Food Safety and Growth Initiative – Funding Opportunities for Growers

Food SAFETY & GROWTH INITIATIVE ANNOUNCES 2nd INTAKE

The Food Safety and Growth Initiative Intake 2 (the Initiative) provides funding opportunities for small agri-food businesses to stimulate business growth by:

• modernizing food safety systems
• adopting new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards

Funding for the Initiative comes from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP). Up to $2 million has been currently allocated for the Initiative.

Intake Opens: October 19, 2026

Intake Closes: March 1, 2027 at 11:59pm ET

This initiative is in high demand and is 75% subscribed at the time of posting!

Requirements

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

Projects must: Projects must stimulate business growth in the agriculture and food sector by doing 1 or more of the following:

• modernizing food safety systems
• adopting new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards

Projects must take place at facilities that produce, process or service food products listed. It is not a requirement for facilities to exclusively handle these products. However, the eligible costs must be directly tied to an eligible food product as a final product at the end stage of handling at the project location.

Foods of plant origin

These include:

• ready-to-eat minimally processed fruit and vegetables
• ready-to-eat bagged salads, leafy greens or herbs
• sprouted seeds
• frozen fruit and vegetables
• unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice (such as apple cider)
• nuts (such as peanuts and tree nuts) and nut products (such as nut butters and packaged nut mixes)

Funding

If approved, you are eligible to receive 50% of eligible project costs up to a maximum of $75,000 per project.

You can have only 1 application under the Initiative.

Required Documents

In addition to your application form, you must provide:

• a course outline, detailing training to be provided and outcomes, including a cost summary or a quote from a training provider, if providing training as part of the project
• written quotes from third parties detailing the proposed eligible costs for the project