The law

HB 2844, in plain words

What it is. House Bill 2844 passed the Texas Legislature on May 26, 2025 and was signed on June 10, 2025. Its mobile food vendor provisions took effect July 1, 2026. It created a new chapter of the Health and Safety Code — chapter 437B — devoted entirely to mobile food vendors, and handed the whole system to the Department of State Health Services.

The preemption clause (§437B.003). Chapter 437B preempts local authority to prohibit or regulate mobile food vendors in ways that conflict with it. A companion 2025 law, SB 1008, separately limits stricter local food rules. In practice: a city rule that re-creates a local permit for selling food conflicts; a city rule about where trucks park does not.

The license (§437B.051). A mobile food vendor must hold an annual DSHS license to operate — one license per vehicle, valid for statewide operation. Local jurisdictions may no longer issue mobile food permits under the old chapter 437 system. If a city website still offers you one, it is selling you a retired process (it happened in Dallas for months; see the correction log).

The three types (§437B.151). Type I: prepackaged non-perishable food, low risk. Type II: prepackaged perishable food, or limited handling and preparation. Type III: prepares, cooks, holds, and serves. Your menu chooses your type, and your type chooses your fees and inspection weight — the table is on the Texas hub.

The inspection duty (§437B.054). The statute obliges DSHS to complete pre-licensing inspections on a 14-day clock. The agency has acknowledged — in response to operator inquiries during the July 2026 surge — that it cannot always meet it, and operators report waits of months. We print the duty and the reality side by side, labeled, because planning around only the duty is how opening dates die.

What did not change: the Texas Food Establishment Rules still govern the truck itself — water, waste, temperatures, handwashing, and the Central Preparation Facility (commissary) documentation that Type II and III licenses require. HB 2844 changed who licenses you, not what a safe truck is.

The transition guide in the kit walks the whole change as a checklist: which type you are, how to file, how to hold a current local license correctly while you wait, and what to say — chapter and section — when a city demands its retired permit.

Included in the $29 FoodTruckCleared Kit

  • Permit Path sheets for all 51 jurisdictions: who issues your permit, the step sequence, the commissary rule, and the local layer that survives — one printable sheet per state
  • The Texas HB 2844 transition guide: DSHS license types and fees, the inspection-queue playbook, and the exact answer to give a city still demanding its retired permit
  • Reciprocity playbooks for Colorado, Utah, and Oklahoma: the document packet, the 14-day clocks, and the copy-delivery errand, state by state
  • The commissary agreement template: a fill-in agreement with the sections health departments look for, plus how to find and negotiate a commissary in a new city
  • Inspection checklists: the health walk-through and the fire walk-through, in the order inspectors actually move around the truck
  • The event and temporary-permit pack: an application tracker, the questions to ask an organizer before you pay a booth fee, and the mass-gathering notice rules
  • Fee worksheets and a renewal calendar: what you paid, to whom, and when it expires — so no permit ever lapses silently

Get the FoodTruckCleared Kit — $29

One payment of $29. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — Permit Path sheets for all 51 jurisdictions, the Texas transition guide, reciprocity playbooks, the commissary agreement template, inspection checklists, the event pack, and fee worksheets.