The SFCR Small-Business Exception: When You Do Not Need a Written Preventive Control Plan

If you run a small food business in Canada, you may have heard that companies under $100,000 in sales do not need a preventive control plan. That is close to the truth, but not the whole truth, and the gap between the two is where compliance problems begin. The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations do create an exception, but it is narrower and more conditional than the plain-language version suggests. It waives a written plan, not the controls themselves, and it does not apply to several major food categories at all.

The exception lives in sections 86 and 87 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. Read carefully, those sections answer three separate questions: who must keep a written preventive control plan, who is relieved of that duty because their sales are low, and who is pulled back in because of the food they handle or because they asked for an export certificate. Getting one of those answers wrong can leave a business either doing paperwork it does not need or, far worse, skipping a plan it was legally required to keep.

This article walks through the exception the way an inspector would read it. It sets out the $100,000 test, the commodities the exception never covers, the export-certificate trap, and the separate rule for growers of fresh fruits and vegetables. It also explains the point most summaries miss entirely: even a business with a valid exception must still meet the preventive control requirements of the Regulations. The plan is optional in these cases. The controls are not.

Executive summary

Most food businesses licensed under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations must prepare, keep, maintain and implement a written preventive control plan. Sections 86 and 87 create a limited exception for businesses whose gross annual food sales are $100,000 or less, but the exception applies only to lower-risk foods and never to dairy, eggs, processed egg products, fish, processed fruit or vegetable products, meat products or food animals. It also disappears the moment an export certificate is requested. A business that qualifies still has to meet all the preventive control requirements in Part 4 of the Regulations. It simply does not have to write them into a formal plan.

What the preventive control plan exception is

What it is: a narrow relief from the written preventive control plan requirement for small, lower-risk food businesses. What it means: if you qualify, you do not have to document your food safety controls in a formal written plan that meets section 89. What to do: confirm your sales are at or below the threshold, confirm the food is not on the excluded list, and confirm you are not seeking an export certificate before you rely on it.

Under section 86 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, a licence holder must prepare, keep and maintain a written preventive control plan that meets the requirements of section 89 for any activity identified in their licence. Section 89 is demanding. It calls for a hazard analysis of biological, chemical and physical hazards, identified critical control points with critical limits, monitoring procedures, corrective action procedures, verification procedures, and supporting documents that prove the plan is working. Building that document properly takes real effort, which is exactly why the small-business exception matters to the businesses that qualify. Our guide to CFIA's 2026 preventive control plan inspection push shows what inspectors expect to see.

The exception does not say a small business is safe to ignore food safety. It says that a small business handling lower-risk foods does not have to translate its controls into the formal written plan that section 89 describes. The controls still have to exist and still have to work. This is a paperwork relief, targeted at businesses least able to absorb the cost of a full written plan, not a licence to operate without preventive controls.

Who qualifies: the $100,000 test

Why it matters: the threshold decides whether you can rely on the exception at all, and it is measured in a specific way that catches people out. What to do: add up gross sales from all food, over the correct 12-month window, and compare the total to $100,000.

Section 86(3) applies the exception where a licence holder's gross sales derived from food are $100,000 or less for the 12 months before the day on which they most recently applied for the issuance, renewal or amendment of a licence. Two details in that sentence do the heavy lifting. First, it is gross sales from all food, not just the food tied to the licensed activity you are asking about. Second, the clock is the 12 months before your most recent licence application, not a calendar year or a tax year. A renewal or an amendment resets that window, so the figure can change over the life of a licence.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is explicit about what to include when you calculate gross annual food sales. The total captures food you imported or exported, food you sold within your province or across provincial borders, revenue from food-related services such as manufacturing or packaging food on behalf of another company, and sales earned outside Canada. In other words, a business can feel small on any single product line and still cross $100,000 once every food revenue stream is added together.

The commodities the exception never covers

Why it matters: the exception is blocked entirely for higher-risk foods, no matter how small the business is. What to do: check each licensed activity against the excluded list before assuming the exception applies.

Section 86(3) preserves the written plan requirement, regardless of sales, for any activity a licence holder conducts in respect of a food animal, meat product, fish, dairy product, egg, processed egg product or processed fruit or vegetable product identified in their licence. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency states the same list from the other direction: the exception applies only to foods other than those categories, for example fresh fruits or vegetables, honey or maple products. If any of your licensed activities touch the excluded commodities, those activities need a written preventive control plan even if your whole business earns well under $100,000.

The exception is also activity-specific, and this is the part businesses most often get wrong. A single licence can carry several activities across several foods. The exception is applied activity by activity, not to the business as a whole. A company can be exempt from a written plan for its honey and cookies and, on the very same licence, be required to keep a written plan for its processed fruit and vegetable products. Treating the exception as an all-or-nothing status for the business is a reliable way to miss a required plan. For the excluded categories, controls like an SFCR allergen control plan matter even more.

The export-certificate trap

Why it matters: asking for an export certificate quietly cancels the exception for that food. What to do: before you request a certificate, recognize that you are also taking on the written preventive control plan requirement for the exported food.

Two provisions tie the exception to export certificates. Section 86(3)(b) preserves the written plan requirement for any food for which a certificate or other document referred to in section 48 of the Safe Food for Canadians Act is sought, even when sales are under $100,000. Section 86(2) sets up a related export rule: a preventive control plan is not required for a food, other than fish or a meat product, that is exported, unless an export certificate is sought for it. The pattern is consistent. The moment you ask the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to certify a food for export, you accept the obligation to have a written preventive control plan for that food, because the foreign authority is relying on that certificate.

This trap surprises small exporters in particular. A maple products business under $100,000 in sales might assume the exception covers everything it does. If it manufactures, grades, packages and labels those maple products for export and requests an export certificate, the exception no longer applies to the maple products, and a written plan meeting section 89 is required. The certificate request, not the sales figure, is what decides it.

Fresh fruit and vegetable growers: the separate test in section 87

Why it matters: growers and harvesters of fresh fruits and vegetables have their own rule, and it uses the $100,000 threshold differently. What to do: if you grow or harvest fresh produce for interprovincial trade or export, read section 87 rather than section 86.

Section 87 says that a person who grows or harvests fresh fruits or vegetables must prepare, keep and maintain a written preventive control plan meeting section 89 if the produce is to be exported and an export certificate is sought, or if the produce is to be sent from one province to another and the person's gross sales derived from food are more than $100,000 for the previous 12 months. The threshold works as a ceiling here: a grower selling fresh produce interprovincially needs a written plan once food sales cross $100,000, and is otherwise relieved of the written plan, though never of the underlying controls. Export with a certificate always requires the plan, regardless of sales.

The biggest misconception: you still need preventive controls

What it is: the single most important caveat in the whole exception. What it means: an exempt business is relieved of the written plan, not of the duty to control hazards. What to do: keep your sanitation, hygiene, maintenance, complaint handling and recall procedures fully operational, exception or not.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is direct on this point. A business that has a preventive control plan exception must still comply with the preventive control requirements under Part 4, Divisions 1 to 5 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. Those divisions cover the substance of food safety: the identification and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards, treatments and processes, the maintenance and operation of the establishment, sanitation and pest control, competency and hygiene of staff, and investigation, notification, complaints and recall. None of that is waived by the exception. Some hazards, such as chemical residues in imported food are easy to overlook.

It helps to separate two ideas that the word plan blurs together. The controls are the things you actually do to keep food safe. The written preventive control plan is the document that describes those controls, proves they are effective, and satisfies section 89. The small-business exception removes the second, not the first. An inspector visiting an exempt business will still expect to see clean premises, controlled hazards, trained staff, and a working recall procedure, because those obligations come from Part 4, not from the plan requirement in section 86. Testing it with a mock recall simulation is the fastest way to prove a recall procedure works.

How to calculate your gross annual food sales

Use the Canadian Food Inspection Agency method so your figure matches what an inspector would calculate. Add the total revenue from any food you sold in exchange for money over the correct one-year period. That period is the 12 months before the day on which you most recently applied for the issuance, renewal or amendment of your licence, or, for a grower or harvester of fresh fruits or vegetables, the 12 months before you began growing or harvesting for interprovincial trade.

Include every food revenue stream: food you imported or exported, food you sold within or across provincial borders, food-related services such as manufacturing or packaging food for another company, and food sales earned outside Canada. Exclude non-food revenue. If the combined total is $100,000 or less, you may qualify for the exception on your lower-risk foods. If it is more, a written preventive control plan is required for the activities the exception would otherwise have covered.

Compliance checklist

Use this checklist to decide whether the small-business exception applies to your business and each of your licensed activities.

• List every activity identified in your Safe Food for Canadians licence and the food each activity relates to.
• Calculate gross sales from all food for the 12 months before your most recent licence issuance, renewal or amendment.
• Confirm whether that total is $100,000 or less.
• Flag any activity involving dairy, eggs, processed egg products, fish, processed fruit or vegetable products, meat products or food animals, which always need a written plan.
• Flag any food for which you request an export certificate, which always needs a written plan.
• For fresh fruit or vegetable growing or harvesting, apply the section 87 test rather than section 86.
• For every exempt activity, confirm your preventive controls under Part 4, Divisions 1 to 5 are documented and working.
• Keep a written preventive control plan meeting section 89 for every activity that does not qualify for the exception, and implement it under section 88.
• Re-run the assessment at each licence renewal or amendment, because the 12-month window and your food mix can change.

Common mistakes

Treating the exception as business-wide

The exception is applied activity by activity. Businesses that assume a single small-business status covers everything on the licence miss the written plan they still owe for an excluded commodity. If your licence lists processed fruit and vegetable products alongside honey, the honey may be exempt while the processed produce is not.

Forgetting that the controls survive the exception

The most damaging mistake is reading the exception as permission to skip food safety controls. Part 4, Divisions 1 to 5 still apply. An exempt business with dirty premises, uncontrolled hazards or no recall procedure is not compliant, it is simply undocumented and exposed.

Miscounting gross annual food sales

Counting only one product line, using a calendar year instead of the 12 months before the licence application, or leaving out food-related services and foreign sales can push a business below $100,000 on paper when it is actually above it. The threshold is gross sales from all food over the correct window.

Requesting an export certificate without adjusting

A small exporter that requests an export certificate loses the exception for that food and must have a written plan for it. Firms that request certificates without preparing the corresponding plan create a gap that surfaces at the worst possible moment, when a certificate is on the line.

Frequently asked questions

Does the small-business exception mean I do not need any food safety controls?

No. The exception relieves you only of the written preventive control plan under section 86. You must still comply with the preventive control requirements in Part 4, Divisions 1 to 5 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, including hazard control, sanitation, hygiene, maintenance, complaints and recall. The controls remain mandatory, only the formal written plan is waived.

What sales count toward the $100,000 threshold?

Gross sales from all food, over the 12 months before your most recent licence issuance, renewal or amendment. That includes food sold within or across provinces, food imported or exported, food-related services such as co-manufacturing or packaging for others, and food sales earned outside Canada. Non-food revenue does not count.

Which foods can never use the exception?

Dairy products, eggs, processed egg products, fish, processed fruit or vegetable products, meat products and food animals. Any licensed activity involving those commodities requires a written preventive control plan regardless of your sales. The exception is available only for other foods, such as fresh fruits or vegetables, honey and maple products.

How does requesting an export certificate affect the exception?

It removes the exception for that food. Under section 86(3)(b), any food for which a certificate under section 48 of the Safe Food for Canadians Act is sought needs a written preventive control plan, even if your sales are under $100,000. If you request an export certificate, plan to have the written plan for the certified food.

I am a fresh produce grower. Which rule applies to me?

Section 87. A grower or harvester of fresh fruits or vegetables needs a written preventive control plan if the produce is exported and an export certificate is sought, or if it is sent interprovincially and gross food sales exceed $100,000 for the previous 12 months. Below that threshold, and without a certificate request, you still must maintain the underlying preventive controls.

Do I have to implement a plan if I keep one voluntarily?

If the Regulations require you to prepare, keep and maintain a preventive control plan, section 88 requires you to implement it. A plan that exists on paper but is not put into practice does not satisfy the Regulations, so any plan you are required to keep must be lived, not shelved.

How MFLRC can help

The small-business exception is easy to misjudge, because it turns on the exact wording of sections 86 and 87 and on how your licensed activities line up against the excluded commodities. MF License and Regulatory Consultants helps food businesses read that boundary correctly, so you neither build a written plan you do not need nor skip one you are legally required to keep. We review your licence, map each activity to the right rule, calculate your gross annual food sales the way an inspector would, and tell you precisely which activities need a written preventive control plan.

For the activities that do need a plan, we build preventive control plans that meet section 89, develop the standard operating procedures and hazard analyses behind them, and run gap assessments and mock inspections so your controls hold up when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency arrives. For exempt activities, we make sure your Part 4 controls, from sanitation to recall readiness, are documented and defensible. Whether you are applying for a first licence, renewing, or adding an activity, we keep your preventive controls and your paperwork aligned with what the Regulations actually require. Explore our quality control services, audit services and regulatory affairs, licensing and import/export support.

Conclusion

The Safe Food for Canadians small-business exception is real, useful and frequently misread. It waives the written preventive control plan for small businesses handling lower-risk foods, but it never reaches dairy, eggs, fish, meat, processed egg or processed fruit and vegetable products, it disappears the moment an export certificate is requested, and it is applied activity by activity rather than to the business as a whole. Most importantly, it never waives the preventive controls themselves. A business that understands the exception can save real effort on paperwork while keeping its food safety obligations fully intact. A business that misreads it risks either wasted work or a compliance gap that only surfaces under inspection. When the wording is this precise, a careful reading is the cheapest insurance a food business can buy.

Sources and references

• Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SOR/2018-108), sections 86 to 89
• CFIA, Preventive control plan exception for small food businesses
• CFIA, Preventive control plans: regulatory requirements
• CFIA, Understanding the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations: a handbook for food businesses