Maryland County Looks At Stronger Food Truck Rules

We usually define restaurant locations as strip sites or stand-alone or mall placements. Now a county in Maryland is looking at putting parked food trucks in their own business category as semi-permanent foodservice facilities.

The Anne Arundel County Council is mulling a bill creating that definition and enforcing a five-year-old state law that says such food trailers must have permanent water and sewer hook ups. The legislation draws a distinction between mobile units, usually limited to a cook-and-serve operation, and trailers that remain parked in one spot and are likely to store prepared foods overnight.

According to the Capital Gazette, the county worked with state health officials on legislation that would allow existing units to keep operating under the old state laws. Those operators will have to follow certain rules, such as properly disposing of wastewater monthly. So would any other semi-permanent unit that opens in the county in the future.

Under the new rules, county health officials must inspect the waste water disposal records twice a year.