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Avoid Unlicensed Food Vendors

Avoid Unlicensed Food Vendors

Do not eat or drink from unlicensed food vendors—it can make you sick! Look for a health license before you buy.

Food trucks, carts, and stands without proper licenses are showing up more often. We see them here in Benton County, across the area, and nationwide. These vendors may not handle food safely. Eating food from these places can make you very sick.

We urge you to only buy food or drinks from businesses that display their county-issued health license.

Unlicensed Food Vendors

You might see them in area parking lots or busy intersections. Unlicensed food vendors are those selling food and/or drinks without having a food license from Benton County Health Department. This means we can’t know if they’re handling food safely.

Examples

  • Tables under a pop-up tent serving foods like tacos and BBQ
  • Carts selling cut fruit, often with a rainbow-style umbrella
  • Selling food directly out of a cooler at their personal car or truck
  • Push-carts selling hotdogs
A cart selling cut fruit under a rainbow umbrella. A neon pink sticker declares it is "Operating Without a License."
An unlicensed vendor's counter, with hot food items on it, wrapped in tin foil. There is a white van parked behind it with a cooler, various food service items in boxes, and no visible way to keep hot food at a safe temperature.
Unlicensed vendor selling cut fruit. A neon pink sticker is attached to their cart that says "Operating Without a License"
A large flat-top grill and vertical spit full of roasting meat, sitting in the corner of a parking lot next to an intersection. There are unused utensils and food scraps on the flat surfaces, and a table with boxes on it set up behind.
A cart selling cut fruit on the sidewalk at a busy intersection, with two rainbow umbrellas overhead, a camp chair set up beside it, and a yellow bucket propping open a back door of the cart.
Meat is being cooked with an open flame under a pop-up tent. Other items are on a cook surface next to it, and some items appear to be finished and wrapped in foil on a makeshift counter. They are on a sidewalk at night, with headlights in the background.

Why a License Matters

A food license is not just a piece of paper. Licensed vendors work with the Health Department to keep the community safe. Eating food from an unlicensed vendor could make you sick because they don’t handle food safely.

Unlicensed vendors often:

  • Don’t have access to clean water
  • Don’t have a way to wash their hands
  • Don’t have ways to keep food safely hot and cold
  • Don’t have a clean place to use the restroom
  • Prepare food in unlicensed kitchens, at home or in an unknown location
  • Work while they are sick
  • Use unsafe heat sources that could cause fires or explosions

Through the licensing process, we make sure businesses have a plan to handle every food on their menu safely. To make sure those plans are being followed, licensed vendors get inspections. The results of those inspections are public and available for you to read. Licensed businesses also receive proper food safety training. This helps them stay up to date with the best ways to keep the food you eat safe.

What We’re Doing to Stop Unlicensed Vendors

  • Looking into reports of unlicensed food vendors
  • Educating vendors and give them information on how to get a license
  • Ordering unlicensed vendors to stop operating

What You Can Do

Look for a Health License

Licensed food vendors will always have their Benton County Health License displayed. It’s the law! If you don’t see one, ask the vendor.

A Food License for a mobile unit operating in Benton County. It shows the County's logo, the Issue and Expiration dates (typically one calendar year), the establishment's ID # and Business name, and the signature of a Health Administrator. It says, "THIS LICENSE IS NOT TRANSFERABLE AND MUST BE POSTED IN A CONSPICUOUS PLACE."
Oregon Health Authority notice that a restaurant has passed a sanitation inspection.

If you see a bright pink “Operating without a License” sticker, this vendor is unlicensed and should be avoided.

Oregon Health Authority's "OPERATING WITHOUT A LICENSE" neon pink warning sticker
Oregon Health Authority’s “OPERATING WITHOUT A LICENSE” neon pink warning sticker.

Warn Others

Anyone can get food poisoning, but for some people, it can be especially dangerous. These groups are at higher risk for developing severe illness:

  • People aged 65 or older
  • Children under the age of 5 years
  • People with weakened immune systems
  • Pregnant people

Make sure your friends and family know the risks of eating food from unlicensed food businesses.

Report a Problem

If you see an unlicensed food vendor – or anyone selling food in unsafe conditions – we want to know.

Call the Environmental Health Office at (541) 766-6841.

A person cooking over a flame in a restaurant kitchen

Food Safety Resources

Benton County Environmental Health helps with licensing, training, and inspecting businesses that prepare and serve food.

Learn more
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Benton County PALS Tool

Use the Benton County Permit, Application & License Search tool to find the right form or application when you need it.

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Health Department News

Keep up with the latest from the Benton County Health Department.

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