How to Fill Out the Arizona Mobile Food Unit Application (Maricopa and Pima County, 2026)

This walks the actual application, field by field. For everything around it — the city business licence, fire inspection, sales tax and total cost — start with the Phoenix food truck permit guide or the Tucson food truck permit guide.

Step 1 — Work out which county's paperwork you are filling in

The county where your commissary is located issues your permit, not the city you plan to sell in. A.R.S. § 36-1761 tells the state health director to set statewide standards with three categories of mobile food unit, and it delegates licensing and inspection to the county health department in the county where the mobile food vendor's commissary is located. So a Phoenix commissary means Maricopa County's paperwork, and a Tucson commissary means Pima County's.

A state licence is issued per unit and renewed annually. Two trucks means two applications in either county.

Step 2 — Pick Type I, II or III before you touch a form

Your type is decided by your menu, and every later field depends on it. Both counties use the same three types, in nearly the same words.

• Type I. Commercially processed, individually packaged food. No cooking, preparation or assembly. Maricopa's examples are ice cream trucks and carts and cold trucks.
• Type II. Assemble-serve, heat-serve and hold-serve only. Maricopa's examples are hot dog carts, coffee carts, shaved ice carts and kettle corn carts. Its own illustration: you may buy commercially processed BBQ, open the package, reheat it, put it on a bun and serve it. Making BBQ from raw meat needs a Food Production (Food Processor) permit at a fixed establishment. Pima allows one exception to the no-raw-animal-food rule: bacon-wrapped hot dogs pre-wrapped at the commissary. Pima also says no fryers on open-air carts.
• Type III. An enclosed vehicle that prepares, cooks, holds and serves food. Raw animal food may be cooked inside the unit. Pima's checklist states a Type 3 unit is required to have a three-compartment sink.

Maricopa limits even Type III to simplified preparation. Its guideline names the steps that belong at a commissary instead: cooking overnight without oversight, cooling, or cutting large volumes of food on the unit. Produce must be bought pre-washed or washed at the commissary unless the unit has an approved prep sink, and time/temperature-controlled food must be prepared the same day it is sold. Pima's application form says the same thing about cooling: a mobile unit cannot cool any foods on board, and all cooling must be done at the commissary.

Tick the type you can defend from your menu. Both counties review the menu against the unit, and Pima's guide says any change to the menu must be submitted and approved before you operate with it.

Step 3 — Phoenix: the Maricopa County Permit Center application

Maricopa takes the application online through Permit Center, and the first decision is which of two applications you open. The Type II and Type III guidelines define them:

• Mobile Food Permit Plan Review — for a unit that is custom-built, or one that has not had a permit in Maricopa County within the last 3 years.
• Mobile Food Permit Ownership Change — for a unit that holds a current permit in another Arizona county under the state licensing requirements, or one that was permitted in Maricopa County within the last 3 years and has not been modified.

Choosing Ownership Change when the unit qualifies is what skips plan review. Either way you attach the proposed menu.

Minimum requirements to qualify. The guidelines list them for every type: a unit that is readily movable at all times; the business name on 2 sides and the rear, in letters 3 inches high and 3/8 inch wide; a unique identifier on each unit if you own more than one (the county's example is "ABC Cart #1"); smooth, durable, non-absorbent floors, walls and ceilings; commercial, NSF/ANSI-approved equipment; thermometers; and a generator or power source.

Documents required before the permit is issued. A Commissary Agreement, a Route Sheet/Location of Operation, pictures of the unit, and for Type II and Type III a Certified Food Protection Manager certificate (see food manager certification). Maricopa also publishes an Approved Sanitary Toilet Facilities agreement (Rev 09/09/2025): a unit that stays at the same site for more than one hour needs employee toilet facilities within 200 feet, and the form states that chemical toilets do not meet the requirement.

The Route Sheet, field by field. The header asks for Business Name, Permit No., Contact Name and Cell Phone, then twelve month boxes under Months of Operation. After that you fill in whichever block matches how you trade:

• Regularly scheduled locations (page 1): a row for each day, Monday to Sunday, with Start Time, Stop Time, a description of the location (the form's example is a farmers market), the address, the city and the months.
• A route (page 2): up to 10 numbered stops, each with start time, stop time and the name and address of the stop.
• Special events only (page 2): the date, name and location of the events you worked during the past year.

The inspection step depends on who built the unit. If you used an approved builder, the county emails an electronic Pre-Operational Attestation Form once the application is approved, and the guideline says this form will serve as your first inspection. If you submitted custom-built plans, staff contact you to schedule a pre-operational inspection. In both cases the invoice for the annual permit fee arrives by email afterwards, and paying it releases the Permit Card and the electronic Permit Placard.

Step 4 — Tucson: Pima County's plan review checklist and Appendix A-B

Pima County requires plan review for a unit that has not been built, is not actively permitted anywhere in Arizona, or is about to be remodelled. Its guide adds that a change of owner — including a change of business name, menu or business concept — may require plan review too. You apply through the online Application for Plan Review, wait for confirmation, then contact the office to pay the $230 fee.

The Mobile Food Unit Plan Review Checklist is a two-page form you complete and submit with the plans. The top asks you to tick Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3 Menu and New, Remodel or Change of Ownership. Below that is a tick list of what the plans must show:

• A complete, legible set of plans to scale, with a top view layout of equipment and a side view plumbing schematic.
• The proposed menu, describing concepts.
• The hand wash sink, required for all Type 2 and Type 3 units.
• Fresh and waste water tank dimensions (the numbers are in Step 6).
• Name and model numbers of equipment, all of it NSF/ANSI approved.
• Design and construction materials, and food contact surface materials.
• Lighting of at least 50 foot candles.
• Windows or service openings with dimensions, screened at 16 mesh to 1 inch.
• The business name on the back and at least one side of the unit.

The Mobile Food Unit Guide adds items the checklist does not print: exterior views of the unit, a food handler's certification, written standard operating procedures for food safety, cookline hood ventilation, a self-closing door, and lighting of 20 foot candles at sinks. It also rules out residential equipment: "No Residential or Household-Use Only equipment."

Appendix A-B is the county's fillable plan review application, a six-page form with a Mobile tick box under TYPE OF FOOD OPERATION. Appendix A collects the establishment name and address, the owner's name, address, email and phone, a separate applicant or plan review contact, hours for each day of the week, maximum employees per shift and meals sold per day. Appendix B is where the reviewer learns how you cook:

• Food delivery — how often frozen, refrigerated and dry goods arrive.
• Food storage — dry storage in square feet, refrigerated and frozen storage in cubic feet. The form says a mobile unit should count only storage on the unit.
• A process table — for washing, thawing, cooking, hot holding, cooling and reheating, you name the food items and the location and equipment. The form's note explains that a mobile unit may do a process on the truck and at the commissary and must say which, and that cooling is never done on the unit.
• Physical facilities — the number of hand sinks, the length, width and depth of the three-compartment sink compartments, whether your largest pot fits, the sanitiser type, and the water heater capacity and location.

After plan approval Pima issues a Certificate of Conditional Approval, valid for one year. You then file the online Application for Permit, administration contacts you to pay the operating permit and pre-operational inspection fees, and the plan review inspector schedules the pre-operational inspection at the commissary. Before it, the guide requires construction complete, the business name permanently affixed, working equipment and plumbing, thermometers, soap, sanitiser, test strips and paper towels, and water at 100°F minimum for a unit with only a hand sink or 110°F minimum for a unit with a three-compartment sink. Our health inspection checklist covers what inspectors look at once you are open.

Step 5 — The commissary agreement in each county

Both counties require a signed commissary agreement before a permit is issued, and both forms are filled in partly by you and partly by the kitchen.

Maricopa County, Commissary Agreement (Rev 09/08/2025). Page 1 is information and a list of verified commissaries; page 2 is the form. Your half opens with the sentence "I agree to report daily to the commissary listed below", then nine service tick boxes (fresh water supply, gray water disposal, ware washing facilities, food preparation, garbage disposal, food storage, chemical storage, vending unit cleaning, vending unit storage), your name and business name with phone numbers, the permit type (MF Type I, II or III, Temporary, Seasonal or Annual Event), the permit number, signature and date. The commissary's half repeats the nine boxes and adds the commissary name, owner or manager, address, phone, permit number, signature, date and title. The county requires a signed agreement for each unit, at initial permitting and at every renewal, and says each one will be verified. Ice cream trucks are exempt.

Two details on page 1 are easy to miss. The code requires a log of visits to the commissary, written in permanent, waterproof ink and kept in the unit. And if your commissary is not on the county's verified list and your unit has a three-compartment sink, you need written approval from the local jurisdiction's pretreatment program to discharge wastewater there.

Pima County, Commissary/Servicing Area Agreement (February 2023). One page, headed with an instruction worth following literally: "Enter N/A where requested information does not apply. Leave NO BLANK SPACES." You tick Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 or Annual Event and give the mobile food establishment name, owner name and phone. The commissary operator then ticks how often you will use it — daily, weekly or other — and which of ten services it provides: approved potable water source, wastewater disposal, cleaning area for the unit, dry goods storage, refrigeration storage, food preparation area, food storage area, utensil washing area, equipment and utensil storage, and prepackaged foods for retail sale. It ends with the commissary's name, owner or manager, address, phone, email, the agency that issued its permit and the permit number, with a copy of that permit attached.

Pima also uses a monthly Commissary/Servicing Area Attendance Report. The form states that units must report to their approved commissary at least every 96 hours under Arizona Administrative Code R9-8-110, that it is completed at every visit, and that it is kept on the unit for 30 days. Maricopa's agreement and code ask for a daily report instead.

Step 6 — The numbers both counties check on the unit

Both counties are applying the same statewide standards, so their lists nearly match. The real differences are in the last four rows.

Both counties also require a quick-disconnect design on the water and sewer connections, a food-grade water hose, and a water heater or other approved hot water source. Maricopa adds that all plumbing connections must be different sizes.

Step 7 — What you actually pay

Maricopa County. The county does publish its fees, in the fee table of Chapter I of the Maricopa County Environmental Health Code (Rev 08/19/2026), which the Type I, II and III guidelines link to rather than print:

The same chapter says permits are valid for one year from the initial issue date and that all permit fees are non-refundable. The permit fee is not collected with the application: the guidelines say you receive an email invoice for the annual permit fee once the attestation form or pre-operational inspection is approved. The fee table has two mobile plan review lines, so check the invoice against the line for your unit type.

Pima County. The plan review figures are stated consistently on the fee schedule page, the checklist and the guide:

The annual operating permit is harder to pin down. Pima's fee schedule page prints an asterisk rather than a figure against each mobile operating permit line. The full fee table it links, which carries a "Starting 1/1/2020" column heading, lists $650 for a Class 3 full-service mobile unit that reports to a commissary, $315 for a Class 2 limited-menu unit, $390 for a Class 2 hot dog unit, and $109 for a vehicle selling pre-packaged food only. That table's categories do not use the Type 1/2/3 names on the application forms, so treat those figures as the county's listed amounts and confirm yours with Consumer Health and Food Safety on 520-724-7908 before you budget. If you only need to cover a single event, a temporary food permit is a different application with its own fee.

The five that actually get Arizona applications rejected

1. The wrong type for the menu. A Type II application with raw meat cooked on the unit, or a Type III plan with no three-compartment sink. Both counties check the menu against the unit, and Type II cannot prepare raw animal food.
2. Opening the wrong Maricopa application. A custom-built unit, or one not permitted in Maricopa within the last 3 years, needs Mobile Food Permit Plan Review. Ownership Change is only for a unit currently permitted in another Arizona county, or permitted in Maricopa within 3 years and unmodified.
3. A commissary agreement with gaps. Pima's form says to leave no blank spaces and to attach the commissary's permit. Maricopa verifies every agreement, and an unlisted commissary needs wastewater approval from the local pretreatment program if you have a three-compartment sink.
4. Tanks that do not clear 15%. A 30-gallon fresh tank needs at least 34.5 gallons of waste capacity; add a prep sink and it is 50 gallons fresh and 57.5 gallons of waste.
5. Prep the county reserves for the commissary. Cooling food on the unit, cooking overnight, cutting large volumes on board, or washing produce without an approved prep sink. Pima's process table and Maricopa's Type III guideline both send those steps back to the commissary.

Sources: Maricopa County Mobile Food Type III guidelines, Rev 08/19/2026 (official) · Type II guidelines · Type I guidelines · Maricopa County Commissary Agreement, Rev 09/08/2025 · Mobile Food Operating Information/Route Sheet, Rev 09/24/25 · Approved Sanitary Toilet Facilities Agreement, Rev 09/09/2025 · Maricopa County Environmental Health Code, Chapter I fee table, Rev 08/19/2026 · Maricopa County Mobile Food Establishments · Pima County Plan Review: Mobile Food Unit Guide · Pima County Mobile Food Unit Plan Review Checklist · Pima County Plan Review Application, Appendix A-B · Pima County Commissary/Servicing Area Agreement, February 2023 · Pima County Commissary Attendance Report · Pima County Consumer Health & Food Safety Fee Schedule and its full fee table · A.R.S. § 36-1761 · A.R.S. § 11-269.24 · Maricopa County Mobile Food Program 602-506-6824 · Pima County Consumer Health and Food Safety 520-724-7908. Verified 4 October 2026.