Plain-language definitions of the licensing, kitchen-rental and food-safety terms that come up when you start a food business. 28 terms, each with a short answer you can cite.
The fixed, permitted kitchen a mobile or temporary food business works out of — where it preps and stores food, fills and empties tanks, washes equipment and disposes of waste. Often the reason a food truck rents a commissary.
A contract manufacturer that makes your product in its own licensed plant, to your recipe and under your brand. You stop renting time and start buying finished cases, usually against a minimum run size.
A kitchen built and permitted for food made to sell rather than food made to eat at home: commercial-grade equipment, sanitizable surfaces, dedicated handwashing and warewashing, and inspection by the authority that issues its permit.
A longer-term agreement for exclusive or near-exclusive use of a kitchen space, usually monthly with a fixed term. It is the far end of the scale from booking hours, and the point at which the space and its obligations become yours.
The written agreement between a kitchen operator and a renter: what time is booked, what may be stored, what equipment is included, who cleans what, how you are billed, and what happens if you cancel or cause damage.
A licensed commercial kitchen that other food businesses rent time in — usually by the hour or in recurring blocks — and use as the permitted base where they cook, store product and clean up.
A kitchen in a community facility — a centre, church hall, legion, school or seniors’ club — used for programs, group cooking and community meals, and often rentable by the hour when its own programming is not using it.
An umbrella term for food made in a home kitchen and sold legally — usually limited to low-risk items that do not need refrigeration. It describes a category of rules rather than one rule: the limits differ province to province.
A day or block when a kitchen is closed and its equipment sits idle — a restaurant’s Monday, a bakery’s afternoon, a hall between events. It is the capacity most kitchens rent out first, because it costs them nothing they were using.
A recurring market where producers and food makers sell directly to the public, usually under rules about how much of what is sold must be grown or made by the vendor. For many food businesses it is the first retail counter they ever have.
A map of the physical things a local food system runs on — kitchens, farms, markets, processors, distributors, grocers, food banks and community fridges — recorded with locations so they can be found, compared and planned around.
A community organization that collects donated and purchased food and distributes it free to people who need it — some handing hampers directly to households, some operating as warehouses that supply smaller local agencies.
A neighbourhood where reaching affordable, nutritious food is hard — usually because the nearest full grocer is far, transit is thin or a car is effectively required. There is no single agreed threshold, so the label depends on the definition in use.
Proof that a person has completed a recognized food-safety training course — handwashing, temperature control, cross-contamination and cleaning. It belongs to the person rather than the business, and some jurisdictions require it of the operator.
An organization that aggregates, stores, lightly processes and distributes food from a group of local producers, giving small farms one route to buyers who would otherwise order in volumes no single farm can fill.
Not having reliable access to enough safe, affordable food. Statistics Canada measures it in degrees — marginal, moderate and severe — from what households report about worrying, compromising on quality, skipping meals or going without.
The document that lets a specific address operate as a food business. The names differ — Food Establishment Permit, Food Establishment Licence, MAPAQ permit — but it attaches to the premises and its operator, not to a recipe.
A food business that cooks only for delivery and pickup, with no dining room and no walk-in trade. Also called a dark kitchen, cloud kitchen or virtual restaurant — the storefront exists inside delivery apps rather than on a street.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points: a written food-safety method that maps a product’s process, identifies where a hazard could enter, and sets a measurable control, limit, check and corrective action at each of those points.
Paying for a commercial kitchen by the hour or in booked blocks rather than leasing it. You get the room and its equipment for a scheduled window; the operator keeps the permit, the utilities, the insurance on the building and the cleaning schedule.
A shared commercial kitchen that adds business support to the rental — classes, workshops, coaching and mentoring, market access, sometimes co-packing — usually run by a non-profit, college or municipality with a mission rather than a margin.
Shorthand for a kitchen holding the permit or licence its regulator requires for food made to sell. What that document is called, and who issues it, depends on where the kitchen is.
A permitted space used for the work that happens before service — chopping, portioning, marinating, baking off, packing — usually supporting a separate place where the food is finally sold or served.
A kitchen built for volume output rather than service: batch cooking, packing and labelling the same items repeatedly to a schedule, usually for wholesale, retail or meal-prep customers rather than for people eating in the room.
A funded balance held against a renter’s account that pays for kitchen bookings, provided by a partner or program rather than by the renter. On Food Web, approved applicants receive credit applied directly to bookings at licensed kitchens.
The federal food licence described by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Per the CFIA, it is required for importing, exporting, or preparing food that will be sent to a different province — not for trading food within your own.
Money a kitchen holds against damage or extra cleaning and returns when nothing is claimed. On Food Web it is a refundable hold on your card rather than a charge, released automatically unless a claim is filed and approved.
A licensed commercial kitchen used by several unrelated food businesses on a schedule — each renting time in the same room, with storage, equipment and cleaning shared under the operator’s rules.
