Tacos el Guero, a mobile food truck found operating at the corner of Juanita Drive NE and NE 141st St, in Kirkland, WA 98034 was shut down by a Public Health food inspector at 1:15 p.m. Friday for operating without a valid mobile food service permit and failure to submit plans for review and approval.
The food truck will be allowed to reopen once the operators secure a permit by following the instructions for plan review, according to Public Health for Seattle and King County
Tacos el Guero first needs to complete final plans for how it will be set up for business and submit them to Public Health’s Plans Examiner for review. Tacos el Guero is the sixth street food vendor shut down by Public Health since Feb. 12. The shutdowns include:
- LaFondita, a food truck, in Seattle on Feb. 12.
- A Bao Time, a food truck in Seattle on Feb.16.
- A vendor selling food out of a private car on Feb. 26 in Bellevue, WA.
- An unapproved food cart in Federal Way, WA on Feb. 27.
- An unapproved food cart in Auburn, WA on April 2.
All six remain closed at this time.
Public Health offers food truck and food cart applicants guidance on its website, including:
- For those applying for both a new mobile food service plan review and commissary exemption concurrently, the base fee charge is $888 for up to 4 hours of plan review at the time of plan submittal (plus $222 for each hour after 4 hours).
- For those who currently hold a mobile food unit permit and are applying for commissary exemption, you the base fee charge is $444 for up to 2 hours of plan review for a change of operation at the time of submittal for such change (plus $222 for each hour after 2 hours).
- To be considered for approval of a commissary exemption, in either case, the application must completely address each of the ten questions that are listed. Draft guidelines are included along with the application for commissary exemption as a useful resource and toolkit designed to help in formulating answers to these questions.
Seattle-King County Public Health is the largest metropolitan health department in the Pacific Northwest with 1400 employees, 40 sites, and a biennial budget of 686 million. It serves the Seattle urban area with more than 2.2 million people.
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