UFTA

City guide · Salt Lake City

Starting a food truck in Salt Lake City.

In Utah the paperwork travels with you: one business license, one health permit, and one fire inspection a year are honored statewide. The catch is the order — and it starts with a class.

What's already on the street

Food trucks we track

292

food trucks listed across the Salt Lake valley

Most crowded lane

24%

of trucks we could classify: shaved ice / ice cream / dessert

Here's the mix among the 255 trucks whose name or listed food type tells us what they serve. Crowded isn't the same as closed — but you'll be competing for the same events and the same lots, so your concept has to stand out from what's below.

  • Shaved ice / ice cream / dessert 24%
  • Burgers / hot dogs 17%
  • Coffee / drinks 17%
  • Mexican / tacos 17%
  • Latin / Caribbean / South American 9%
  • Breakfast / sandwiches 9%
  • Asian 9%
  • Pizza / Italian 7%
  • BBQ / smokehouse 6%
  • Chicken / fried 5%
  • Hawaiian / Polynesian 4%
  • Mediterranean / Middle Eastern 2%

Counts from UFTA's directory as of October 2026. A truck can count toward two lanes. Percentages are a guide to saturation, not a census. Running a truck here? Claim your pin so the picture stays accurate.

What Utah law does for you

Utah's mobile business law (Utah Code 11-56) means a city business license, health permit, and fire inspection from one place are honored by every other city and county in the state for that calendar year. Cities can charge only what licensing actually costs them, can't require a criminal background check (ice-cream trucks are the exception), can't set distance-from-restaurant rules, and can't require a permit or fee for an event on private property.

Some city web pages still describe older rules. If what a city tells you conflicts with the state law, ask them which section they're relying on.

Permits, in order

  1. Check your city allows your type of business and register your entity or DBA. Your city · Utah Department of Commerce
  2. Book the Mobile Food Service class. It's offered on some Thursdays at 10 a.m., not every week, and it's where you get the plan review application — so book it first. Salt Lake County Health Department
  3. Sign a commissary agreement (unless your truck qualifies for the exemption below). It's renewed every year, and you'll keep a visit log for a year. Utah rule R392-102
  4. Complete plan review, including a food flow chart for every item on your menu. Salt Lake County Health Department
  5. Get your city business license. Salt Lake City Business Licensing
  6. Apply for the health permit, register your certified food safety manager, and make sure every employee gets a food handler permit within 30 days of hire. Salt Lake County Health Department
  7. Pass the fire inspection and the pre-opening health inspection. One fire inspection covers the whole calendar year statewide, so schedule it early in the year. Salt Lake City Fire Department · County Health
  8. Get a sales tax license — prepared food also carries Utah's restaurant tax, which applies to trucks too. Utah State Tax Commission

Published fees

WhatFeeWho charges it
Health permit, tier 1 (fewer than three temperature-controlled foods, no raw animal products)$350 / yrSL County Health · set by state rule
Health permit, tier 2 (everything else)$500 / yrSL County Health · set by state rule
Health plan review$755 onceSL County Health · a rise is proposed for 2027
Food handler permit (valid 3 years)$15Utah rule R392-103
Salt Lake City business license$198SLC fee schedule
Sales tax on prepared food in Salt Lake City9.45%Utah Tax Commission
Fire inspection, per-vehicle city fees, sales tax licenseCheck current scheduleSLC Fire · SLC Licensing · Tax Commission

Fees as published by each agency when we checked in October 2026. They change — confirm before you pay.

What catches people out

  • The class comes first. Sessions aren't weekly, and you can't start plan review without it.
  • No storing at home. Food and equipment can't be kept at a home, garage, or storage unit, and the truck parks overnight at an approved location.
  • The commissary exemption is narrow. A tier-1 truck can skip the commissary only if it serves no temperature-controlled food, holds nothing overnight, cleans everything on board, and has approved places to fill water and dump wastewater.
  • If your commissary loses its permit, so do you. Your truck's permit is suspended along with it — worth asking about their inspection history.
  • Street vending in Salt Lake City is limited to certain zones, one truck per block face, for up to two hours in a spot.

Run the numbers next

Put these fees, your commissary quote, and your truck price into Truck Math to see how many orders a service you need to break even.

Open Truck Math →