Fargo
Fargo Cass Public Health, Environmental Health Division
In short
Fargo Cass Public Health, Environmental Health Division issues 2 permits we publish for Fargo, last verified 2026-09-14. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile Food Unit License (fee set by resolution, not published) | Fargo Cass Public Health, Environmental Health Division | No fee | annual, on the same January renewal cycle as a fixed food establishment license | 2026-09-14 |
| Food Establishment License (fee set by resolution, not published) | Fargo Cass Public Health, Environmental Health Division | No fee | annual — the initial license runs from the date of issuance to year-end and renews each January 1; the fee itself is payable prior to January 1st of each year, per the current §13-0302 | 2026-09-14 |
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
Mobile Food Unit License (fee set by resolution, not published)
The license is mandatory and its price is not published, so no fee is asserted here — the same 13-0302 'by resolution' gap that affects the fixed food establishment license, now confirmed to persist unchanged in the section as repealed and re-enacted by Ordinance No. 5473 on April 28, 2025 (see the food establishment license requirement for the verbatim current text). Two things specific to trucks are confirmed. First, a Fargo license is genuinely required even for a truck already licensed elsewhere in North Dakota: the state's own mobile food unit guidance records that 'Reciprocity is mostly statewide, meaning health agencies recognize and accept each other's licenses, EXCEPT for Fargo Cass Public Health, Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, and tribal jurisdictions.' Second, a truck without a fixed premises owes a commissary arrangement — the 2017 published schedule carried a $25.00 commissary fee with the note that 'A commissary fee will be charged to mobile vendors without a brick and mortar establishment,' and that document's mobile tiers ran $100.00, $150.00 and $200.00. Those figures are disclosed as 2017 background only. Fargo Municipal Code Chapter 25 has no mobile-food article and the Land Development Code's temporary uses section has no mobile-food provision, so the health license is the operative city credential rather than a separate vending permit.
Food Establishment License (fee set by resolution, not published)
The license is mandatory and its price is not published, so no fee is asserted here. §13-0302 was repealed and re-enacted in full by Ordinance No. 5473, adopted April 28, 2025. The re-enacted section adds a pre-operational inspection requirement, nontransferability, and a January 1 renewal cycle with the fee 'payable prior to January 1st of each year,' but on the point this record exists to answer, nothing changed: the fee remains 'an amount to be established by resolution of the board of city commissioners,' with no dollar figure written into the ordinance itself either before or after the 2025 amendment. No such resolution or fee schedule is published on the City's site; the Food and Beverage page links only the FDA Food Code and the two plan review applications, and states no dollar figure. The only figures Fargo Cass Public Health has published anywhere reachable sit inside a document labelled a 2017 sample application. Its Schedule of License Fees ran: Food Tier 1 $200.00, Tier 2 $300.00, Tier 3 $400.00; Grocery, bakery or retail meat Tier 1 $100.00, Tier 2 $150.00, Tier 3 $175.00; Mobile food unit vendor Tier 1 $100.00, Tier 2 $150.00, Tier 3 $200.00; Schools, churches and group homes Tier 1 $100.00, Tier 2 $150.00, Tier 3 $200.00; Concession, year round, Tier 1 $100.00, Tier 2 $150.00, Tier 3 $175.00; Concession, seasonal, Tier 1 $50.00, Tier 2 $75.00, Tier 3 $100.00. Additional fees were plan review $150.00, alcohol service with a physical bar $150.00 and without $50.00, multiple unit fee for group homes $25.00 per unit, commissary fee for mobile food $25.00, and soft serve ice cream $100.00. Two structural notes came with it: establishments providing catering or delivery must apply for the Mobile Food License rather than a fixed one, and group homes with multiple units are charged a separate fee per unit. All of that is background from 2017 only, never the current fee. None of the Food and Beverage page, the Environmental Health page, the 2026 FCPH Program Highlights, the 2024 plan review application or the 2023 mobile food plan review application publishes a current fee schedule, so the operative amounts are quoted to applicants on request: FCPH gives FCPHFood@FargoND.gov and 701.476.6729. Tiering is by menu complexity rather than size; the 2017 tier definitions place coffee shops in Tier 1 alongside convenience stores and hot dog carts. A retail store falls in scope only if it sells food, under separate grocery, bakery and retail meat tiers. Fargo Cass Public Health describes its own reach as 'restaurants, grocery stores, coffee shops, gas stations, school and childcare center kitchens, food trucks, carts and stick stands' in Fargo and West Fargo.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Fargo
- Phone
- (701) 476-6729
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.
- Areas of Licensing Jurisdiction — North Dakota HHS's own statement that food licensing and inspection is delegated to eight local health units by Memorandum of Understanding, with Fargo Cass Public Health named for the City of FargoNorth Dakota Health and Human Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Fargo Cass Public Health, Environmental Health — the division that licenses and inspects food establishments, mobile food units, pools, body art and massage establishments in Fargo and West FargoFargo Cass Public Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Fargo Municipal Code Chapter 13 (Health, Sanitation and Welfare), Article 13-03 (Control and Regulation of Food Establishments) — §13-0302, requiring a food establishment license, as repealed and re-enacted in full by Ord. No. 5473, § 1, adopted April 28, 2025: 'No person shall operate a food establishment without first applying for and obtaining a license issued by the public health department. A license shall be issued when a pre-operational inspection has determined that the proposed food establishment and its method of operation will conform to the requirements of this chapter. A license, once issued, is nontransferable. The initial application for a license shall extend from the date of issuance until year-end. Thereafter, the food establishment license may be renewed annually on January 1. All food establishments shall pay an annual license fee in an amount to be established by resolution of the board of city commissioners, said fee payable prior to January 1st of each year.' As re-enacted in 2025, the ordinance leaves the fee to a resolution of the Board of City Commissioners rather than fixing it in the ordinance. Also carries the repeal annotation at §13-1104 recording that Ord. No. 5261 removed the childcare permit in 2020.City of Fargo · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
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