The breakdown
State legislators and advocates pointed to potential benefits for small businesses.
“Concerns have been raised that mobile food vendors in Texas face inconsistent local regulations and permit requirements, creating substantial costs and barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and small business owners,” government documents state.
House Bill 2844—also known as the Mobile Food Vendor Regulatory Consistency Act—seeks to ease those burdens by streamlining permitting and reducing regulatory inconsistencies across the state.
The bill would place licensing and regulation of food trucks under the authority of Texas Health and Human Services and the Department of State Health Services, rather than locally operated health agencies like Austin Public Health.
It would also prevent local governments from enforcing any rules that conflict with the bill’s provisions.
“If a mobile food vendor wants to operate here in Travis County or the city of Austin, and they have a permit from some small West Texas town, then we have to accept that permit,” Marcel Elizondo, the division chief of environmental health services for APH, told Travis County Commissioners during an update June 10.
Additionally, food trucks are no longer required to operate out of a central location, commonly seen as a commercial kitchen, he said.
Previously, both state and local rules required mobile food vendors to have a base of operations for things like water access, waste disposal and refrigeration. But under the new law, that’s now optional if the vendor proves they can meet those standards on their own.
Some context
The bill was sparked by a West Texas food truck operator who reportedly grew frustrated with needing separate permits to operate in both Odessa and Midland—cities just 20 minutes apart—prompting the area's state Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, to co-author legislation intended to resolve the issue at the state level.
“Mobile food vendors are part of the economic lifeblood of Texas. ... Yet today, mobile vendors face a complex web of conflicting local regulations that make it prohibitively expensive to operate across city lines,” Samuel Hooper, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice nonprofit, public interest law firm, wrote in support of the bill. “These vendors are often required to obtain multiple permits, pay duplicative fees and submit to redundant fire or health inspections just to do business in more than one jurisdiction.”
Understanding the impact
Elizondo said eliminating regulations for a central operating location is unrealistic. Most food trucks don’t have enough space for safe water systems or proper refrigeration, often relying on small, household-style coolers. These limitations provide room for more health violations as oversight will shift to the state, he said.
“Get ready for more salmonella and more problems,” Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea said.
The shift in oversight could also lead to slower responses to violations or illness outbreaks, Elizondo said, noting that local officials are usually able to act quickly when problems arise.
“If there's a foodborne illness complaint, we can be out there within 24 hours and conducting our own investigation. Turn it over to the state and there's a challenge on the response time,” he said.
The state plans to hire 20 inspectors to monitor around 12,000 food trucks across the entire state of Texas, Elizondo said. The aim is to have them fully hired and trained by next July, when the law goes into effect.
While the state finalizes the logistics of the new permitting and inspection system, APH and health departments in major cities like Dallas and Houston are exploring ways for local jurisdictions to play a continued role in routine inspections in order to uphold the “high bar” of food safety standards previously established.
Additionally, there are state-mandated regulatory requirements that will continue the tracking of foodborne illness outbreaks.
By law, health providers are required to report any suspected foodborne related illness, APH Chief Epidemiologist Janet Pichette said. However, it is something that often goes unreported, she said.
Another viewpoint
Josh Schroeder—mayor of Georgetown, a suburb north of Austin—opposed the bill and said the city had developed its food truck regulations through a public process.
He said the city's ordinance reflected the voice of the residents and “protected quality of life.”
“HB 2844 would undo all of that careful work by imposing a one-size-fits-all approach from the state level, overriding community voices and local expertise," Schroeder wrote. "While we support food truck entrepreneurship ... we believe those rules should be crafted and enforced locally, not by the state—Georgetown is not Austin.”
One last thing
The changes to mobile vendors’ use of a central operating base will go into effect Sept. 1, should the bill be signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, while the changes in permitting and inspections will not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
APH expects to lose about $635,000 in annual revenue from permitting and inspection fees, along with an additional $145,000 linked to Travis County’s budget, due to the roughly 540 mobile food vendors currently operating in the area.
Although it’s still early to measure the exact impact, APH officials also anticipate future effects on local fire marshal departments.
These departments are currently responsible for conducting safety inspections of mobile food vendors. However, under the new law, vendors can obtain permits from anywhere in the state and still operate locally. This means the Austin Fire Department and Travis County Fire Marshal may have to recognize inspections tied to out-of-area permits, potentially complicating enforcement and oversight.
