What permits do you need to open a food truck in Montgomery County Oh?

Retail Dealer's Cigarette License

A shop, cafe, restaurant or truck selling cigarettes at retail in Montgomery County needs this license for each physical place of business. ORC 5743.15(B)(1) requires 'every person desiring to engage in the retail business of trafficking in cigarettes' to pay 'an application fee in the sum of one hundred twenty-five dollars for each physical place where the person proposes to carry on such business,' applying annually on or before the first day of June, and ORC 5743.15(B)(2) issues the license 'for one year commencing on the first day of June,' prorating it when the application is filed later but never below twenty-five dollars in any one year. The county's own page prints the same $125 per physical location and sets out the office's calendar: renewals run between the first Monday of May and the fourth Monday of May, purchases after that window are prorated, and the page states that 'Retail Dealer's Cigarette Licenses may only be purchased at the County Auditor's Office (or by mail, only from the 1st Monday in May until the 4th Monday in May).' A lost, destroyed or defaced license is replaced for $5, and a move to another place of business inside the same county transfers for $5 provided the licensee's ownership interest and business structure remain unchanged. The fee is state-set and distributed under ORC 5743.15(D)(2): 30 per cent to the municipal corporation or township where the business sits, 10 per cent to the county general fund and 60 per cent to the state cigarette tax enforcement fund. Wholesale dealers buy a separate $1,000 license from the Ohio Department of Taxation under ORC 5743.15(C)(1).

Temporary Food Service Operation / Temporary Food Establishment License

A stall, cart or truck selling food at a Montgomery County festival, market or fair takes a temporary license from Public Health for that event, at $60.00 for a commercial operator on the 2026 Fee Schedule. ORC 3717.01(K) defines a temporary food service operation as one 'operated at an event for not more than five consecutive days,' and PHDMC's own page matches that: 'A temporary FSO license is good for five consecutive days at the same address at the same event.' The paperwork has a hard lead time — PHDMC states that 'Appropriate forms and fees must be submitted ten days prior to the event.' There is a statutory ceiling on how often the same operator can use this route: ORC 3717.43(E)(1) permits a licensor to issue 'not more than ten temporary food service operation licenses per licensing period to the same person or government entity to operate at different events within the licensor's jurisdiction,' and 'For each particular event, a licensor may issue only one temporary food service operation license to the same person or government entity.' PHDMC states the same rule in its own words as ten temporary food licenses per year within each jurisdiction. An operator who exceeds that pattern of trading is looking at a mobile or fixed license instead. Public Health also warns vendors to 'Check with event coordinators, city/township officials, property owners, and/or zoning to ensure all permits and proper permission are obtained,' which is the practical shape of the municipal layer that sits on top of this license.

Temporary Tent or Structure Permit

A restaurant putting up a seasonal dining tent, a retailer running a sidewalk sale under cover, or an event operator setting up a marquee in a county-served jurisdiction takes this $225 permit, with each additional tent at the same address charged at $25. It is the building-side approval for the structure itself; a food vendor working under the tent still needs the temporary food license from Public Health at $60.00 per event, filed ten days ahead, and the township, city or village still controls the zoning and any special-event permission — Public Health's own advice to operators is to 'Check with event coordinators, city/township officials, property owners, and/or zoning to ensure all permits and proper permission are obtained.' The amount comes from the county building fee schedule adopted at the public meeting of 28 October 2025, after public hearings on 21 and 28 October 2025, and effective 1 January 2026, as the county's news releases of 17 November and 31 December 2025 state; the published PDF's header still carries the word PROPOSED from drafting. The permit applies in the jurisdictions on the county's chart: all nine townships, the cities of Brookville, Huber Heights, Riverside, Trotwood and Union (commercial only), the villages of Farmersville, New Lebanon and Phillipsburg, and WPAFB-PageManor.

Transient Vendor's License

This is the license for selling away from a fixed address — fairs, festivals, markets, travelling to the customer — and unlike the county vendor's license it is valid in all eighty-eight counties on one registration. It is issued by the Department of Taxation only, never by a county auditor. Same $50 as the fixed-location license since House Bill 366 took effect on 9 April 2025.

Shared with other businesses in Montgomery County Oh

• Food License Late Renewal Penalty — Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County, Office of Environmental Health, Twenty-five per cent of the local portion of the license fee, added to the total. The PHDMC 2026 Fee Schedule prints the resulting amounts: for a commercial operation under 25,000 sq ft, $61.17, $69.12, $133.70 and $169.97 at risk levels 1 to 4; at 25,000 sq ft and over, $89.16, $93.94, $337.30 and $357.66. A mobile operation carries $61.75 (high risk) or $30.88 (low risk), a pool $143.75 for the first unit and $93.75 for each additional unit, and a body art establishment $75.00., charged once for each licensing period in which the renewal is filed late, alongside the license fee itself. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, childcare centres and fitness studios; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.
• Mobile Food Service Operation / Mobile Retail Food Establishment License — Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County, Office of Environmental Health, Per the PHDMC Office of Environmental Health 2026 Fee Schedule: high risk $275.00 ($247.00 local plus $28.00 state) and low risk $151.50 ($123.50 local plus $28.00 state). A late renewal adds 25 per cent of the local fee — $61.75 high risk, $30.88 low risk., one licensing period; ORC 3717.43(D) has a mobile or seasonal operator submit the renewal application before commencing operation in a new licensing period rather than by the 1 March date that applies to fixed premises. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Person In Charge (PIC) Certification in Food Protection — Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County, Office of Environmental Health, $35 per person, for the three-hour course, as printed on the PHDMC Office of Environmental Health 2026 Fee Schedule; the line carries no state fee and no penalty, a certification rather than a license; the course is three hours and satisfies OAC 3701-21-25. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores and childcare centres; what it involves is set out on the retail stores page.
• Manager Certification in Food Protection — Ohio Department of Health, Food Safety Program, No fee, not stated by the Ohio Department of Health. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Food Service Operation License — Ohio Department of Health, Food Safety Program, $28 state fee for a commercial operation ($14 non-commercial, $6 per vending machine location), plus a license fee set independently by the local board of health, 1 March to the last day of February. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.