Food Vendor Permit and License: What You Need to Sell Food, by Vendor Type (2026)

A food vendor permit is the health department permit that lets you sell food from a truck, cart, stand or event booth. There is no single national licence. Which permit you need depends on how you sell, and most vendors hold several more documents on top of it: a business licence, a sales tax registration, a vending or peddler licence, a fire inspection and a food safety certificate. This page sorts them by vendor format, with the published fees.

Which health permit you need depends on how you sell

The health permit follows the format, not the food. A truck, a pushcart, a festival tent and a table of packaged cookies are four different permit categories, even when they sell the same menu. Pick the format before you apply, because changing it later usually means a new application and a new plan review.

If you are still deciding where to sell, our guide to finding vendor opportunities for food trucks covers the events, markets and fees on the other side of this paperwork. The rows below each have a page of their own on this site where the detail is long.

Trucks and trailers. The annual permit comes from your county or state health authority and almost always requires a commissary, the licensed kitchen where you prep, clean and dump water (our commissary letter guide covers the proof). Some states now issue it centrally: since July 1, 2026, Texas trucks license through the Texas Department of State Health Services instead of each city, as our guide to Texas HB 2844 explains. In Florida the licence is DBPR's Mobile Food Dispensing Vehicle licence, walked through in our Florida MFDV application guide.

Carts and stands. Most health codes put carts in the same mobile category as trucks with a lighter equipment list. California made carts their own category: Senate Bill 972 created the Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO), which California Retail Food Code section 113831 defines as a mobile food facility "that operates from an individual or from a push cart, stand, display, pedal-driven cart, wagon, showcase, rack, or other nonmotorized conveyance." A CMFO is limited to prepackaged food or limited food preparation, which Sacramento County's Environmental Management Department says includes heating, frying, steaming or boiling hot dogs, shaving ice, slicing produce washed at an approved facility, and reheating food prepared in an approved permanent food facility. Its 2026–2027 CMFO packet asks for a commissary verification form, a menu every year, a route sheet and, for a cart run by fewer than two employees that stays at one spot for more than an hour, a restroom verification form. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health adds that CMFO operators need a California Food Handler Card, and that some vendors may now store up to two carts at home.

Tents and booths at events. A booth at a festival is a temporary food establishment, which the FDA Food Code limits to 14 consecutive days at a single event. You apply to the health department where the event is held, for each event. Fees, deadlines and when a truck's annual permit already covers an event are in our temporary food permit guide.

Food vendor permit vs food vendor licence

In most places the permit covers the food operation or the unit, and the licence covers the person or the business. The words are not used consistently, so read what each document authorises rather than what it is called.

New York City is the clearest example. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issues two separate documents:

• The Mobile Food Vending Licence belongs to the person: $50 for two years, applied for in person by the vendor.
• The Mobile Food Vending Permit belongs to the truck or cart: $15 to $200 depending on whether food is processed on board and the permit term.

You need both, and the permit is capped and allocated from waiting lists. Our NYC mobile food vending application guide walks through both forms and the five permit classes.

Elsewhere, "vendor licence" means something else entirely:

A peddler in these codes is someone who sells goods while moving from place to place in public, as opposed to from a shop. None of these licences lets you sell food on its own. Each sits on top of a health permit.

The licences that sit behind the health permit

Behind the health permit, a working vendor usually carries several more documents. Boston is a typical stack: a $500 city Food Truck Permit, a $100 health permit from the Inspectional Services Department, a $150 Fire Department permit and the $62 state hawker and peddler licence, all renewed yearly, plus a separate Board of Health permit in every other Massachusetts town you work. In AutoFill PDFs' verified permit data for 47 US cities (updated September 2026), every city starts from a health department permit, and 26 of the 47 list a fire department permit or inspection as a line of its own.

• Business licence or tax registration. Issued by the city or county where the business is based, and sometimes by every city you sell in. Some places do without it: our Charlotte and Raleigh records note that neither city requires a privilege licence.
• Sales tax registration. Usually a state registration, sometimes called a seller's permit, resale certificate or vendor's licence. Our seller's permit guide covers who needs one and the temporary event versions.
• Food safety certificate. Health departments ask for a food handler card for staff or a certified food protection manager on the unit, or both. Our food manager certification guide explains the difference and which providers count.
• Fire inspection. Required wherever you run propane, a generator or a fryer, and often a separate permit from the fire department rather than part of the health inspection.
• Vending or right-of-way permit. Needed if you sell on public streets or sidewalks. Our food truck parking permit guide covers street permits, private property permission letters and proximity rules.

What each of the 47 cities requires is on its city permit page and the permit checklist.

Cottage food: when you may not need a health permit

A cottage food operation is a home kitchen allowed by state law to make and sell certain shelf-stable foods, such as breads, cookies, candy and jams, without a commercial kitchen or a health permit. The general rules and labelling are in our cottage food laws guide. What matters for vendors is where the exemption ends at an event.

Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Services says a cottage food production operation does not need "any type of license or permit" and pays no fee to produce or sell directly to a consumer, and local health departments may not regulate or inspect it. The annual gross income cap is $150,000. The operator must complete a basic food handler course, and since September 1, 2025 operators selling time and temperature control for safety (TCS) foods must register with DSHS. The limit at events comes from the Houston Health Department's FAQ (revised August 20, 2026): a cottage food producer may not provide onsite food service, hot-hold items in chafing dishes, or portion, assemble or serve food per order, because "these activities are considered food service, not cottage food." Bite-size samples are allowed at any location.

Florida. Section 500.80, Florida Statutes exempts a cottage food operation with annual gross sales up to $250,000 from state food permitting, and allows delivery in person directly to the consumer or to a specific event venue. Wholesale is not allowed. University of Florida IFAS guidance says operators need no licence or permit and are not inspected by any state agency, including the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and that products may be sold at farmers markets, pop-up markets, flea markets and roadside stands "provided there are no other food items at the stand that require a food permit," and warns that some venues still ask for extra licensing or a food protection manager certificate.

So in both states the same line applies: packaged, labelled, shelf-stable goods sold as they are can go to an event under the exemption. Cooking, plating or holding food hot at the booth turns the booth into a temporary food establishment, which needs the event's temporary permit.

How to get a food vendor licence, in order

Apply in this order, because each step produces a document the next one asks for.

1. Fix your format and menu. The menu sets the permit class. In New York City, cooking or slicing on board makes a unit "processing" at $200 for a two-year permit; selling prepackaged or non-hazardous food keeps it at $75.
2. Register the business and sales tax. The health and city applications ask for the business name, owner and tax numbers, and NYC wants a sales tax certificate issued within the past 90 days.
3. Get the food safety certificate your health department names: a food handler card, a certified food protection manager, or both.
4. Line up a commissary or approved facility if you sell from a truck or cart, and get the signed agreement or letter.
5. Pass plan review and the health inspection. Our Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Washington, DC records each list plan review as its own step before the unit's permit.
6. Add the city vending or peddler licence and the fire inspection wherever you will sell on public property or run propane.
7. For each event, check whether the event's health department wants a temporary permit, and send the organiser a certificate of insurance naming them as additional insured (see our COI guide).

The permits in steps 1 to 6 are annual or multi-year. Step 7 repeats every event, which is where most of a working season's paperwork comes from.

Sources: NYC DOHMH Mobile Food Vending Licence Application Forms Package · NYC DOHMH Mobile Food Vending Permit Application Forms and Instructions · Sacramento County EMD — Compact Mobile Food Operation Application Guidance 2026–2027 · LA County DPH — Compact Mobile Food Operation: What Does It Mean? · CBS Los Angeles — street vendor permit fees reduced (June 28, 2024) · FOX 11 — LA drops price of permit for street vendors (June 28, 2024) · Erie County Auditor — Increase in Vendor License Application Fee (2025) · Texas DSHS — Texas Cottage Food Production · Houston Health Department — Texas Cottage Food Production FAQ (revised August 20, 2026) · Section 500.80, Florida Statutes · UF/IFAS — Cottage Food Operations FAQ (FS425) · FDA Food Code 2022 · Houston Health Department — Temporary Food Permits · AutoFill PDFs verified permit data for 47 US cities. All accessed 19 October 2026. Fees change, so confirm with the issuing agency before you apply.