Can I sell eggs in Quebec?

Do I need a license to sell eggs in Quebec?

Not a quota, with fewer than 100 hens. The Plan of the Fédération des producteurs d'œufs du Québec binds a producer who is "propriétaire d’au moins 100 pondeuses" (our translation: owner of at least 100 hens), and a hen there is a domestic hen at least 134 days old. The quota regulation says a producer operating a flock of at least 100 hens must hold or rent a quota from the Fédération. It says of one with fewer than 100 hens: "doit les produire dans sa propre exploitation" (our translation: must produce the eggs on its own operation), or else hold a quota as if it had at least 100. A producer that had a flock of 101 to 250 hens on December 31, 1993, and had run it without a break for the 12 months before, may keep up to 250 hens if it does so on its own operation. Several producers may not run several flocks of 100 hens or fewer on one operation without a quota.

The food side is the Ministry's. The Food Products Act says no one may "operate premises or a vehicle where food intended for human consumption is prepared to be sold at retail" without a permit. The Food Regulation exempts from that rule farm producers under the Farm Producers Act who process maple products, beekeeping products or consumer shell eggs, or keep whole fresh fruits and vegetables cold, produced exclusively on their operation and sold at retail on the operation's premises. The Ministry's page says that "dans la plupart des situations" a retail permit is required to sell farm products, and that a business with a ministry farm-operator number ("NIM", type "exploitant agricole") may sell its consumer shell eggs without one; without that number the retail permit is required. A prepared food, such as a quiche made with your eggs, takes the retail permit in the "Préparation générale" category whatever the number.

We did not read how to get a farm-operator number. Ask the Ministry.

Source: Plan conjoint des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation et de poulettes du Québec, M-35.1, r. 238.1, s. 4, Règlement sur les quotas des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation du Québec, M-35.1, r. 239, ss. 2 and 3, Food Products Act, P-29, s. 9(m), Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 1.1.1 and 1.3.5.B.5 and MAPAQ: Vente de produits agricoles.

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

The limit is in hens, not in eggs or dozens: below 100 hens a producer needs no quota, and at 100 or more it needs one, which the quota regulation defines as the number of dozens of eggs "exprimé en nombre de pondeuses" (our translation: expressed as a number of hens) the producer may produce and market. The Plan also asks a producer to entrust the Fédération with the exclusive marketing of its production ("confier à la Fédération l’exclusivité de la mise en marché de sa production", our translation). We did not find what that means for a farm of 100 hens or more that sells eggs itself, and we settle nothing.

The Food Regulation has a second number that is not a limit on selling: a producer with a flock of 300 hens or less does not mark its graded eggs and need not register its grading station. No source we read puts a limit on dozens or eggs sold by a producer under 100 hens, and none states a fee for a quota. The Fédération's contribution rules and quota prices were not read.

Source: Plan conjoint des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation et de poulettes du Québec, M-35.1, r. 238.1, ss. 4 and 15, Règlement sur les quotas des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation du Québec, M-35.1, r. 239, ss. 2 and 3 and Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, s. 5.1.2.

Can I sell eggs at a farmers market in Quebec?

Yes, on conditions. The Ministry's aide-mémoire (in French; our translation) says that besides the place where the eggs are produced, a producer or farm operator may sell, deliver or hand ungraded eggs from its own hens directly to a consumer from "un emplacement qu’il a loué dans un marché public ou une foire agricole" (a space it rented in a public market or an agricultural fair, such as a stall). The same list names a collective point of sale of a group of producers it belongs to, a basket drop-off point served by someone from the production site, a restaurant business of its own on the production site or independent and unaffiliated, and an independent unaffiliated retail food business it owns or mostly owns, such as a roadside stand. The sale must be made by the producer, "sans aucun intermédiaire ni consignateur" (without any intermediary or consignor), and the places of sale must not belong to a banner or a chain.

On the permit the Ministry's sources differ, and we settle neither. The Food Regulation exempts a farm producer's shell eggs from the retail permit when sold "on the premises of the operation". The Ministry's farm-products page says a business with a farm-operator number may sell consumer shell eggs without a permit, and does not limit it to the farm; it also says a retail permit is required "dans la plupart des situations", at the farm, online, in a public market or at a stand, and that a permit holder may carry a copy of it to a public market. Ask the Ministry what a stallholder selling eggs needs, and the market's manager what the market asks.

Source: MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation), Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, s. 1.3.5.B.5 and MAPAQ: Vente de produits agricoles (our translation).

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

Not ungraded, on what we read. The rule that spares eggs from grading is for "eggs sold at retail by any producer", and the Ministry's aide-mémoire says an ungraded sale is made by the producer with no intermediary or consignor. Its list of places has the producer's own restaurant and its own independent retail food business, and it does not have a store or restaurant owned by someone else.

Eggs sold otherwise must be graded and marked, and graded only in a grading station that meets the Regulation's standards. A station is registered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or, if it is not, with the Minister; graded eggs are marked "QC" and a producer's code, and a producer with a flock of 300 hens or less need not mark them. A carton of graded eggs must be new. A producer owning 100 hens or more also has the Plan's duty to entrust its marketing to the Fédération. We found no rule specific to a producer under 100 hens selling graded eggs to a store. Ask the Ministry.

Source: Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 5.1.2, 5.1.4 to 5.1.4.4 and 5.3.9, MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation) and Plan conjoint des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation et de poulettes du Québec, M-35.1, r. 238.1, s. 15.

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

The Regulation says each package of ungraded eggs bears, in indelible letters, the word "eggs" or the words "ungraded eggs", the name of the species that laid them, the name and address of the producer, the number of eggs in the package, and "Canada" or the name of the province of origin. "Québec" is reserved for eggs produced in Québec. A package of ungraded eggs a producer sells at its own establishment may bear only the producer's name and address.

The Ministry's aide-mémoire (our translation) adds a carton that is clean, the producer's or the farm's name and address, the words "Œufs de poule non classés", the number of eggs, a shelf life (a "Meilleur avant" date will do) and "Garder réfrigéré", and it says the same sale at the place of production may bear only the name and address. Its list is not the Regulation's, and we do not know which governs when they differ; follow both.

On reuse, the Regulation asks that containers be clean, dry and made to protect the eggs from being crushed, and it says cartons for graded eggs must be new. We read nothing on reusing a carton for ungraded eggs, or on covering an old brand or grade. Ask the Ministry.

The federal egg rules the CFIA lists cover eggs sent from one province or territory to another, not a sale within Québec. Ungraded eggs may cross a provincial line only to an establishment that grades or processes them, in a container labelled "Ungraded Eggs".

Source: Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 5.3.5, 5.3.8, 5.3.9, 5.5.2, MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation) and CFIA: regulatory requirements for eggs, section 4.0.

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

The Regulation gives a number for a shop, not for a farm stall. At the producer's establishment the eggs are kept in rooms reserved for them "at a temperature which will ensure their preservation", with no figure. The temperature of eggs on display "in a retailer's establishment" must not exceed 13ºC, eggs stored anywhere else must not exceed 13ºC at 70% to 85% relative humidity, and a vehicle that carries eggs must keep them between 0ºC and 13ºC. The Regulation does not say whether a producer at a market stall is a retailer.

The Ministry's aide-mémoire (our translation) says eggs sold at retail, and food preparations made with eggs, "doivent être gardés réfrigérés" (must be kept refrigerated), gives no temperature, and says ungraded eggs should be sold in the days after laying.

Source: Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 5.1.7 and 5.3.1 to 5.3.4 and MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation).

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

The Regulation sets conditions for them, and none for who may sell them. Its rule for ungraded eggs also covers eggs "laid by a layer of a species other than the domestic hen": free of foreign odours, not mouldy, not incubated, not leaking and without extensive, multiple or deep alterations, not from slaughtered layers, free of pathogens. The package carries the name of the species that laid them. In the sections on grading, an "egg" is a hen's egg, and the Plan and the quota regulation speak of hens. The Ministry's aide-mémoire is about hens' eggs only.

We found nothing on a quota, a permit or a place of sale for duck or quail eggs. Ask the Ministry before you sell them.

Source: Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 5.1.1, 5.5.1 and 5.5.2 and MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation).

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

Neither is asked of ungraded eggs in the rule we read. The Regulation asks that they be free of foreign odours, not mouldy, not incubated, not leaking or altered, not from slaughtered layers and free of pathogens; the Ministry's aide-mémoire (our translation) says the shell must be "propre et intacte" (clean and intact). The wash-water rule, drinking water at least 11ºC warmer than the eggs, is in the rules for a grading station, which are the rules for graded eggs.

Washing and candling still count: the Regulation lists "washing" and "candling" among the operations that make a food "preparation", and excludes only packing consumer shell eggs. The permit exemption for a farm producer selling its own shell eggs on its premises names a farm producer who processes them. Whether washing makes a farm's eggs a prepared food outside that exemption, we did not find. Ask the Ministry before you wash eggs you sell at a market.

Source: Regulation respecting food, P-29, r. 1, ss. 1.1.1, 1.3.5.B.5, 5.2.5 and 5.5.1 and MAPAQ: Aide-mémoire, vente directe d’œufs non classés (our translation).