Cleveland Foodservice Guide Northeast Ohio

Lookup

Which agency licenses you?

This is the first question, and it is the one people get wrong. Licensing follows your municipality, not your county and not your mailing address. Start typing where your business is located.

207 municipalities across 7 counties. A ZIP narrows the list; you confirm the municipality, because that is what licensing actually follows.

Do not go by your ZIP code or mailing address.

Several addresses that say “Cleveland, OH” in the mail are in other municipalities, and some Cleveland addresses carry suburban post office names. ZIP boundaries and city limits are different things, and licensing follows city limits. If you are unsure, call the agency and read them the street address.

The exceptions worth knowing

Most municipalities are licensed by their county health district. These are not:

All agencies

  • Cleveland Department of Public Health

    Licenses food service operations and retail food establishments inside City of Cleveland limits only. Everywhere else in Cuyahoga County goes to the county board of health.

  • Cuyahoga County Board of Health

    Licenses food operations in every municipality in Cuyahoga County except the City of Cleveland — Lakewood, Parma, Shaker Heights, Westlake, Solon, Euclid, and the rest.

  • Lorain County Public Health

    Licenses and inspects food operations in every city, township, and village in Lorain County — including Elyria and Lorain — except the City of Vermilion.

  • Erie County Health Department

    Serves Erie County, and also covers the City of Vermilion even though Vermilion sits partly in Lorain County.

  • Summit County Public Health

    Issues food business licenses and registrations across Summit County, including Akron. Some operations are licensed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture instead, depending on what you sell.

  • Geauga Public Health

    Provides state licensing, inspection, and education for food service operations in Geauga County.

  • Kent City Health Department

    Kent operates its own city health department, separate from the Portage County health district.

  • Portage County Combined General Health District

    Licenses food operations across Portage County — including Ravenna, Aurora, and Streetsboro — with one exception: the City of Kent runs its own health department.

  • Lake County General Health District

    Licenses every food business in Lake County — Mentor, Willoughby, Painesville, Eastlake, and the rest. No Lake County municipality operates a separate food licensing district.

  • Medina County Health Department

    Licenses food operations countywide in Medina County, including the cities of Medina, Wadsworth, and Brunswick. There are no separate city health districts.

Coverage marked needs confirmation means we believe the county agency licenses that area but have not yet ruled out a separate city health district. We label it rather than guess. If you know otherwise, tell us and we will verify and update.