Food trucks can be a quick, convenient, and tasty way to have a meal, but this can come
at a cost. So before you go crazy at that next street festival, there are some things
you should know about food trucks that may cause you to have second thoughts.
Food truck operators know that to get their customers' orders out as quickly as possible
they may have to do some of their prep work ahead of time. And that prepared food has
to be stored inside the truck until it's needed.
City health departments across the United States have set food storage guidelines to
keep restaurant food as safe as possible. The New York City Department of Health states
that food should be stored at appropriate temperatures at all times to be considered
safe, these temperatures help to prevent the growth of potentially dangerous bacteria.
And although a food truck's refrigerator's temperature may not seem like a big deal,
unsafe food storage practices can lead to illnesses such as norovirus and salmonella.
But even with these health guidelines in place, some food trucks aren't able to hold up their
end of the bargain. In fact, as Women's Health noted, having food stored at unsafe temperatures
was the most common offense cited during health department inspections of food trucks in New
York City in 2012. That means your tasty food truck meal could be coming with a little more
than you bargained for.
If you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions, you have even more reasons to
be wary of ordering from a food truck.
"I told them I was pesca-pescatarian, which is one who eats solely fish who eat other
fish."
According to the Harvard Health Letter, some cities don't require food trucks to post nutritional
information for the food they serve, which may leave you to play a potentially dangerous
guessing game about what is actually included in your food.
The FDA is doing its part to help consumers know more about the food they eat. Since 2018
they've required chain restaurants with more than 20 locations to display calorie information
for their standard menu items. The restaurants must also provide more detailed information
on things like fat, sodium, and cholesterol content at the customer's request. Hopefully,
they will be able to expand these guidelines to include food trucks and other smaller restaurants
so consumers will have the power to make more informed choices.
When you're choosing a place to eat, a clean restaurant can make the difference between
a pleasant dining experience and a trip to the hospital. Food trucks may have less space
to keep clean than traditional brick and mortar restaurants, but their close quarters make
it easier for germs to spread. They also have to rely on tanks rather than pipes for their
water supply, which can present serious challenges if that water runs out.
"I see here that your hand wash sink - is it not working? Is it broken?"
"Yeah, our pump is currently a little bit broken."
In Boston, food trucks receive fewer overall health violations than their brick and mortar
competition. But when food trucks are cited, it's usually a pretty big deal. As the Boston
Globe reported, food trucks are more likely than brick and mortar restaurants to be shut
down for serious sanitation issues like running water. And although that is only one offense,
a properly working faucet can affect everything from the ability to keep dishes clean to the
workers' ability to wash their hands during food prep and service.
As the popularity of food trucks increases, cities are doing their best to make sure that
these mobile restaurants are taking the necessary precautions to keep their customers safe from
food borne illnesses. In most cities, operating a food truck requires the proprietor to secure
a permit and submit to inspections by the city's health department, just like their
brick and mortar counterparts.
In New York City, the Department of Health is required to inspect food trucks at least
once a year, and vendors are required to correct any violations immediately. But although brick
and mortar restaurant inspections are generally unannounced, food truck inspections are planned
due to resource allocation and because the trucks are mobile. After all, if the inspector
can't find the food truck, the inspection can't happen. Still planned inspections means
it's likely the inspectors aren't seeing them in the throws of a busy lunch rush, and the
number and frequency of health inspections for a food truck can also vary by location.
For food trucks, limited kitchen space often means limited space to keep dirty dishes and
raw food items away from prepared food items that they are serving to customers. Operators
may be hard-pressed to find isolated space for kitchen tools such as cutting boards and
knives for raw and cooked foods. And with the challenge of keeping their work space
free and clear of dirt and germs, it can be difficult for food truck owners to prevent
cross contamination of their food.
Having a smaller staff working inside the truck can also put the safety of your food
at risk. For example, if the same person is preparing and serving your food, it can be
difficult for them to keep their hands sanitized. As a result, the safety of the food you eat
may be compromised.
If you order from a food truck, you should be sure to take a peek inside to make sure
the workspace looks clean, and that dirty dishes aren't left around to pile up.
When you're considering whether or not to order from a food truck, it's just as important
that the people who prepare and serve your food keep themselves as clean and sanitary
as the food itself. And while there are guidelines in place for food truck workers to ensure
the safety of the food they are handling, there are still many incidents of unsafe practices
taking place every day.
As the Daily News reported, of over 4,300 food truck inspections in Manhattan in 2016,
one of the most common health-related violations found was ineffective hair coverage.
You may think the guy who served you that kimchi taco had a really cool beard, but unless
he had it covered with a hair net, he was putting the safety of your food at risk. According
to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, food truck workers should have long
hair either pulled back or covered at all times and should use gloves or using utensils,
rather than touching the food with their bare hands.
Cooking outside of the food truck may save the vendor a few minutes during the lunch
rush, but prepping food at home could also put the safety of your food at risk. Health
departments are not inspecting the home kitchens of food truck workers, and as a result don't
know the condition of the surfaces your food is being exposed to. They could be missing
some critical safety issues that they should be aware of.
Although health officials told HuffPost that unlicensed trucks more commonly implement
this practice, they do find some legally permitted vendors who either prep or store their food
in other kitchens. Are those kitchens clean? Did they wash their hands? We'll never know.
If all of the potential health and safety issues involved with eating from food trucks
doesn't make you want to get out of line and eat all your meals at home, you may change
your mind when you consider all of the ways traditional food trucks can have a negative
impact on the environment.
Because they are mobile, food trucks contribute to the overall carbon footprint. As the non-profit
environmental group Energy Vision pointed out, most traditional food trucks rely on
diesel-powered generators for electricity and propane tanks to cook the food and keep
it warm. According to Energy Vision, food trucks release nearly 14 million pounds of
carbon dioxide into the environment every hour.
Another environmental offender is the way we eat truck food. With the exception of some
eco-friendly vendors, most food trucks serve their food with disposable cutlery and packaging.
Those items are traditionally made of plastic and can be harmful to all of the wildlife
who call the ocean home. According to NPR, food trucks in the downtown Portland area
throw away nearly 60,000 food containers each month.
Although most cities have implemented strict licensing guidelines for food trucks, some
mobile food vendors can find ways to slip through the cracks and avoid going through
the proper channels to get their business off the ground. This practice may save vendors
money and time in the beginning, but in the end, may result in dangerous consequences
for customers.
In New York City, where there is a long wait list for new food truck permits, some legal
permit holders have found a way to scam the system and illegally rent their permits to
others at an inflated rate, as Eater pointed out.
And some mobile food vendors operate without being licensed at all. As St. Louis County
environmental supervisor, Katherine Boyer told KSDK, not every food truck operator goes
through the permit process, and as a result, they are not on the agency's radar for inspection.
Vendors who operate illegally aren't notified by the health department of the latest safety
guidelines. They also aren't held accountable for any unsafe practices inside their food
truck which can put you and your family at risk.
There are some food trucks, like Green Truck in LA, that offer healthy menu items, like
the "Mother Trucker Vegan Burger" and the "Kale Yeah Bowl," and G Monkey of Connecticut
that boasts a completely vegan menu. But for the most part, you can count on food trucks
to serve up food that is fried, or drenched in cheese or sauces that are full of sodium,
saturated fat, and sugar, according to the Harvard Health Letter.
Those fancy gourmet fries and decadent desserts may taste delicious, but the result of overindulging
in all of those high-calorie creations can be bad for your heart as well as your hips.
In fact, a 2018 study of postmenopausal women by BMJ found that those participants who maintained
a diet filled with fried food were more likely to be linked to incidents of Type 2 diabetes
and heart disease.
If you do decide to pig out on that delicious dessert anyway, just be sure to wash it down
with a kale smoothie. Maybe they'll balance each other out?
If you own a car in a city with a lot of traffic, you know exactly how precious parking can
be.
"We're so far behind the curve right now...We like seriously need to find-find a place to
park, otherwise else we're screwed."
After you've unsuccessfully driven around the block for the tenth time in search of
the perfect parking space, the last thing you want to see is a food truck hanging out
in a spot that was meant for you. But the increasing popularity of mobile food vendors
makes it more likely that good parking will soon be harder and harder to find.
Some cities have worked to reduce the conflict between food trucks and drivers looking for
legal parking spaces by designating approved food truck parking zones. But there are still
cases of mobile food vendors who go around the system and find ways to hold on to highly-coveted
parking spots.
In 2018, city officials in Washington D.C. began to crack down on food truck operators
who monopolized parking spaces in high-traffic areas. According to NBC 4 Washington, the
vendors were able to maintain control over prime parking spaces by parking their own
fleet of cars in those spaces during the food truck's off-hours, ensuring they were still
theirs for the taking when prime hours rolled around again.
If parking issues are something that irks you, take that into consideration the next
time you order from a food truck parked in a space that would be better suited for, well...you.
Competition is one of the driving forces behind many industries, encouraging competing businesses
to bring out their best in the quest for their customers' dollars. But when it comes to restaurants,
the competition isn't always friendly. Some brick and mortar restaurant owners feel threatened
by the food trucks which are increasingly invading their space.
In Chicago, food trucks and brick and mortar restaurants have taken their turf war to the
courts. The Illinois Restaurant Association works on behalf of brick and mortar restaurants
to protect them from food truck competition, which they believe to be unfair as food trucks
don't incur the same expense of rent and property taxes in their desired neighborhoods.
The organization is working to protect two rules handed down by the city to help restaurants
hold their position in an increasingly popular food truck market. The "200-foot rule" restricts
food trucks from parking within 200 feet of a brick and mortar establishment. There's
also the city's requirement that food trucks be equipped with GPS tracking devices which
share their location information with the city on a regular basis throughout the day.
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