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managers discussed an example of their circumstances. In
their service location, the law states that food trucks are
only required to park within two hundred feet of a public
restroom and are not required to have a handwashing sink
on the truck. Therefore, this particular regulation poses a
challenge to park close enough to a public restroom and
allow employees ample time to be able to walk off the truck
and wash their hands. Some participants (14%) have come
up with another solution, which is to allow their employees
to use hand sanitizer instead of washing their hands.
Food truck food safety practices and concerns: Permits
The discussion by five of the participants further
emphasized the issue of permits and licenses (20%).
The participants stated that it was a struggle to meet the
regulations while operating within multiple municipalities;
therefore, the preference is to operate in a municipality
with less stringent regulations. In addition, several cities
and communities within a county have different criteria
in issuing a permit, making it difficult to run a food truck
while being in compliance with all mandated rules. Many
municipalities have enforced heavy fines on food truck
operators who failed to follow rules of obtaining permits,
which is discouraging to owners. Several participants (20%)
discussed the lack of city or county health officials who
inspect their food trucks on a regular basis. In this case, a
fire department was mentioned by owners and managers as
the entity that does the inspection on food trucks.
DISCUSSION
Food truck operations continue to grow throughout
the United States, but evidence showed that many food
trucks violated critical control points that contributed
to foodborne illnesses (46). Consequently, a proactive
approach in the awareness and prevention of foodborne
illness in this sector of the food service industry is needed.
This study explored food safety training in the food truck
industry, including the food truck owners' and managers'
attitudes toward food safety training, the challenges to
training, and the current and preferred training methods.
This study also sought to identify food safety practices and
concerns specific to the food truck sector.
ServSafe is a food safety certification program commonly
used by the participants. However, the majority of
municipalities only accept the ServSafe course certification
administered in a classroom setting (11), which the
participants found to be an inconvenience. Attending
ServSafe is sometimes considered a hardship, as it not
only may reduce business revenue but is perceived by the
participants to be costly. The participants indicated that
they only went through recertification every five years, as
required by the law.
The attitudes of food service operators towards food
safety has a significant impact on the food safety culture

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with reference to the operations and implementation of
food safety programs (18). Previous research has shown
that positive management attitudes towards food safety
training provided employees assurance to perform their job
correctly, which could result in decreasing the number of
foodborne illnesses (2, 13, 22, 24, 29). Roberts and Barrett
(35) found that restaurant managers realize the benefits of
food safety training, including how it may ensure that safe
food is served to customers, maintain the reputation of
their operations, and increase their employees' awareness
towards food safety protocol. The findings of the present
study supported the value of food safety training as a means
to increase the confidence, knowledge, and skills of food
handlers to provide and serve safe food to their customers.
The participants utilized various food safety training
methods in their food truck operations, including roleplay, mock situations, and on-the-job training. Training
approaches such as these are conducted on-site and have
been found to improve knowledge retention (47) while
reducing costs related to time. The study found that
participants were interested in a food safety app that allows
training access via a smartphone or tablet. Due to the
mobile nature of the food truck operation, a food safety
app would offer food truck operators greater flexibility to
train their employees. Such a potential app may alleviate the
issue of time restraint and allow employees to quickly access
food safety information and refresh their knowledge at their
convenience. Additionally, participants used visual aids to
emphasize and reinforce food safety awareness with their
employees. Visual aids are useful reminders that operators
can post to foster food safety practices (40). Food safety
apps and visual aids that are user-friendly and tailored to
the needs of the food truck industry may be created to
increase food safety training about food truck operation.
The participants in this study indicated that attention
needs to be paid to several food safety practices unique to
food truck operations, concerning such topics as cleaning,
handwashing, equipment, permits, and inspections,
concerns which were consistent with previous literature
(30, 31, 41, 46). Regarding cleaning, participants
commented that thorough cleaning of food trucks is
important to keep pests away. Several cities or counties have
taken extra effort to prevent issues with pests. The cities
of Denver, CO, and Los Angeles, CA, and the District of
Columbia require food trucks to have a permanent sliding
screen on their serving window in order to keep pests from
entering the truck (5, 7, 9, 11). The storage of materials and
placement of items is another critical facet of food safety.
Food trucks have limited space, thereby posing a dilemma
in finding adequate storage for necessary materials. One
participant stated, "The layout of the truck and space make
storing of chemicals a challenge." Another participant
commented, "Unlike a restaurant that can have a dedicated
room, we have to ensure it is safe on the truck." According

Food Protection Trends - November/December 2020

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