Amount: 50% of eligible project costs up to a maximum of $75,000 per project.

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.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

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

Eligible 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.

Timeline

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.