Do I need a license to sell food in my online store? What kind of license do I need to start selling food?

Spherical cakes, multi-layer wedding cakes, cakes that are not available in chain cake shops can be ordered in all kinds of IG Shops easily, with a wide range of styles and selections.

But you know what? To sell food online, you need to obtain a food factory license. According to the "Food Business Regulation" (Article 132X) ("Regulations"), anyone who intends to sell or offer to sell any restricted food prescribed in Schedule 2 of the "Regulations" must apply for the sale of relevant categories before opening Restricted food permit.

Licenses for restaurants are divided into 3 basic licenses, 6 special licenses and 9 permits.

The three basic licenses are ordinary restaurant licenses. Unless you sell some restricted food, such as sushi, oysters, etc., you have to go to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to make an endorsement. Otherwise, you can sell any food as you like after obtaining this license.

Another type of license is called a snack restaurant license. It can only allow you to sell food listed in Table A, B, C, D, E, and E in the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. 

The last one is called a food manufacturer's license, also called a takeaway license. As the name suggests, if you have a take-out license, you can't allow people to dine-in, but still you can sell any kind of food.

Among the six licenses, four require a toilet, and two do not. Four of the restrooms are needed. The first is the Bakery License. The average bakery applies for this license. The second is the Factory Canteen License. The third type is called the Frozen Confection Factory License. The fourth type is called a dairy factory license. Any processing and packaging of dairy products must have this license. The above four licenses need to have one or two toilets attached to the venue (depending on the type of license).

The other two licenses do not require toilets and are called general food store licenses. As mentioned before, the food manufacturing brand is purely heating, not starting from scratch on site. The last one is called siumei and lo-mei license, which is purely reselling siumei and lo-mei, not made on site. If you are solely buying siu-mei and lo-mei for resale, you can apply for a siumei and lo-mei license. To apply for these two licenses, there is no need to have a toilet attached to the venue.

The last nine permits do not require any toilet attached to the site, and the application procedure is much simpler. The nine permits are:

• License for non-bottled beverages;
• Frozen Confection License;
• Milk license;
• Sushi license (sushi can only be resold, not made from scratch);
• Jelly license;
• License for raw oysters;
• License for raw meat;
• Sliced ​​fruit sales permit; and
• Herbal tea license.

So if you want to operate an online food store, remember to go to the FEHD website to read the terms clearly, or just directly ask which type of license you should apply for for the things you sell to avoid falling into any legal traps.