Kentucky — statewide
Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Food Safety Branch
In short
Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Food Safety Branch issues 2 permits we publish for Kentucky — statewide, last verified 2026-09-03. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food Service Establishment Permit | Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Food Safety Branch | $125–$340 a year, being a $125 state base fee plus a state seating or service band, before any local add-on | annual | 2026-09-03 |
| Food Handler Card / Food Manager Certification (local, not state)only if it applies to you | Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Food Safety Branch | No fee | set locally where a local requirement exists | 2026-09-03 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Food Service Establishment Permit
The state sets the fee schedule by regulation but the money is paid to, and collected by, the local health department having jurisdiction — and most local departments add their own component on top, so the figure an operator actually owes is a state amount plus a local one. The state base is $125 a year, plus $75 to $215 by seating band, $155 for a drive-through window and $135 for a catering operation; a retail food store pays instead by square footage, from $90 up to $375; a statewide mobile food unit is $200 a year; a temporary establishment runs $60 to $125 depending on the length of the event, from a single day up to two weeks. Louisville Metro and Lexington-Fayette County both publish their local add-ons separately, and the two verified examples confirm the state components match the regulation exactly, so treat the state figures here as the floor and check the local health department for what is added.
Food Handler Card / Food Manager Certification (local, not state)
No state fee, because there is no statewide food handler card or mandatory food manager certification at all — a distinction easy to get wrong. The federal food code gives three separate ways for the person in charge to demonstrate knowledge, and Kentucky's regulation rewrites only one of them, the certification path; it does not turn certification into a standalone statewide mandate. Where a card or certificate is required, a local board of health made it so — Fayette County was the first, requiring certified food safety training since 1987, and today charges $23 for its food handler test and $85 for food manager certification, while Louisville Metro requires a certified food manager on duty at all times under its own ordinance, at $35 for a certificate valid three years. Check the local health department rather than assuming a state requirement.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Kentucky — statewide
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- 902 KAR 45:005 — Kentucky's adoption of the 2013 FDA Food Code, rewriting only the certification limb of the demonstration-of-knowledge ruleKentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- 902 KAR 45:110 — the statewide retail food establishment fee schedule, payable to the local health departmentKentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Lexington-Fayette County Health Department — food handler certification, required locally since 1987Lexington-Fayette County Health Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other Kentucky statewide offices
- Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- Kentucky Department of Revenue, Division of Registration
- Kentucky Secretary of State, Business Filings Division
- Kentucky Board of Barbering
- Kentucky Board of Cosmetology
- Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners
- Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Regulated Child Care
Kentucky jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.