Food Safety and Growth Initiative

Overview

The Food Safety and Growth Initiative (the Initiative) provides funding to small agri-food businesses to:

• modernize their food safety systems
• adopt new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards
• stimulate growth in the agriculture and food sector

Funding for the Initiative comes from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a five-year (2023 to 2028) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments. Up to $5,000,000 has been allocated for the Initiative.

Important dates

Application intake will open August 21, 2024.

The deadline to apply is December 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET, or when available funding is fully committed, whichever comes first.

Eligibility

Refer to the Initiative guidelines (PDF) for detailed requirements.

Applicants

Applicant must:

• be a primary producer, processor or service provider in the agriculture or food sector
• have fewer than 100 employees at the project location

Projects

Projects must:

• support small agri-food businesses
• modernize food safety systems
• adopt new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards
• stimulate growth in the agriculture and food sector

Facilities

Projects must take place at facilities that produce, process or service the following food products. It is not a requirement for facilities to exclusively handle these products.

Foods of plant origin:

• ready-to-eat minimally-processed fruit and vegetables
• ready-to-eat bagged salads, greens or herbs
• sprouted seeds
• frozen fruit and vegetables
• unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice (such as apple cider)
• peanuts and tree nuts (such as hazelnuts, walnuts)

Meat/dairy:

• poultry, beef, or swine slaughter or processing
• ready-to-eat meat products (such as pate, meat spreads, frankfurters, deli meats, jerky, fermented sausages)
• fresh or soft white cheese, soft cheese, semi-soft cheese and unpasteurized/raw milk cheese
• sheep and water buffalo milk
• ice cream and other frozen dairy

Other:

• ready-to-eat spreads and dips (such as hummus)

Funding

You could get 50% of eligible project costs up to a maximum of $75,000 per project.

You can have a maximum of 2 approved projects under the Initiative.

Stacking

You may apply for and receive other government or third-party funding if the other programs allow stacking.

You may not submit an application for a project where you have already received funding for that project through Sustainable CAP.

If you have received funding for the project through other sources, the total assistance provided from all funding sources cannot be greater than 100% of the total eligible costs. All funding for a project, including from additional sources, must be listed on the application form.

How to apply

1. Download and read the Initiative guidelines (PDF).
2. Download and complete the application form (PDF).
3. Gather the required documents.
4. Submit the application and required documents to SustainableCAP1@ontario.ca

Required documents

In addition to your application form, you must provide:

• written quotes from third parties detailing the proposed eligible costs for the project
• a site sketch if there are structural modifications to a building (interior or exterior)
• a course outline detailing training to be provided and outcomes, including a cost summary or quote from a training provider if providing training as part of the project

After you apply

After you submit your application, we will send you an acknowledgement email within 5 business days.

If your application is missing any information, we will not assess it and you will be notified via email. You will be required to submit a new application that has complete information.

Complete applications will be assessed against eligibility and merit criteria.

Selection process

Ministry staff will review completed application forms to determine whether the applicant is eligible to participate in the Initiative.

Projects by eligible applicants will be evaluated based on the extent to which the following criteria are met:

• the project needs and benefits clearly demonstrate improved food safety and/or traceability and control risks
• the project integrates multiple parts of the location’s food safety/traceability system (such as equipment, training and control procedures)
• the applicant is pursuing improvement to achieve national or international food safety program standards and/or certification (such as certification programs recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative)
• the project stimulates related business growth (such as access to new customer/market, improved production output, improved inventory management)

If you are not approved

We will email you about the decision.

If you are approved

We will email you about the decision. We will also email you an approval letter.

You will need to meet several obligations including:

• signing the approval letter
• registering with Transfer Payment Ontario
• registering to Supply Ontario to receive payments
• submitting a final claim and final report

Refer to Initiative guidelines for detailed instructions.