North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health — Environmental Health Section

Food & Lodging Establishment Annual Permit Fee (NC DHHS)

This is a state charge that a Wake County food business pays on top of the county's own plan review fee, and the two should not be added together as a single county figure. G.S. 130A-248(d) provides that the Department shall charge each establishment subject to the section a fee of $120 for each permit issued, reassessed annually for permits that do not expire. NC DHHS bills it through its own online payment system and states on its Inspections, Statistics and Fees page that permit fees collected from food and lodging establishments support the programme and that $70 out of every $120 collected is distributed to county health departments to improve environmental health inspection programmes. Wake County's own fee schedule carries the matching footnote that fees of $120 are to be paid once a year to DHHS for holding a permit. The charge is excluded by statute for nutrition programmes for the elderly, establishments preparing and selling meat food products or poultry products, temporary food establishments, limited food service establishments and public school cafeterias. A mobile food unit or push cart is permitted the same way: the county's Food Trucks & Hot Dog Carts page states that once the unit is found compliant with the rules a Food Service permit is issued, and an approved commissary is required before that permit issues, serving as the base of operation for daily servicing, cleaning, supplies, food preparation, storage, water loading and wastewater offloading. The county page adds that a unit serving only coffee, tea or lemonade is regulated by the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services on 984-236-4820 instead.