How to Get a Health and Fire Permit for Your Food Truck

You should go over the plans for your truck with Inspectional Services before you start building. You can schedule an appointment to review your construction and operation plans by calling Tom McAdams at 617-961-3293.

You need to bring a few things to the review:

• equipment plans and specifications for your truck
• a food truck plan review form to find out what other permits you’ll need
• a completed health permit application, and
• a sample menu to help you figure out the layout of the kitchen.

There’s also a $100 annual health permit fee. If you pay the fee during your review, you will not have to pay later when your truck is inspected. We take checks made payable to the City of Boston.

We’ll give you a date and time to review your plans with an inspector when you call. Please bring all of your information to the review.

Once your truck is complete, you need to get it inspected before you can run your business.

Call the Fire Department first to schedule your inspection for a fire permit at 617-343-3447. They do inspections Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. 

Inspectional Services does inspections for health permits Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. You don't need to schedule an appointment before you visit. Call Tom McAdams at 617-961-3293 for more information.

On the day of your scheduled appointment, please bring your food truck to:

Fire Prevention

1010 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, MA 02218

You'll need to bring your Food Truck Permit for your fire inspection. The fee for a fire permit inspection is $150.

You may also need to bring your permit application for Open Burning and Cooking Operations. You need this permit if you use anything but an inline generator for cooking or to power your truck. To get the permit, you'll need a fire suppression system and a fire extinguisher. You'll have to renew this permit every year.

If your truck passes the fire inspection, you'll be given a permit and the fire inspector will sign your food truck permit application.

On the day of your health inspection, please bring your food truck to:

Inspectional Services Department

1010 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, MA 02218

You also need to bring several documents:

• your sample menu
• Proof of Commissary with a licensed kitchen (We need a letter from the owner that states you use the facility as your base of operations. If the kitchen is outside of Boston, you need to include that City or town's health permit for the commissary kitchen with your letter.)
• proof that at least one person on your truck is a Certified Food Manager
• your Use of Premises Permit if you'll be selling on a private site
• your Allergen certification, along with your ServSafe certificate
• your completed health permit application, and
• your Food Truck Permit Application.

If you didn't pay the $100 annual health permit fee when you had your plans reviewed, you must pay it at the inspection.

If your truck passes inspection, you'll be given a health permit and a health inspector will sign your food truck permit application.