How to Fill Out the Alameda County Mobile Food Facility Application (Oakland, 2026)

This walks the actual application, page by page. For everything around it — the City of Oakland Food Vending Permit, the private-property rule, the school setback and total cost — start with the Oakland food truck permit guide, or how to start a food truck business in California for the statewide sequence.

Oakland has no health department of its own, so an Oakland truck's health permit comes from the Alameda County Environmental Health Department (ACEHD). The county uses one eight-page form for every kind of mobile unit, and its program page says a Temporary Food Facility application will not be accepted in its place.

Step 1 — Get the current form, not the old one

Use the copy linked from the county's Mobile Food Facilities program page. Older copies of the same form are still live on deh.acgov.org and rank in search, and they differ in ways that matter:

The categories, the questions and the fees printed on the form are the same in both.

Step 2 — Page 1: who you are and what the vehicle is

Page 1 asks for three people who may or may not be the same person, so decide that before you start typing:

• Contact Name, email and cell phone — whoever the county should call.
• Business Owner Name – Sole Proprietor, LLC, INC., phone, address, and a separate Business Mailing Address and email.
• Name of the Business and Vehicle Owner Name.

Then the vehicle: Vehicle Make & Year, License Plate, VIN #, and Owner CDL# / Valid Government I.D. #. The last field, Any Current/Expired CA County Health Permit for Vehicle, is the one that decides the rest of the application: a unit with a California county permit history goes to Box B, and one without goes to plan check under Box A.

The owner prints and signs an attestation that the information is true and may be subject to penalty of perjury, that an annual permit fee applies once approved, and that billing follows Title 6 of the Alameda County General Ordinance Code. Leave the office-use boxes and the PE CODE line blank. The inspector fills those in.

Step 3 — Page 2: tick one category, A to H

Tick the one category that matches the unit's history, because each one has its own document list. Two letters appear twice on the form, with different fees:

There is also a Consult — $174 tick box, for a one-on-one consultation with an inspector, which page 1 says is charged at an hourly rate. The free alternative is on page 1: the New Business Info Session, first Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m. at 1131 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, excluding holidays.

Most new Oakland trucks are A or B. Box A applies if the facility has never been issued an environmental health permit to operate within the state of California, or has not yet been manufactured, or is to be remodeled. Box B applies to a truck that has been permitted by a California county before. Box B says it outright: if no CA environmental health permit, plan check is required — see Box A.

Step 4 — Pages 2–3: the documents for your box

Each instruction box is a checklist of attachments. The three that food trucks use:

Box A — plan check. Submit the application with your plans, and submit them prior to beginning construction or remodeling. The county's plan submittal requirements ask for drawings to a scale of 1/4 inch = 1 foot: a floor plan, equipment schedule, finish schedule, plumbing plan, elevation plan and hood plan, plus specification sheets for all equipment, a menu, and standard operating procedures for cleaning, sanitizing and food handling. Put the name of the mobile food facility and the manufacturer's contact information on the plans.

Box B — new annual permit or change of ownership.

• CA Housing and Community Development insignia (not applicable to CMFO carts)
• Food Safety Certificate and/or Food Handler Card — see food manager certification for which one a truck needs
• Business License
• CA Driver License / valid government I.D.
• Current DMV registration
• Pictures of all 4 sides of the unit, and the inside for an MFF
• A picture of the current or expired CA county environmental health permit for this unit
• Where they apply: CA Milk and Dairy License, CA Processed Food Registration, Cottage Food Registration

Box C — renewal. Pay your invoice, schedule an appointment with your inspector, and submit the application to the inspector one week prior to the appointment. Bring the truck. The form says all equipment must operate in approved working condition to receive the permit, and page 6 adds that a missed appointment fee applies to no-shows. The county's fee schedule lists that fee at $114. Our food truck health inspection checklist covers what to test the day before.

The electrical outlet and/or restroom agreement sits at the bottom of page 3 and is easy to miss. The form states that a restroom is required when operating for more than 1 hour in one place, and that it shall be within 200 feet of the operating site. You give the address of the electrical outlet and the address of the restroom, and the person authorised to give permission for those services prints their name. For an Oakland truck parked on private property for the day, that is the property owner or tenant whose restroom you are relying on.

Step 5 — Page 4: the menu and ingredient table

List every menu item, every ingredient in it, and answer two yes/no columns for each: Prepared in the commissary kitchen? and Prepared on the vehicle?

The heading carries the rule the columns are testing: food shall not be made in a private residence (CalCode section 114285). Every row should end in a commissary "Y", a vehicle "Y", or both. An item that is neither was made somewhere the form does not allow.

This table also has to agree with the rest of the packet. If a row says "prepared in the commissary kitchen", the commissary agreement on page 7 needs a YES against Facilities to prepare or package food. If produce is washed on the truck, question (o) on page 6 asks you to provide the procedure.

Step 6 — Pages 5–6: the general questions

Pages 5 and 6 are a written check of how you will run the truck, and the form warns that multiple-choice questions may have more than one correct answer.

Questions 1 to 3 are free text.

1. How you will prevent cross contamination when customers want to use their own refillable cups, mugs, containers or plates. Not applicable to certified farmers' market applicants and vending machines.
2. The kW power rating, make and model of your generator.
3. How many employees work with food, whether they all have food handler cards, whether they have been trained to do assigned duties, and whether you have designated a person in charge during operations.

Question 4 is 20 lettered items, (a) to (t), introduced as the basis of your standard operating procedures. They fall into five groups:

The county does not publish an answer key, and this guide will not invent one. Three things are safe to say from the form itself:

• Several options are plainly there to be rejected. "Hope the inspector does not come today", "By tasting it", "On the floor" and "It is not necessary" are all printed choices.
• "At home" is offered three times — for emptying wastewater tanks (b), cleaning the MFF (f) and washing produce (o). The commissary agreement on the next page is where the same form expects waste tank disposal, potable water and warewashing to come from.
• Question (r) lists eight conditions — vermin infestation, no power, no hot water, no refrigeration, no sanitizer, no water, clogged drains, no handwashing — under a heading that says more than one answer may be correct. Read each one against the question, not as pick-one.

Answer these as the person who will be on the truck. Page 6 ends with an operator signature under a statement that non-compliance with the California Retail Food Code may result in permit suspension or revocation, and the plan check requirements ask for written standard operating procedures as well, so the two should say the same thing.

Categories D, F, G and H skip parts of this section. The instruction boxes say which questions are not applicable to each.

Step 7 — Page 7: the Commissary / Commercial Kitchen Agreement

The commissary's owner or manager fills in Section 1, not you. It asks for the commissary or commercial kitchen's name, the owner's name, street address, city and zip, a cell phone and an alternate phone, then a sentence in which the facility owner or manager agrees to provide services to the named operator.

Fifteen services follow, each marked YES or NO:

• Facilities to prepare or package food
• Toilet & handwashing facilities
• Waste tank/sewage disposal
• Garbage disposal
• Potable (drinkable) water supply
• Electrical hook-up
• Equipment/utensil storage
• Warewash facility (i.e. 3 compartment sink)
• Dry food storage
• Waste grease removal
• Chemical storage
• Overnight parking (MFPU)
• Enclosed overnight parking (carts)
• Refrigeration/frozen food storage
• Supply food product – i.e. ice, meats

Any "NO" answer must be explained, and the form says additional commissary agreements may be required. So a kitchen that gives you prep space but no overnight parking produces a second agreement with wherever the truck sleeps.

Section 2 applies only if the commissary is outside Alameda County or in the City of Berkeley. In that case the local environmental health department signs to verify the facility has a current health permit, and the REHS signature verifies it meets CalCode sections 114294 – 114297. You need a name, phone, email, signature and date received from an inspector in another jurisdiction, which is the slowest signature in the packet. A commissary in Emeryville or San Leandro avoids it. One in Berkeley, Richmond or San Francisco does not.

The county's FAQ calls this page Part D and publishes it on its own, for when you change commissary later. What a commissary letter covers in general, and what kitchens charge, is in our commissary letter guide.

Step 8 — Page 8: the Mobile Food Facility Route Sheet

List every place you will operate, with the days and hours, because inspectors use this sheet to find you. The sheet (Part E) has ten rows, each asking for Location(s)/Temp Event(s) address with city and zip, days of operation, start time and end time. Above the rows it asks for the business's website, the name of the mobile food facility, the PR # and the licence plate. Below, the operator prints and signs, with a mobile phone and an alternate.

The paragraph at the top is the part to read twice. If an inspector attempts an inspection based on the route sheet on file and the facility is not at the location specified, the next inspection may be charged at the current hourly rate. The sheet adds that failure to be at a listed location may be considered a refusal to permit entry to inspect.

For an Oakland truck this sheet lines up with the city side. Oakland licenses a truck to a specific private-property site and schedule, covered on the Oakland permit page, so the address and hours on the county route sheet and on the city application should be the same ones. Send changes in person or to dehmobilefood@acgov.org.

Step 9 — Fees, payment and where to send it

You pay in two stages: the application fee and, for Box A, a plan check fee to start, then the annual permit fee before the permit is issued. Page 1 puts it in one sentence: a permit will not be issued until the application is approved, the facility passes a structural inspection, and the annual permit fee is paid.

The application does not print the annual permit fee. The two annual figures above come from the county's published fee schedule, which the billing page links under the label "General Fees Effective 7/1/2021". Its $174 hourly rate, $207 single-event fee and $514 minor plan review fee match the current application, but the schedule does not say which line a given truck falls under. The inspector assigns the PE code on page 1, and that code sets the fee. Ask which one applies before you budget: 510-567-6700.

Submitting. The current form says by US Mail, in person at 1131 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, or online at dehmobilefood@acgov.org. The county's FAQ page still sends new-permit and plan check documents to dehwebbilling@acgov.org. Billing emails an invoice either way, and the FAQ says the permit process begins once payment is secured.

Paying. In person or by mail with a check payable to "Alameda County Environmental Health Department", or online once you have the emailed invoice. The county's billing page says a payment received more than 30 days after the invoice date takes a 25% penalty, with another 25% after 60 days, and that annual permit fees are non-refundable, non-transferable to new owners, and not prorated. Billing help: 510-567-6858.

Veterans. Page 2 links a permit fee exemption form for qualified veterans, submitted with the application.

Five ways this form routes you back to the start

1. Box B for a truck with no California permit history. The form routes it to plan check under Box A, with scaled plans, before any permit application is reviewed.
2. Box E for an unpermitted unit. The single-event category requires a current California county health permit. Without one you do not qualify.
3. A commissary agreement with unexplained "NO" answers, or no Section 2. Every "NO" needs an explanation and may need a second agreement, and a commissary outside the county or in Berkeley needs its own jurisdiction's REHS signature.
4. A menu table that disagrees with the commissary agreement. Items marked as prepared at the commissary need a commissary that has agreed to provide prep facilities. Nothing may be made in a private residence.
5. No restroom address. Operating more than 1 hour in one place requires a restroom within 200 feet, with the address and a named person authorising its use on page 3.

The habits that prevent mismatches like these on any form, starting with one master record of your business details, are in how to fill out a vendor permit application faster.

Sources: Alameda County Environmental Health Department, Mobile Food Facility (MFF), Vending Machine (VM), Compact Mobile Food Facility (CMFO Cart) Application Form (official; the copy linked from the program page in October 2026) · older copy of the same form, file name dated 04.08.24 · ACEHD Mobile Food Facilities Program · ACEHD Frequently Asked Questions (Mobile Food Facility) · Requirements for Submitting Mobile Food Facility Plans · ACEHD Fee Schedule, Exhibit A · ACEHD Billing, Fees, Permits · Alameda County Environmental Health Department 510-567-6700 · billing 510-567-6858. The application does not print the annual permit fee; confirm yours with the county before budgeting. Verified 7 October 2026.