Mobile Kitchens Helpful Links

For Food Concession Stand Operators in the USA:

Health Guide USA
http://www.healthguideusa.org/local_health_departments.htm
This site is a huge index of all the county health departments in every state in the USA. Use it to find the web site of your local County Health Department anywhere in the USA. First, scroll down the page and click on your State. Then scroll down on the next page to find your county  Health Department listed.

FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
http://www.fda.gov
It’s a big site! Go the the A-Z index. Then to the “S” in the Index.  It provides a list of links to all the various State health departments.

Food Safety
http://www.foodsafety.gov
Another big site. Lots of info. Click on the button for “Federal and State Gov’t Agencies”. Then go down to the heading entitled “State and Local Gov’t Agencies”. If your state isn’t listed click on the first subheading “Overall Listing of State, County and territory Listings”. There you will find a comprehensive contact list.

Professional Food Safety
http://www.profoodsafety.org
Information for foodservice professionals in 14 languages!

Food Safety Inspection Service
http://www.fsis.usda.gov
Excellent information on safe food handling, meat storage guidelines, and background info on the meat products you will be selling. Go to the A-Z index for a list of subjects.

FDA Center for Food Safety and Nutrition
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov
Another large site with tons of information. Go to the “Special Interest” area in the lower right corner. Check out “Starting a Food Business”. For detailed info on laws and codes check out “Fed/State Food Programs” go to “Retail Food Protection” click on “Regulations, Codes and Code Interpretation”.

Illinois Department of Public Health
http://www.idph.state.il.us/about/fdd/fddintro.htm
This Illinois Health Department site has some excellent info on food safety and printable charts on food temperature requirements.

For Food Concession Stand Operators in Canada:

Health Canada
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Canadian Federal Government Health site (Health Canada). In English or French.
Go to the A-Z index to “F”. Click on “Food Safety”, and then click on “Safe Food Handling”.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
http://www.inspection.gc.ca
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) site. In English or French.

• To find your local food health authority anywhere in Canada follow these instructions: Click on “Food” on the menu on the left, then click on “Retail Food” in the menu on the left, then click on“Restaurants / Food Services”, then click on the link to “Local Inspection Authority” that appears in the text on the main page. Scroll down to your Province and click on your “Regional Health Authority”. The page will advise you that you are leaving the Food Inspection Agency site. Click on Exit the site. It will take you to a listing of the local health departments in your province. Click on the one where you will be serving food.

• For other food related information, go to A-Z Index, and go to “F” for “Food Safety Tips”. Excellent information in easy to understand format.