Buying and Selling Street Food | Food Permits | Restaurant Red Flags | What We Do | Report a Restaurant or Food Vendor | Cooking at Home
No matter how tempting the aroma, remember to ask a simple
question before buying food from someone out of their home or vehicle: do you have a food permit?
Foods with meat, dairy, and other perishable ingredients can quickly grow dangerous bacteria if they aren't prepared and stored correctly. The USDA warns, food should be refrigerated within two hours to prevent these bacteria from growing and within one hour if the food is out in temperatures above 90 degrees.
Displaying a valid food permit doesn't ensure the food is safe, but it does ensure the people selling it have completed basic food training, and undergo a surprise inspection at least once a year.
If you want to sell food on social media, or other sites, please contact your local office and make sure your product doesn't require a food license. If you see someone selling food on social sites or parking lots without a license please call your local office so an environmental
health specialist can investigate and make sure that food provider is selling safe products.
The Idaho Food Code requires any person planning to store, prepare, package, serve, and sell high-risk food to a customer. High-risk foods include anything that should be refrigerated or cooked to specific temperatures to avoid causing food-borne illnesses. Preparing food for someone and giving it to them for free does not require a food permit. Please see the cooking at home section for tips to ensure that food is safe to hand out.
The following foods all require a food permit to sell:
*This is a summary list and does not include all foods that require a food permit to sell. If you are considering selling ANY food please call your local health district office for guidance. *
Foods that don't require a license to sell include all cottage foods. This is term that defines low-risk foods made in a person's home and sold directly to a customer. This can include baked goods that don't require refrigeration, dried fruits, dry herbs, cereals/granolas, nuts, uncut fruits and vegetables, popcorn or popcorn balls, and tinctures that do not make any medical claims. Learn more about cottage foods here.
The Idaho Food Code has quite a few rules to follow, but there are a couple of simple tips you can follow to help protect your health while eating out. If you are concerned about health code violations in a restaurant, within south central Idaho, let us know with an email or contact your local SCPHD office.
Click here to see results from local food establishment inspections.
When you call or email SCPHD to report a business, what do we do with that information? First, those reports are kept confidential. During an investigation an environmental health specialist may bring up the nature of the complaint, but they will never reveal your name. Second, specialists don't go into these investigations intending to shut anyone down. Typically, SCPHD will work with a business to improve their conditions and meet health code standards. If a health code is repeatedly violated, or severe enough, SCPHD may have to revoke a business food license until they can correct the problem.
Environmental Health Specialists at SCPHD do their best to monitor all food establishments even before these complaints are made-helping owners and staff understand food-safe practices, enforcing the Idaho Food Code, helping people work through the permitting process so they can start their business, and investigating complaints against any food establishments that may be spreading food-borne illnesses.
To do this effectively they need YOUR HELP. If you want to sell food on social media, or other sites, please contact your local office and make sure your product doesn't require a food license. If you see someone selling food on social sites or parking lots without a license please call your local office so an environmental health specialist can investigate and make sure that food provider is selling safe products. Selling high-risk foods without a food permit or license can result in a fine.
*Safe Temperatures Cooking Chart.
**Safe Storage Times chart