05/21/2026
Short interview with Michael Berry today on radio 740am.
Topic: Texas law changes how food truck permitting works. (TX is transitioning to one statewide permit starting July 1, in place of permitting every single jurisdiction )
Thanks so much for having us on.
In a nutshell:
Food trucks are a highly regulated segment of the food service industry.
10 years in the Houston area for us
*at times we carried over 5 annual jurisdiction permits at once, City of Houston, Sugar Land, Richmond, Harris County, Fort Bend County and many more temporary permits
Cost for all permitting in a year was $3,000 plus
Each annual permit requires a notebook full of paperwork (application, tax docs, insurance docs, waivers, notorized papers verifying restrooms available, proof of commissary partner, proof of commissary visit in last 24 hours, Food Manager certification, menu, MSDS Sheets, hood inspection doc, fire extinguisher inspection doc, professional hood cleaning verification, gas line inspection documentation, and more) Each jurisdiction has its own unique list of requirements. Can you imagine if Brick and Mortar restaurant owners had to go this 5 times a year?
For each annual inspection: truck inspected at their facility on specific days and times, sometimes very far, where you may be expected to start lining up early (5am?)
For each inspection, Truck is to be deep cleaned and in "like new" condition requiring time off and labor hours required to deep clean before each separate inspection. My food truck is much cleaner than your typical brick and Mortar restaurant.
Every jurisdiction has their own rules or how they interpret TFER (Texas Food Establishment Rules) and the Fire Marshal wishes to policy the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency).
Though giving the impression of standard policy enforcement accross the state, it is everything but that. Between multiple jurisdictions, they often will force food truck owners to spend ridiculous money and time making frivolent changes to their kitchen/truck. While others operate freely with no questions asked.
Very specifically, Houston Food Truck inspectors have been particularly bad at building relationships with truck owners. Instead, they tell food trucks that their goal is to find a reason to shut us down. Last I heard that from an inspector, we stopped getting the City of Houston Annual Permit.
STARTING JULY 1, 2026
Texas law has now adopted laws that will consolidate all food truck permitting to just one jurisdiction, The State of Texas. One inspection, one fee, on permit to operate anywhere in the state. Possibly in the $600-700 range annually
Pros: huge for those like me who would have as many as 5 annual permits each year totalling over $3k and requiring 5 major inspections, plus times each week an inspector wanted to stop in during the rush to take temps and ask 100 questions. We would also no longer need to get temporary permits for festivals and events we do outside of our regular area.
Cons: the State is scrambling to figure out how to transition. Tens of thousands of food trucks and trailers will now, all at one be inspected by State of Texas inspectors. Last year there were 2. Cities like Houston spent huge money building a facility designed exclusively for this process. Now what?
Big question: word on the street is that even if you have a state inspection, you will still be required to pay for and get inspected by local Fire Marshall's office. If this is true, why are we even doing this. They will now be charging for both statewide inspection and local jurisdictions. That would be insane.
In conclusion: we are a clean and professionally operated food truck business. We have always wanted to not only comply with policy enforcement but also build relationships with enforcement that make our industry safer. We really thought this would help save our business and make things better. Now we are not so sure.
Thank you Michael Berry for opening the platform for little guys to speak our concerns. Fingers crossed, a year from now we are mostly all happily surprised.
