What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Rensselaer County?

Food Service Establishment Permit

A restaurant or coffee shop in Rensselaer County needs a food service permit from the Rensselaer County Department of Health. The county's Food Service Sanitation page states: "The Food Service Sanitation Program issues permits and inspects all food service facilities", and lists caterers, day care centers, fairs and festivals, mobile food vendors, restaurants, schools and temporary food stands among the categories it covers. The page adds: "For information on how to obtain a food service permit call 518-270-2711." The fee depends on the risk level the department assigns, as printed in the Rensselaer County Department of Health's "2015 Fees for Environmental Health Services" ("Effective: March, 1, 2015"), which the county's Environmental Health page links as "the current schedule of fees": under "Restaurant Inspections & permit issuance Annually", High Risk $400.00, Medium Risk $200.00 and Low Risk $100.00. The same schedule lists a "Permitted Facility Late Fee" of $50.00 for an application renewal. The county's Environmental Health page describes the fee schedules as "the current schedule of fees for sewage and the Environmental Health Division of Rensselaer County"; the resolution that adopted the 2015 schedule is not published online, so the figure is shown here as the schedule the county presents as current, with its 2015 effective date.

Food Worker Training — Local Option under 10 NYCRR 14-1.73 (New York)

Under 10 NYCRR section 14-1.73 there is no statewide food handler card in New York and the state charges no fee for one — the opposite of what most states do. The rule is permissive: the permit-issuing official MAY establish training programmes and require owners or operators to attend. That makes it a county question and, in New York City, a city one. A real state mandate does exist but is narrow and sits with a different agency — a retail food store that prepares food on the premises must show that someone in the store has completed an approved food safety programme, unless the store is owner-run with no more than two full-time employees or had under $3,000,000 in gross sales last year. Even there the state approves providers and sets no price.

Shared with other businesses in Rensselaer County

• Temporary Food Stand Permit — Rensselaer County Department of Health, Environmental Health Division, $50 per temporary food stand ("Temporary Food Stands Annual inspection & permit issuance $50.00" in the county's 2015 Environmental Health Services fee schedule, effective March 1, 2015); the schedule's next line reads "If day of operation $100.00", annual, per the schedule line "Temporary Food Stands Annual inspection & permit issuance". Also required for food trucks and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Food Service Establishment Permit — New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection, No fee, set by the permit-issuing official, not to exceed two years. Also required for coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the food trucks page.