Official documents and programs

Ohio — statute and code

The primary sources everything on this site traces back to. If a claim here and a claim elsewhere disagree, these decide it.

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3717-1 — the food code

  The whole chapter, all forty-four rules, as adopted. This is the document behind nearly every "the code says" sentence on this site. Our own plain-English index of it, rule by rule, is at /ohio-rules/.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Administrative Code 3701-21-25 — certification in food protection

  The rule behind both certifications. Note the exception worth knowing: an operation subject to the Person in Charge requirement needs a PIC-certified person on site at all times during operation — except that no separate PIC is required at a time when a manager-certified person is already there.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  ODH — approved Person in Charge certification providers

  The state’s own list of approved PIC course providers, searchable by county or for online delivery. This is the authoritative answer to "where do I get certified" and it is maintained by ODH rather than by us, so it stays current when a provider comes or goes.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  ODH — approved Manager certification providers

  The manager-level equivalent, including the online providers. Risk Level III and IV operations need a manager-certified person, so this is the list to work from if the local classroom dates do not fit your schedule.

  Checked August 10, 2026

Medina County Health District

Medina publishes an unusually complete set of operator handouts. Because the food code is statewide, most of the food-safety sheets read usefully anywhere in Ohio — the forms and the process are Medina’s own. Their site .

• Applies statewide

  Safe food handling packet

  A general handling packet — the closest thing to a single printable orientation for a new kitchen hire. Useful as a starting point for your own training file rather than as a substitute for certification.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Thermometer calibration

  How to calibrate, on one page you can put next to the ice bath. Worth printing: calibration is a task the code expects you to do and never schedules for you, which is exactly the kind of thing that quietly stops happening.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Glove use and handwashing

  The two things most often done wrong together — gloves are not a substitute for handwashing, and wearing them badly is worse than not wearing them. A good sheet to post at the handsink.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Raw meat storage order

  Which product goes on which shelf, by final cook temperature. This is one of the most common violations written anywhere, and it is fixed by a diagram on the walk-in door rather than by training.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  FSO risk level classifications

  How activities map to risk levels I through IV. Risk level drives your fee and your inspection frequency, and it is assigned from your highest-risk activity — so this is worth reading before you finalize a menu, not after.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Plan review guide

  What plan review actually involves, start to finish. Read this before the form — plan review is the step that most often surprises first-time operators, because approval is required before a license is issued and the clock only starts once your submission is complete.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  FSO plan review application (fillable)

  Medina’s plan review form. Submit it to Medina only — but read it anywhere, because the questions it asks are the questions every Ohio plan review asks, and seeing them before you design is free.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Plumbing plan review (fillable)

  The plumbing half, submitted separately. A useful reminder that plumbing is reviewed on its own terms — interceptor location and capacity, direct versus indirect drains, backflow prevention and hot water sizing are decided here rather than in the kitchen drawings.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Sign-off form

  The form that closes out the process. Worth seeing early: it shows you exactly which approvals have to be collected and from whom before anyone will license you, which is the sequencing question every first opening gets wrong.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Cottage food fact sheet

  What qualifies as cottage food, and what you may and may not sell. Genuinely statewide — cottage food is regulated by the Ohio Department of Agriculture rather than by any health district, which is exactly the point most people starting from a home kitchen get wrong.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Mobile plan review guide

  The mobile-unit counterpart. Pair it with Cleveland’s mobile planning application if your unit works across county lines — the two together show you what varies by licensor and what does not.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  License transfer paperwork and application

  What a change of ownership actually requires. A license can be transferred when an operation is sold, but only if the licensor approves it and the seller consents — this is the form that process runs on, and seeing it early tells you what the health district will want from you as the buyer.

  Checked August 10, 2026

Lake County

Building permits run through the county building department rather than your health district — a separate track, on its own timetable. Their site .

• This jurisdiction only

  Lake County Building Inspection

  Building, mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits for much of Lake County. Worth going to directly: the building department, not the health district, is who holds up an opening over a mechanical inspection.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Lake County commercial building application (PDF)

  The actual commercial application form. Reading it before you design is the cheapest way to learn which drawings and information you will be asked for.

  Checked August 10, 2026

City of Cleveland

Cleveland runs its own mobile licensing desk and its own economic development programs, both separate from the county.

• This jurisdiction only

  Mobile Food Service Operation Planning Application

  The seven mobile unit types as literal checkboxes, with what each needs — including the knockdown concession, the three ways a mobile unit departs from restaurant requirements, and the rule that your menu is printed on the back of your license.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  City of Cleveland — incentives and financing

  City loan and grant programs, several aimed squarely at storefronts: Storefront Renovation, Neighborhood Retail Assistance, equipment and working capital loans, and forgivable loans in targeted neighborhoods. The city also describes a Municipal Small Business Initiative lowering required borrower equity from twenty-five percent to ten through a fifteen percent city grant. Worth reading before you accept a bank’s equity requirement as fixed.

  Checked August 10, 2026

State of Ohio — business and workforce

State-level money and hiring infrastructure, administered separately from anything the city or county runs.

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Department of Development — business resources

  Loans, tax credits and small business support administered by the state. Check it alongside the municipal programs rather than instead of them, since a project can draw on both.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  OhioMeansJobs — statewide

  The state job board and workforce system. Worth knowing alongside the Cuyahoga County center on our hiring page, because operators in Lake, Lorain, Medina, Geauga, Portage and Summit run through their own county centers, and employer-side programs are administered county by county.

  Checked August 10, 2026

Ohio Division of Liquor Control

Liquor permits are a separate system from food licensing, with their own agency, their own timeline and their own scarcity. These are the state’s own lookups rather than anybody’s summary of them. Their site .

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Division of Liquor Control — searchable permit information

  Public reports that answer questions this site can otherwise only describe. Search issued and pending permits by name, address, class and taxing district; see population-based quota for retail permits; check pending transfers, disclosed ownership, safekeeping status and violation history. If a guide here says quota is local, this is where you find out what it is for your address — and if you are buying a business, this is where you check the permit before you sign.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Division of Liquor Control — local government resources

  The district types a municipality can create around your address — Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas, Community Entertainment Districts and Revitalization Districts — each with the state’s own guide. Relevant when your patio or permit question is really a district question: these are established by the municipality rather than by you, so the answer for your block may already exist.

  Checked August 11, 2026

Ohio Department of Taxation

Sales tax on food turns on where it is eaten, and the Department publishes its own answers to the questions that decide it. Worth reading before configuring a POS rather than after an audit. Their site .

• Applies statewide

  Information Release ST 2012-01 — Restaurants and Other Food Vendors

  The Department answering the questions operators actually ask: whether food court seating you do not own is your premises (yes), whether your parking lot is (yes, if you own or lease the surrounding real estate), whether a food truck with seating is (yes), whether two tables still means asking "for here or to go" (yes), and what happens when you get it wrong — the business is liable and so, personally, are owners and officers.

  Checked August 12, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Ohio Department of Taxation — sales and use tax

  Registration, filing and the current rate by county, plus the full list of information releases. Sales tax rates vary by county in Ohio, so the rate you charge follows your address rather than the state.

  Checked August 12, 2026

Federal

Federal data and guidance that applies regardless of which Ohio district licenses you.

• Federal

  BLS wage data for the Cleveland metro

  What each kitchen role actually pays in this market — cooks, prep, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and supervisors — from the federal Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. Use it to sanity-check a wage before posting a job or building a labor line. Current release is May 2025; the per-metro static pages BLS used to publish have been retired in favor of this tool.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Federal

  SCORE — free business mentoring

  Free mentoring, workshops and templates from an SBA resource partner, delivered through local chapters. Most useful for the part lenders judge and operators dread: projections, a business plan and a cash flow model that survives a loan officer reading it.

  Checked August 10, 2026

• Federal

  FDA — food defense

  Food defense is protecting food from deliberate contamination, which is a different question from food safety and one almost no operator has thought about. Most independents are not covered by the federal intentional adulteration rule, but the free planning tools are worth a look if you run a commissary, feed a school, or cater at scale.

  Checked August 10, 2026

Summit County Public Health

Summit licenses Akron and the rest of the county, and publishes two things almost nobody else in the region does: operator handouts in Spanish and Chinese as well as English, and a page collecting what to do when the power or the water goes out. Their site .

• This jurisdiction only

  Food business licensing — Summit County

  What Summit requires to sell food in the county, including which operations it licenses and which fall to the Ohio Department of Agriculture instead. Start here if your address is in Akron or anywhere else in Summit.

  Checked August 12, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Operator handouts — English, Spanish and Chinese

  Summit publishes its handouts in three languages. The food code is statewide, so these read usefully anywhere in Ohio — and for a kitchen whose staff do not all read English, a printed sheet in the right language is worth more than a better-written one nobody can use.

  Checked August 12, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Certified food safety training providers

  Summit’s list of approved course providers. Certification is a statewide requirement, so the list is useful beyond the county — which certificate you actually need is covered in our food safety certification guide.

  Checked August 12, 2026

• Applies statewide

  Food safety in an emergency

  The page to find before you need it: what to do about food when the power fails, when a boil advisory lands, or after a fire. It collects the Ohio Department of Health emergency guidance, the boil-advisory and alternate-water-supply sheets, and the USDA guidance on fires and food.

  Checked August 12, 2026

• This jurisdiction only

  Reporting and investigating foodborne illness

  How a complaint reaches a health district and what it does with it — Summit investigates reports of foodborne illness and takes them on (330) 926-5600. Worth reading from the operator side, because the process looks very different when the call is about you.

  Checked August 12, 2026

Found one that has moved?

Agency URLs change without notice and old PDFs outlive the pages that linked them, which is why every entry above carries a date rather than an implied freshness. A monthly job re-checks all of these along with every other outbound link on the site — but if you hit one that is broken or superseded before we do, tell us.