Bell County
Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division
In short
Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division issues 9 permits we publish for Bell County, last verified 2026-08-24. 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 Inspectiononly if it applies to you | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | No fee | not yet set — determined by DSHS under a collaborative agreement | 2026-08-24 |
| Permit Reinstatement After Closureonly if it applies to you | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $300 per reinstatement | one-time, per closure | 2026-08-24 |
| School Food Inspection | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $250 per year, two inspections | one year, covering two inspections | 2026-08-24 |
| Child and Adult Daycare Environmental Health Inspection | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $150–$350 by licensed participants | not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-08-24 |
| Central Preparation Facility and Commissary Permitonly if it applies to you | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $300–$650 per year, by employee count | one year | 2026-08-24 |
| Food Establishment Re-inspectiononly if it applies to you | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $200 per re-inspection | per inspection | 2026-08-24 |
| Food Handler Card | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $20 per person, two years | two years | 2026-08-24 |
| Retail Food Establishment Permit | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $300–$650 per year, by number of employees (2026 rates) | annual | 2026-08-24 |
| Food Establishment Plan Review | Bell County Public Health — Retail Food Division | $150 per review | one-time, per application | 2026-08-24 |
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 Inspection
This is the clearest published account of what HB 2844 actually did. Bell County's schedule carries two headings side by side: mobile food unit PERMIT fees good until 1 July 2026, and mobile food unit INSPECTION fees effective from that date. Of the second it says the amount is to be determined by DSHS once a collaborative agreement is entered into, that the fee will be reimbursed by DSHS, and that it is not to exceed $200. So from 1 July 2026 the county no longer sells a mobile permit — it inspects on the state's behalf, and the operator's permit comes from Texas DSHS. No amount is recorded here because none has been published. The superseded pre-July-2026 permit fees are deliberately not listed.
Permit Reinstatement After Closure
$300 following a closure or a second failure, covering a meeting with the inspector and reinstating the permit — and the schedule is explicit that this is SEPARATE from the $200 re-inspection fee. So a closure costs $500 before the doors reopen, on top of the trading lost. Amending a permit is $125 and a duplicate permit $25.
School Food Inspection
$250 a year covering two inspections — close to San Antonio's $240 and Abilene's $258 for the same arrangement, which makes school food one of the more consistently priced obligations across Texas.
Child and Adult Daycare Environmental Health Inspection
Banded by the number of participants the facility is licensed for by state licensing: $150 for 1-25, $200 for 26-50, $250 for 51-75, $300 for 76-100 and $350 for 101 or more. The same schedule covers group homes. A foster home environmental health inspection is a flat $100.
Central Preparation Facility and Commissary Permit
A central preparation facility or commissary not otherwise permitted is charged on the same employee-count scale as a food dealer permit — $300 for one to six employees rising to $650 for 201 or more in 2026. This is the permit a mobile operator's base kitchen needs, and it did not go away with HB 2844: the truck is now permitted by the state, but the fixed facility it returns to is still a county permit.
Food Establishment Re-inspection
$200, and the schedule constrains when it can be charged in a way few do: re-inspection fees are limited to serious health risk only, and no more than once every 60 days unless non-compliance continues. That is a genuine protection for an operator working through a corrective plan. An additional inspection requested by the facility itself is $150, and a rescheduled appointment after a no-show or less than 24 hours' notice is $50.
Food Handler Card
$20 for the two-year card, or $25 for the in-house class which includes a $5 administration fee payable before the class. A duplicate card is $10. Non-profit organisations and facilities needing more than 20 cards can borrow training media free for up to two weeks — a flash drive or DVD is $25 to buy, and there is a $5 per business day late fee if borrowed media is not returned. Compare Fort Worth at $16 and Arlington at $16 for the same two-year card. Note the statutory limit: Texas Health and Safety Code section 438.046, as amended by Senate Bill 582, provides that a local health jurisdiction may not charge a fee for — or require or issue — a local food handler card to a worker who shows proof of completing a course accredited by the American National Standards Institute or by Texas DSHS. If your staff already hold an accredited certificate, this fee should not apply to them.
Retail Food Establishment Permit
Priced by headcount, from $300 for 1-6 employees up to $650 for 201 or more, in eight bands. Unusually, Bell County has already published the next two years: every band rises $50 a year, so the same business paying $300 in 2026 pays $350 in 2027 and $400 in 2028. Almost nowhere publishes future-dated fees — worth building into a three-year budget rather than being surprised annually.
Food Establishment Plan Review
$150 for plan review, and the same $150 for a HACCP review. A Time as a Public Health Control (TPHC) review is $100. A pre-permit walk-through inspection is $100 and an expedited review or inspection $100 — Bell County is markedly cheaper here than Arlington, which charges a flat $500 for food establishment plan review.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Bell County
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
- Website
- www.bellcountyhealth.org/
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.
- Retail Food Division Fee Schedule — Bell County Public Health, effective 1 January 2026Bell County Public Health (via Texas DSHS Local Ordinance Registry) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
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