Healthy Eating Program – Stream 1

• Completed and signed financial assistance application form
• Completed supplementary information template and Annex 1 – Plan de financement
• External consultant curriculum vitae and service offer
• External CPA-prepared financial statements for a full 12-month operating year, or a detailed business plan for businesses with less than one full year of operation
• Official supporting documents that verify eligible expenses

Who is eligible?

• Food processing companies
• Companies outsourcing their food processing
• Companies with a central kitchen
• Groups of food processing businesses

Who is not eligible

• Companies listed in the Registre des entreprises non admissibles aux contrats publics (RENA)
• Applicants under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act or the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
• Applicants that failed to meet their obligations after formal notice in connection with previous financial assistance from the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation within the two years before applying
• Applicants found guilty, by final judgment, of an offence under laws or regulations under the responsibility of the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation within the two years before applying
• Applicants whose products fall outside the program’s definition of food, including animal food, nutraceutical products, natural health products, products with a DIN, products containing alcohol or cannabis, meal replacements, and energy drinks

Eligible expenses

• External consultant fees and travel
• Specialized information purchases
• Eco-responsible packaging R&D
• Market research and commercialization studies

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Expenses related to projects eligible under other streams of the program.
• Professional fees and travel expenses for anyone other than external consultants authorized by the minister.
• Staff salaries, land or equipment purchases, training costs, and loan repayments.
• Project implementation costs, such as final product nutritional analyses and validation of the ingredient list and other packaging information.
• Consumables, the refundable portion of GST and QST, and the applicant’s regular operating expenses.

• Financial viability of the company
• Relevance of the study to the project objectives
• Experience and expertise of the external consultant

• Read the full program text.
• Consult the applicant guide for Volet 1.
• Complete and send all required Volet 1 documents in a single email, before the applicable deadline, to transfo@mapaq.gouv.qc.ca.

• The Ministère sends an acknowledgement of receipt after the application is submitted.
• If information is missing or a required document is absent, the Ministère sends a written request by email.
• Complete applications that meet admissibility requirements receive a confirmation of receivability, while incomplete applications are rejected.
• Eligible applications are analyzed based on the volet selection criteria and the applicant’s most recent external financial statements for an established 12-month financial year.
• If the project is retained, the applicant must sign a convention d’aide financière setting out the project conditions and payment terms; if not, the applicant receives a decision notice explaining the refusal.

• Pre-application support is available from the ministry’s healthy food advisors.
• Pre-application support does not guarantee that an application will be deemed receivable or approved.
• Applicants may request a review of an evaluation decision.
• Project changes, added information, or new documents that were not included in the initial application are not considered during a review request.