Tashi Durham, of Auburn, Beatrice Schatz, of Gray, and Natalie Durham, of Auburn, sit by food trucks parked on the Eastern Promenade in July. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

In early July, while Eat It and Beet It food truck operator Lea Verrill was preparing for customers at the Woodfords Corner Farmers Market, she got a surprise visit from a Portland health inspector ready to check her counters, fridge and sinks.

Food trucks are subject to inspections just as restaurants are, and inspectors who want to drop in on the trucks unannounced often find them in the same way the rest of us do: by following their schedules on social media.

“They’re making sure your refrigerators are working and set at the proper temperatures, your hot water is working, you have proper sanitizing equipment, and they’re checking the overall cleanliness of the truck – are there food crumbs, grease, evidence of rodents,” Verrill said.

Portland has had its clashes over food trucks – about where they should be allowed to park and how much they should pay in fees – but truck operators and the city seem be in sync when it comes to health inspections, which have found that most are fully up to code and critical violations are rare.

“Once people go through the process (of food truck license approval), they understand that they’re going to get inspected, that we’re going to be here and checking these particular things,” said Tom Williams, one of Portland’s two health inspectors. “And for the most part, they all do really well. It’s a simple process.”

Verrill and her truck passed the inspection in under 20 minutes, just as she passed the other two official health inspections on her truck – one unannounced, one scheduled – since first receiving her license to operate in the spring of 2022.

“I run a clean ship and I’m a stickler for details. There’s a sense of pride with a lot of us food truck operators, we want to keep our trucks clean and sanitized,” Verrill said. “We’d be horrified to learn that anyone got sick from our food, and any of the reputable trucks out there are going to say the same.”

As of late July, 69 mobile units in Portland – or just more than 87% of the city’s 79 operational food trucks and carts – had passed an inspection in the last 12 months. The vast majority of the remaining trucks and carts had been inspected within the past 24 months, with only two overdue for an inspection.

Williams expects to have all food trucks and carts operating in the city inspected by the end of this season. About 10 percent of the food trucks licensed in Portland fail their health inspections, close to the failure rate of 5% to 10% for brick-and-mortar restaurants, Williams said.

Statewide, the failure rate for food trucks is even lower. Lindsay Hammes, spokesperson for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Health Inspection Program, said of the 683 mobile units operating statewide last year, about 1%, or 10 units – four of them in Portland – failed inspections in 2022. She noted that the state has 17 health inspectors tasked with assessing food safety in the trucks, augmenting four municipal inspectors, including the two in Portland, one in Lewiston and another in South Portland.

‘A FAIR SYSTEM’

Per state regulations, food trucks are required to be inspected at least once every two years. The trucks receive a scheduled inspection prior to being granted a license to operate, and then at least one more unannounced inspection over the next two years, though Williams said Portland inspectors aim to make unscheduled inspections every 12 months.

Portland had about 45 food trucks 10 years ago compared with 79 today. Williams said the city has seen a moderate gain in the number of operational trucks over time, even as some units go out of business and the overall number fluctuates.

Trucks that fail an inspection and can’t fix critical violations on the spot (the kind of transgressions that may cause foodborne illness or environmental hazards, as opposed to non-critical violations like inadequate labeling of food containers or washing hands in the dish sink) are required to close until they can resolve the issue. The inspector then returns within 10 days to follow up, and if the problems have been remedied, they pass.

One of the more egregious examples of a recent failed health inspection came in April 2022. A truck serving chicken wings was cited for incomplete sanitizing methods, insufficient hot water supply, unclean facilities and contact surfaces, potentially hazardous foods being stored above 41 degrees, and food not being protected in storage from contamination.

The truck, which is no longer in operation and whose owners couldn’t be reached for an interview, addressed the health violations for its follow-up inspection the next month, according to the report filed in the state health inspection database.

Gregory Mihos, left, owner of Cargo Pizza Co. looks on as pizza maker Mike Kelley tosses pizza dough inside the food truck. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“It’s a fair system,” said Gregory Mihos, owner of the Cargo Pizza Co. food truck, a sister operation to the small local restaurant chain Romeo’s Pizza. “I’ve managed at a couple of Romeo’s locations, so I’m used to the whole inspection process. It’s exactly what I would expect. It’s thorough and reasonable. There is nothing in the process that caught me off guard, it’s exactly what I would expect in restaurants as well.”

Williams said the Maine food code that applies to food trucks is the same as the regulations that cover restaurants. The scheduled inspections he conducts on trucks before granting them a license to operate largely involves checking to see that they are properly equipped with items like a three-bay sink, hand washing sink, a hot water system, fresh and “gray” water tanks, proper ventilation and lighting.

The Pink Waffle food truck chef-owner Roux Kehoe said he ran afoul of code on his pre-operational health inspection two years ago when a Portland inspector discovered that the faucet for his three-bay sink was leaking. Kehoe fixed the faucet promptly and when the inspector followed up with him a few days later, he passed.

Subsequent surprise inspections review equipment again, but also ensure that an operator’s work routine is compliant with health code while the truck is doing business. On those visits, the review includes checking temperatures for food stored in coolers or being heated for service, and looking for possible cross-contamination.

Food trucks parked on the Eastern Prom in Portland on July 13. As of late July, 69 mobile units in Portland – or just more than 87% of the city’s 79 operational food trucks and carts – had passed an inspection in the last 12 months. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“Inspections are good. They keep us making sure we’re safely serving food and keeping our spaces clean,” Kehoe said. “I think it’s also good for towns, for their code enforcement people to get to know the food truck community and what to look for and learn a little bit more about it.”

By keeping food truck operators on their toes, the random inspections also help consumers feel more confident that the trucks they frequent are offering safe, uncontaminated food.

“I feel some trucks are actually better than restaurants when it comes to sanitation,” said Nicole St. Hilaire, of West Paris, who eats at food trucks at least once a week.

“I think they keep things a little bit cleaner,” agreed David Sharp, of West Paris, who joined St. Hilaire recently for lunch from the Eastern Promenade food trucks. “I’ve never seen a bug in a food truck. I’ve seen them at restaurants.”

STRAIGHTFORWARD PROCESS

Because food trucks are small spaces with relatively small menus, Williams said the inspection process for them usually moves more swiftly than a restaurant inspection. Moreover, Williams estimated that about one-third of the trucks operating in Portland are serving “low-risk” items that have been mostly prepared off-site like ice cream and baked goods, as opposed to higher-risk foods like raw proteins being cooked from scratch.

“The process is not overly complicated,” said Michael Christman, food truck manager for Gelato Fiasco, one of the seven food trucks approved to park at the Eastern Promenade. “Every so often they’ll send an inspector out here randomly to inspect the trucks. They’ll come in, run some tests and check temperatures, and they’re usually in and out in about 20 minutes.”

Michael Christman, food truck manager for Gelato Fiasco, serves customers at the Eastern Prom. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“It’s a food truck, it’s not very big,” Verrill noted. “One little galleyway, essentially. You walk in and see everything you need to see.”

Williams said the most common reason for a failed inspection is a truck that lacks hot water (at least 100 degrees) for doing dishes and washing hands. Other common citations in the process include improper food storage temperatures in refrigerators or holding warmers; insufficient cooling or reheating capacity; and not having key items like soap or sanitary gloves, thermometers or necessary utensils.

The challenge for inspectors is tracking down the food trucks to inspect them while they’re doing business. Williams said inspectors make full use of social media postings to find the trucks on any given day for surprise visits.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the health inspections aren’t a big topic of conversation among food truck operators, who simply regard them as a necessary part of doing business.

“We’re more concerned about the fees to do business in town and the shrinking opportunities to park,” Verrill said. “For us, the cost and the limitations on where we can go are far more pressing issues.”