Food truck, trailer or cart
You apply to the health district where your business headquarters sits, not where you plan to vend, and a pushcart must begin and end each working day at a commissary. Three restaurant requirements fall away — no restroom, no ventilation hood normally, no grease interceptor — and one you may not expect applies instead: your menu is printed on the back of your license, and changing it takes your sanitarian.
13 guides apply to you, out of 50 on the site. They are ordered below rather than alphabetized — the first group is where to start. For a step-by-step sequence with your municipality filled in, use the opening path.
Start here
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Starting a food truck in Cleveland — permits, costs, and the commissary rule
The four separate approvals a Cleveland food truck needs, who issues each one, what they cost, and the commissary requirement that catches pushcart operators.
Last verified August 12, 2026
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Commissaries and servicing areas — what Ohio actually requires
The word "commissary" does not appear in Ohio's food code. The thing it describes does, under a different name, with requirements attached — and knowing which term applies to you decides who you have to satisfy.
Last verified August 10, 2026
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Concession stands, festival booths and fair stands — temporary and seasonal licensing
Ohio sorts short-run food by the calendar rather than by what you sell: five consecutive days, six months, forty days. Most school and church stands are exempt outright — and the two words that decide it are "its premises".
Last verified August 10, 2026
Food safety on a unit
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Cooking, cooling, holding and date marking temperatures
Every time and temperature Ohio actually requires, in the order a kitchen meets them — cook, hold, cool, reheat, date mark — plus the consumer advisory wording and the freezing rule for raw fish.
Last verified August 9, 2026
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Food safety certification in Ohio, and where to get it near Cleveland
Ohio has two certifications, not one. Which you need depends on your risk level and your license date — and one of them has no exam at all. Plus the approved providers in all seven Northeast Ohio counties.
Last verified August 9, 2026
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Employee illness — what you must ask, and when to send someone home
Ohio requires every food employee to report specific symptoms and diagnoses to you, and requires you to prove you told them. Here is the reportable list, the difference between restriction and exclusion, and the paperwork behind both.
Last verified August 9, 2026
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Baffle filters, condenser coils, and the intervals nobody actually gives you
Ask how often to clean a hood filter or a condenser coil and Ohio's food code mostly answers "as often as necessary". That is not evasion — it is the code handing you the schedule and the burden of defending it. Here is who really sets each interval.
Last verified August 12, 2026
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Sushi rice, fresh juice, soft serve and a hunter's deer — the special processes
Four things a kitchen can do that most cannot, each with its own rule: rice acidified to shelf stability needs a HACCP plan, packaged fresh juice needs a warning label or a variance, a heat-treatment soft serve machine runs on a clock with a lockout, and custom-processing game has an order of operations you cannot vary.
Last verified August 12, 2026
The business side
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Insurance — what Ohio actually requires, and what your landlord demands instead
Only a short list is required by law, and one item on it can only be bought from the state. Everything else is demanded by a lease, a lender or a commissary — which is why limits are set by contract rather than by square footage.
Last verified August 12, 2026
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Sales tax on food — the dine-in question, and the drink that is always taxable
Ohio taxes food eaten on your premises and exempts food taken away, which sounds simple until you learn what counts as your premises. Soft drinks are taxable either way, and getting it wrong is personally liable.
Last verified August 12, 2026
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Wages, overtime and tips — the two thresholds that give different answers
Ohio's minimum wage and Ohio's overtime rule use different revenue thresholds, so a restaurant can be under one and over the other. The tipped wage is constitutionally half the minimum, and proving it is your job.
Last verified August 12, 2026
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POS, Wi-Fi, phones, texting and delivery apps — the compliance parts
The rules attached to the systems you install: PCI segmentation for guest Wi-Fi, the federal 911 requirements your phone system has to meet, consent rules for text marketing, and how Ohio taxes delivery fees.
Last verified August 9, 2026
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Serving alcohol outside — patios, sidewalks, DORAs and events
Three different mechanisms let you serve alcohol outdoors in Ohio and people mix them up constantly. One is a permanent change to your permit, one is a ten-days-notice filing, and one is not yours to create at all.
Last verified August 10, 2026
Suppliers and services
Directory categories operators in this position ask for most. Every listing is free and unpaid.
Reading a different way
This is a view, not a separate library — every guide above also lives in the topic index. If you want the underlying rules instead, every rule in Ohio’s food code is listed with what it governs. Other operation types.