The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative and the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards formed the Mobile Food Vendor Working Group in 2019 with representatives from several municipal health departments and inspectional services departments, and from UMass Extension and the Department of Public Health. The Working Group was created in response to a recommendation issued by the Working Group on Farming and Public Health, which in turn was created in response to a recommendation in the MA Local Food Action Plan. Recommendation #6 is: ‘Partners will explore a third-party certification program for farmers market vendors.’ We have expanded the discussions from farmers market vendors to all mobile food vendors, including food trucks.
The goal of the Working Group is to increase efficiencies for Boards of Health while protecting food safety. The Group hopes to do this by sharing information between Boards, building knowledge and trust between agents, and increasing consistency across Boards.
The Working Group has initiated pilot projects to use various strategies to lower the overall burden on BoHs in permitting mobile food vendors within several communities.
Mobile Food Vendor Resources
For more information, please contact Brittany Peats at [email protected].
