HB2844

HB2844 creates a statewide Department of State Health Services (DSHS) license for mobile food vendors, with a separate annual license for each vehicle. It covers readily movable food-service vehicles, not just motorized trucks. Applicants must supply business and food-service information, pay required fees and pass a health inspection; the inspection must occur within 14 days after DSHS receives a complete application. Vendors must apply for renewal before expiration and may keep operating while renewal is pending. Licenses cannot be transferred to another owner; replacing a vehicle requires updated information and another inspection. Final law, Sections 1–6.

A state license is not permission to sell anywhere or ignore food-safety rules. The law overrides conflicting local regulation, but preserves nonconflicting state and local laws, expressly including fire codes, location restrictions and zoning. Local governments need not join the state’s inspection program. State implementing rules must address demonstrable health or safety risks and cannot cap license numbers, regulate operating hours, require GPS tracking or fingerprints, or require constant movement. Other limits protect qualifying prepackaged-food vehicles from a handwashing-sink requirement and adequately equipped vehicles from a commissary requirement; proper grease and cooking-waste disposal remains required. The law also limits duplicative fire and health inspections, while preserving foodborne-illness investigations.

The state must establish three food-risk classifications and ongoing randomized inspections based on classification and previous results. Local authorities may inspect under agreements with DSHS and receive reimbursement. Vendors must display their license and inspection certificate, follow applicable food-handler/manager certification requirements, and make intended operating locations available to DSHS—through their website or social media, or a submitted list. Fees fund licensing and inspections; a vendor may request a refund for prepaid ongoing inspections not performed during the license year, payable within 30 days of the request. The law sets no fixed dollar license fee.

DSHS and local authorities retain investigative powers. Licensing sanctions can follow violations, fraud or other specified grounds; continuing to operate after suspension or revocation carries a department-set administrative penalty. Written notice and a requested administrative hearing are required under the ordinary process. An imminent health or safety threat permits immediate suspension on notice, with a requested preliminary hearing within 17 days after the hearings office receives the request and a final hearing within 61 days of suspension. The request deadline is 14 days after notice; ordinary licensing hearing requests also have a 14-calendar-day deadline.

A separate provision protects qualifying small-scale food businesses from overlapping local permits and permitting fees. It applies to entities established by a farmer or food producer with annual gross revenue under $1.5 million that hold the relevant DSHS permit or a state food-manufacturer license. “Food producer” includes people who grow, process, prepare or manufacture the food they sell, but not someone who merely packages or repackages it. This is not a blanket exemption for every small restaurant or from food-safety law. The act also removes mobile food units from the older state-permit provision and repeals the special county-permit mandate in Section 437A.003. Historical definitions and permit law; Chapter 437A.

Most provisions took effect July 1, 2026, and no license under the new chapter was required before then. Rulemaking authority began September 1, 2025, with required rules due May 1, 2026. The new chapter applies to local measures adopted before or after its effective date. These are the act’s requirements, not a claim that every implementing deadline was met.