La Mesa, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Section 7.08.010 folds San Diego County's food-safety ordinance directly into the La Mesa Municipal Code: it adopts by reference Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Division 1, Title 6 of the County Code of Regulatory Ordinances, along with the secondary codes incorporated into them, covering the preparation and distribution of food, public health permits for food distribution establishments, mobile food units, food vending vehicles, vending machines, food caterers and catering equipment rentals, food handlers, and the destruction of spoiled food. A copy of the adopted county code is kept on file with the city clerk.

Section 7.08.020 tailors that county text to La Mesa: wherever the county code says 'Board of Supervisors,' Section 61.100 is amended to read 'City Council,' and Section 61.110 is amended to add that a separate health permit is required for each establishment and that health permits are not transferable between people or locations. Section 7.08.030 explains why the city adopted county rules rather than writing its own: under a public health services contract between La Mesa and San Diego County, the chapter is enforced by the county department of environmental health services, with the county health officer serving as La Mesa's own designated health officer.

In practice, a mobile food unit or food vending vehicle operating in La Mesa applies for its public health permit through San Diego County's environmental health division under the adopted county code, and that county permit, not a separate city-issued food truck license, is what Section 7.08.010 requires. Wholesale food warehouses get a similar cross-reference in Section 7.08.040, pulling in County Code Sections 61.212 and 61.256.