing about reusing cartons.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, ss. 4(1), 4(4) and 10 and CFIA: regulatory requirements for eggs.

Do eggs have to be refrigerated to sell in Ontario, and at what temperature?

The farm-gate rule names no storage temperature. The only egg temperature in the sources we read is 4°C or colder, in the food premises regulation, for eggs of animals other than the domestic hen. Ask your local public health unit what applies to your farm.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10 and O. Reg. 493/17, s. 47(3).

Can I sell duck, quail or other eggs in Ontario?

Ontario's egg regulation defines an egg as the egg of a domestic hen, so its farm-gate rule speaks only of hen eggs. The Ministry says eggs from animals other than domestic hens, at a farmers market or any other retail outlet, must be clean, have no visible cracks and be stored below 4°C. The food premises regulation sets the same condition. Ask your local public health unit before you sell them.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, s. 1(1), Ontario: egg grading, distribution, sales and processing and O. Reg. 493/17, s. 47(3).

Do I have to wash or candle eggs to sell them in Ontario?

For a farm-gate sale the regulation asks one thing: the eggs are clean and not leaking. It does not say how to clean them and does not ask you to candle. Washing and candling are what happens at a grading station, which the Ministry describes as where cracked, dirty or leaking eggs are kept out of the table egg market.

Source: O. Reg. 171/10, s. 5(1) and Ontario: egg grading, distribution, sales and processing.