What about Health Codes?
Since health codes and regulations vary from state to state and county to county, contact your own local officials. Check with city officials, then county and state. The Health Departmentwill provide you with a list of guidelines. Keep in mind that requirements may change by crossing county or city limits. Here are some common, general rules taken from actual code.
Booth construction
Food service booths should be located on hard surfaces that are not subject to wet conditions. If the booth is set up on grass, provisions for ground cover must be made. Floor coverings must be smooth, non-absorbent, and easily cleanable. Booths must have overhead covers, such as tents or canopies, to protect food from poor weather conditions. Physical barriers such as counters or tables must be used to separate the food service area from the customers. All food contact surfaces are to be smooth, nonabsorbent, and easily cleanable. Foods are to be stored at least 6 inches off the ground and covered to prevent contamination. Foods and utensils must be covered to protect from insects, droplets, and manual contact.
Gravity flow hand-washing facilities must be provided in your booth. This consists of an insulated container with a spigot that can lock in open position – capacity of 2 gallons or more – filled with hot water, a tub or bucket to catch waste water, pump soap and paper towels. WASH HANDS FREQUENTLY!
Sanitizing
Wiping towels used for wiping down counters and table tops must be clean and used for no other purpose. The towels must be rinsed in sanitizing solution frequently. If you chose to use bleach as the sanitizer, the recommended concentration is 1 teaspoon of liquid bleach added to 1 gallon of cold water. Do not add soap to the water, because soap ties up the chlorine making the solution ineffective. Store all chemicals separate from food preparation, display and storage.
NOTE — It has been found that flies actually avoid surfaces that have been wiped down with bleach solution.
Wash equipment and utensils in a four-step sanitizing process: washing in hot soapy water, rinsing in hot water, sanitizing and air drying.
Personnel
Effective hair restraints shall be worn by all workers. All food handlers must wash hands properly and frequently. Smoking is prohibited. Any food handler with an illness such as cold sores, infected cuts or colds is not to handle any food!
Equipment
All food contact surfaces are to be smooth, non-absorbent, and easily cleanable. All equipment used on the mobile unit shall be of commercial manufacture and approved by a third party certifier, such as NSF.