Bills Effecting Mobile Food Vendors Signed Into Law

Tougher State Health and Safety Rules Take Full Effect September 1st

AUSTIN - Texas Governor Rick Perry recently signed House Bills 3138 and 3672, authored by Representatives Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) and Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), which require mobile food vehicles with kitchens to be cleaned and maintained daily at a central commissary. The bills also require these units to obtain written permission from private property owners in order to set up shop.

“These bills will ensure that all of the mobile food vendors operating in Harris County provide food that is safe for their customers and protect property owners from liability from illegal operation on their land,” Bohac said.

The first bill, HB 3138, requires mobile food vending units operating on commercial property to obtain written permission from the property owner that shows expressed permission to operate at that location. It also requires the vending unit to display that written permission at all times.

The second measure, HB 3672, compliments a city of Houston ordinance and requires vending units to travel to a commissary once within each twenty-four hour period of operation for cleaning, grease disposal, used water disposal and food inspection. Similar ordinances by the city of Houston are often ignored and fraudulent trip tickets are distributed to the operators of mobile food vending units who have never taken their unit in for cleaning and inspection.

House Bills 3138 and 3672 do not affect vendors selling pre-packaged snacks or sandwiches, only those vehicles with kitchens that cook food.

Following the state’s actions, Harris County recently took action regulating mobile food vendors in unincorporated parts of the county by requiring them to have access to a bathroom - with permission of the bathroom’s owner - along with hot running water within 300 feet of where they serve food. County health officials will also require a daily visit to a commissary and will require that a manager trained in food safety be present while serving food.

Houston’s Local 2 News recently investigated the process of obtaining a trip ticket and discovered that many mobile food vendors never actually went to a commissary for maintenance, yet they were able to obtain tickets showing that they had visited and were cleaned. HB 3672 makes these trip tickets official government documents, and tampering with them will now be much more serious.

View the Channel 2 News Investigative Reports:

”Many mobile food vendors in the Houston area are hard-working small business owners who are doing a great job and are in compliance with state and local regulations,” Bohac said. “Law abiding vendors will not be affected by the passage of these bills, but all citizens deserve to have their food prepared according to safe standards. The public’s health and well-being are at stake, and we can no longer tiptoe around this issue.”

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