Best Food Mill in Canada for Canning (Tomato, Apple, Salsa)

A food mill is the difference between an afternoon of tomato canning and a weekend of it. It’s the single piece of equipment that most upgrades the home-preserving workflow.

Quick answer: Most Canadian home canners should buy the OXO Good Grips Food Mill ($80 CAD). High-volume tomato canners (50+ lbs/year) should buy a Squeezo Strainer ($200 CAD) and never look back. Skip the $25 Norpro unless you only mill a few pounds a year.

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What a food mill does

You drop cooked fruit or vegetable (tomatoes, apples, berries, plums) into a hopper. A hand-crank turns a curved blade that presses the soft pulp through a perforated disc into a waiting bowl, while skins, seeds, stems, and cores collect separately to be discarded.

It does in 5 minutes what manual peeling, coring, and seeding does in 45. For Canadian preservers running tomato sauce, apple sauce, or seedless berry jam, it pays for itself in one fall.

OXO Good Grips Food Mill — the standard pick

About $80 CAD on Amazon.ca, William Sonoma, Lee Valley.

The most-recommended mill in Canadian home-canning forums for the last decade. Three interchangeable stainless discs (2 mm, 3 mm, 6 mm) handle nearly every canning task.

What’s good:

• Three discs for fine (berry jam, smooth tomato sauce), medium (apple sauce), and coarse (chunky salsa base, crushed tomatoes) results
• Non-slip rubber feet keep it stable on a bowl while you crank
• Stainless steel body and discs — dishwasher safe, no rust
• Comfortable handle that doesn’t blister your hand after 10 lbs of tomatoes
• Folds flat for storage

Trade-offs:

• Manual crank — your shoulder will know after 15 lbs of tomatoes
• Hopper holds 2.4 L — fine for jam batches, slow for full bushels
• Plastic gear under the crank handle. After 5+ years of heavy use, can crack. OXO usually warranties replacement.

Best for: households milling 5–30 lbs per session. The default Canadian recommendation.

Squeezo Strainer — the high-volume pick

About $200 CAD on Amazon.ca, lehmans.com.

A purpose-built tomato/apple strainer. Crank-handle drives a screw auger that forces pulp through a perforated drum while skins, seeds, and stems eject out the end into a separate container. Continuous-feed; no batching.

What’s good:

• 10–15× faster than a hand-crank food mill on tomatoes — a bushel of tomatoes processes in 15-20 minutes
• Continuous feed — keep dropping fruit in; pulp and waste exit separately
• No peeling required for tomatoes. Cut in half, drop in.
• Replaceable drums in different mesh sizes for berries, salsa, grape juice
• Clamps to a table — leverages your weight, not your shoulder
• Lifetime equipment — these get inherited

Trade-offs:

• 2.5× the price of the OXO
• Bulky to store — about the size of a meat grinder
• Less versatile for small batches — overkill for 3 lbs of strawberries
• Manual setup every time — clamp to table, attach drum, attach catch bowls

Best for: households canning 50+ lbs of tomatoes a year. Anyone with a productive tomato patch or doing salsa/sauce by the case.

Norpro Sauce Master — the budget pick

About $25 CAD at Canadian Tire, Amazon.ca.

A plastic-bodied hand-crank mill with a single fine disc. Does the job for small batches.

What’s good:

• Cheapest mill that actually works — $25 means you can try food-milling for less than a takeout dinner
• Lightweight — easy to store in a small kitchen
• Single fixed disc so no setup decisions

Trade-offs:

• All plastic — feels flimsy, can crack under hard tomatoes
• Smaller hopper — more refilling
• No coarse disc — can’t make chunky salsa or coarse apple sauce
• Wears out in 2–4 years of regular use

Best for: households putting up under 5 lbs of tomatoes a year. Test the food-mill workflow before upgrading.

Side-by-side

	OXO Food Mill	Squeezo Strainer	Norpro Sauce Master
Price (CAD, May 2026)	~$80	~$200	~$25
Discs / drums	3 (2/3/6 mm)	Multiple, sold separately	1 (fine only)
Material	Stainless + plastic	Stainless + plastic	Plastic + steel
Throughput (tomatoes)	~5 lbs / 10 min	~5 lbs / 1 min	~5 lbs / 15 min
Continuous feed	No	Yes	No
Peeling required	No	No	No
Tomato seed separation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage	Folds flat	Bulky	Compact
Expected lifespan	10–15 years	30+ years	2–4 years
Available	Amazon.ca, Lee Valley	Amazon.ca, specialty	Canadian Tire, Amazon.ca

Which to buy: the decision

Get the OXO if:

• You’re putting up 5–30 lbs of tomatoes/apples a year
• You want one mill for tomato sauce, apple sauce, and berry jam
• You have limited kitchen storage
• You’re new to milling and want the safer recommended choice

Get the Squeezo if:

• You grow your own tomatoes or buy a bushel at a time
• You’re making 50+ lbs of tomato sauce a year
• You can-store a piece of equipment the size of a small toaster
• You make grape juice, apple butter, or seedless berry preserves in volume

Get the Norpro if:

• You’re not sure you’ll like milling at all
• You’re doing 1–5 lbs of tomatoes a year
• You’ll graduate to the OXO once you confirm you want this in your workflow

What about a fine-mesh sieve and a spoon?

It works — slowly, painfully — for very small batches. Half a pint of raspberry coulis: yes. 5 lbs of cooked tomatoes: do not. The wrist strain of pressing 5 lbs of pulp through a fine sieve is the experience that makes home canners buy food mills.

What about a Vitamix or Blendtec?

A high-power blender purees everything in the hopper, including skins and seeds. For tomatoes, this means tomato seeds (bitter, gritty) in the finished sauce; for apples, peel. A food mill removes the skins and seeds. They’re complementary tools, not substitutes.

Some Canadian canners blend tomatoes first, then strain through a chinois or mesh bag. Slower than a food mill, equivalent result. If you already own a Vitamix, this is the no-buy option.

What you still need

A food mill is one part of the tomato/apple workflow. Also have:

• A wide pot for cooking pulp down
• A water-bath canner (Granite Ware or Bernardin stainless)
• Bernardin jars and fresh SNAP lids
• Bottled lemon juice for the acidification rule

When to buy

Food mills don’t go on sale as predictably as canners. OXO occasionally discounts during Amazon’s October Prime Day or Boxing Week. Squeezo’s price has been flat for years — buy when you need it, the price won’t drop meaningfully.

Next steps

• How to can tomato sauce — the first reason you bought a mill
• How to make apple sauce — the second reason
• Whole vs crushed vs diced canned tomatoes — the milled-vs-not decision
• Best water-bath canner — the pot your milled sauce goes into
• Water-bath canning pillar — the broader method