4 ms·
New York (City) as well, IIRC. Street-side cooking is more akin to heating up already prepared food. San Francisco, too. While it seemingly defeats the purpose,
by awad 8y ago
New York (City) as well, IIRC. Street-side cooking is more akin to heating up already prepared food. San Francisco, too. While it seemingly defeats the purpose, the flip side of the argument is that it is easier to ensure base levels of hygiene.
The article itself, btw, is a pretty nifty use of PostGIS viz.
Edit: Originally had all of California included but it was pointed out that my knowledge was limited to San Francisco as LA does not have the same requirements.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoIn Los Angeles, food trucks must be parked at a commissary, but it isn’t required that food prep be done there.
- awad 8y agoAh, I might have been too over-reaching. I know it's certainly true in San Francisco.
- baddox 8y agoI’m not so certain. I know of prominently-positioned pizza trucks in SF that are clearly cooking their pizzas there. I doubt they are doing that illegally.
- schrodinger 8y agoA lot of the laws differentiate between foods that are dangerous when left out (eg meat) and those that aren’t (pizza supplies). I think it’s called cottage food laws?
- awad 8y ago"All mobile food vendors must operate in conjunction with a food facility, also known as a commissary, such as a licensed commercial kitchen. Thus, you will need to rent a commercial space for preparing food, and storing your inventory." https://businessportal.sfgov.org/start/starter-kits/food-truck https://businessportal.sfgov.org/start/starter-kits/food-tru... Another commenter mentioned that there may be various classifications of food such that a Pizza truck may be able to get around it due to the nature of the ingredients but I'm unfamiliar as to where those lines are drawn
- village-idiot 8y agoYup. Food trucks in my area (LA County, but not Los Angeles itself) definitely cook in their trucks, but they effectively cluster into what I call "food truck cafeterias", side streets that seem to be set aside for food truck usage. It's actually pretty convenient, since two streets over from my office there's usually a dozen or so trucks all available on a low-traffic street.
- Camillo 8y agoBut the other main point of having a food truck is to avoid all sorts of regulations on food safety, hygiene, waste disposal, etc. (which is why they are also known as "roach coaches"). So yes, those ordinances do largely defeat the purpose of food trucks.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoIf you assume that all food trucks are violating the law anyway, how exactly are more restrictive laws supposed to help?
- thaumasiotes 8y agoI'm on the side of the food trucks, but this is an easy question. It replaces the need to enforce food safety regulations, which is hard, with the ability to enforce simple bans on the trucks' existence/presence, which is easy. If you know food trucks are doing terrible things, but you can't prove they're doing anything wrong, you can solve your problem by dropping the evidence requirement.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoAnd here I thought the main point of having a food truck is to sell essentially the same stuff regular restaurants do, but with extra markup for the hipster factor.
- MisterTea 8y agoFood can and is cooked at the cart or truck. Though there may be a regulation regarding prep, no idea. I used to visit a burger truck every Friday off Water St in down town, Frites n Meats. They cooked the burgers and fries on the spot. Every other food truck I've patronized also cooked and served fresh food. The carts simply have no prep space so they prep the food at a kitchen. I frequent one halal cart here in Queens, Shah's, and have many times witnessed the delivery van pull up and drop off food. I've also seen them cut open a vacuum sealed bag of raw marinated meat, pour it over the grill and start cooking. Delicious.