The short answer
A commissary kitchen is a licensed commercial kitchen that mobile and off-site food businesses rent as their fixed base of operations. Food trucks, caterers and pop-up vendors use it to store, prepare and process food, and to clean their unit. It is the permanent address behind a business that otherwise has no fixed kitchen.
- It is a base, not just a room The defining feature is regulatory: it is the licensed site your mobile operation works out of, named on your paperwork where a health authority requires one.
- Shared by design BC's guidelines note that a base of operations may serve one mobile unit or be shared by several — which is exactly the commissary model.
- Not universally mandatory A health authority may decide a fully self-contained mobile unit can operate without one. Rules differ by jurisdiction.
- Typically rented by the hour Across eight Nova Scotia kitchens listed on Food Web, hourly rates run from $22.50 to $35.
Most people meet the phrase "commissary kitchen" at an awkward moment — part-way through a food truck licence application, or when a health inspector asks where the food is stored overnight. The term gets used loosely, and it is often treated as interchangeable with any rented commercial kitchen. It is not. The difference is regulatory, not architectural, and it is worth understanding before you start shopping.
How is a commissary kitchen different from a commercial kitchen rental or a kitchen incubator?
All three are licensed kitchens you pay to use. What separates them is what you are buying alongside the space: a regulatory address, plain production hours, or a development programme.
| Commissary kitchen | Commercial kitchen rental | Kitchen incubator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you are really buying | A licensed base of operations for a mobile or off-site business | Licensed kitchen time, by the hour or month | Space bundled with business development |
| Typical user | Food trucks, caterers, mobile and pop-up vendors | Any business needing licensed production space | Early-stage businesses needing coaching as well as a kitchen |
| Regulatory role | Often the site named as the operation's base where one is required | Usually none beyond the kitchen's own licence | Varies; the kitchen is still separately licensed |
| What comes with it | Storage, refrigeration, cleaning and waste disposal tied to your unit | Access to equipment during your booked hours | Mentorship, training or route-to-market support |
| How long you stay | As long as the mobile business runs | As long as you keep booking | Usually a fixed programme term |
In practice one building often plays several of these roles at once, which is where the confusion comes from. A shared-use kitchen may rent hourly slots to a baker, act as the registered base for two food trucks, and run an incubator cohort on the side. Our guides to kitchen incubators and to commissary kitchen rental go deeper on each once you know which one you actually need.
Who is required to use a commissary kitchen?
This is where general advice goes wrong, because the answer genuinely depends on who licenses you. The clearest published statement comes from British Columbia. The BC Centre for Disease Control's Mobile Food Premises Guidelines define a base of operation as a physical location in an approved food premises where a mobile food premises carries out parts of its business — food storage, preparation, processing, and cleaning and sanitizing the unit. The guidelines state that a base of operations must meet the requirements of the Food Premises Regulation, and that a food service establishment, approved commercial kitchen or warehouse may be acceptable.
Two details in those guidelines matter for anyone planning a budget. First, the base of operation may serve a single mobile unit or be shared by a number of mobile operations — that sharing is what makes a commissary commercially viable, and the guidelines add that where tenants share one commissary, each tenant's storage should be identified and secured. Second, and less widely known: the health authority may determine that a self-contained mobile unit can operate without a base of operations, if the unit contains all the space, equipment and utensils the base would have provided.
Elsewhere the framing is different again. Toronto Public Health's mobile food premises resources set out requirements for refrigeration, protection of food during storage, preparation, transportation and display, and handwashing — without imposing a commissary requirement in the same explicit terms. So the honest answer to "am I required to have one?" is that it depends on your health authority and on how self-sufficient your unit is. Ask them first; do not assume another province's rule applies to you.
What does a commissary kitchen typically include?
Judged against what a base of operations is expected to provide, the useful checklist is short. The BC guidelines point to mechanical refrigeration for potentially hazardous foods, secured storage identified per tenant where the site is shared, access to a potable water supply for filling a unit's water tank, access to wastewater disposal for emptying it, and storage and processing areas. A kitchen that rents you hours but cannot take your wastewater or let you fill your tank is not serving as a commissary for a food truck, whatever it calls itself.
That is the question to lead with on a site visit. Not "what equipment do you have", but "can this site do the three things my unit cannot do for itself — cold storage, clean water in, dirty water out".
How much does commissary kitchen access typically cost?
Rates vary by city and by how much storage you need, but the shape is consistent: you pay for time, and sometimes for a flat monthly arrangement on top. Across the eight Nova Scotia kitchens currently listed on Food Web, hourly rates run from $22.50 to $35, clustering around $30. One of the eight also offers a flat $1,000 a month alongside its hourly rate, which is the pattern to look for if your production is heavy and predictable rather than occasional.
Interactive · First-year cost estimator
- Kitchen timeMedian hourly rate across the eight Nova Scotia kitchens listed on Food Web; the full range is $22.50 to $35 an hour.
- $15,600
- Flat monthly access, where offeredOne of those eight lists a $1,000 monthly rate alongside its hourly rate. Most list hourly only.
- $1,000
Estimated year one
$16,600
Nova Scotia · Food truck · estimates before tax, from the figures in this article.
See kitchens that fit this budgetWhat to ask before you sign
Confirm with your health authority whether a base of operations is required for your unit, and whether the site you are considering qualifies. Ask the operator whether they have hosted a mobile unit before — a kitchen used to hourly bakers may never have dealt with a tank fill or a grey-water dump. Check that your storage will be identifiably yours and secured. Then look at hours: a commissary that is only available when you need to be out serving is not a commissary you can use. Our guide to finding and vetting a commissary kitchen near you walks through the search itself.
Frequently asked questions
- How does a commissary kitchen work?
- You rent time and storage at a licensed kitchen and use it as the fixed base for a business that operates elsewhere. In practice that means prepping and storing food there, keeping refrigerated stock on site, filling your water tank and disposing of wastewater, and cleaning your unit before and after service.
- What is needed for a commissary kitchen?
- At minimum, a site that is itself a licensed food premises and can provide refrigeration for hazardous foods, secured storage identified to you, potable water for filling a mobile unit's tank, and wastewater disposal. Requirements are set by your local health authority, so confirm the list with them directly.
- Is a commissary kitchen the same as a commercial kitchen rental?
- Not quite. Every commissary is a commercial kitchen you rent, but not every commercial kitchen rental serves as a commissary. The difference is the regulatory role: a commissary acts as the named base of operations for a mobile or off-site business, and supports the unit itself with water, waste and storage.
- Do all food trucks need a commissary kitchen?
- No. BC's Mobile Food Premises Guidelines note that a health authority may determine a self-contained unit can operate without a base of operations, where the unit holds all the space, equipment and utensils a base would provide. Other jurisdictions frame it differently, so check with the authority that licenses you.
Sources
- Mobile Food Premises Guidelines — BC Centre for Disease Control
- Mobile Food Premises Resources — Toronto Public Health
Written by
Justin Andrews
Kitchen access and local food infrastructure, Atlantic Canada
Justin Andrews is a chef-turned-founder who has spent the last decade working across farms, markets, restaurants, nonprofits, and academic research. He’s now the CEO of Food Web, a platform built to unlock underused commercial kitchens and strengthen local food systems. Justin writes about food, entrepreneurship, and the work of building resilient local economies.
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