Peoria County, IL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Section 10-11(c) of Chapter 10, the county's food safety code, defines what a mobile food unit, a vehicle-mounted or trailer-mounted kitchen with no permanent water, wastewater or electrical hookups under Section 10-6(24), must file with the Peoria City/County Health Department before the health authority will issue or renew its license. A first-time applicant files a plan review application and scaled drawings showing the layout, equipment placement and construction materials; both are waived on renewal unless the truck changes hands or the establishment closes and reopens. Every applicant, new or renewing, must submit its proposed menu and hours, proof of and hours of access to a licensed commissary where food, containers and supplies are prepared and stored, a list of items to be served, and an itinerary of every known event and location where the truck will operate, updated as new bookings are added.

Section 10-8 sets the license term at January 1 through December 31 each year, so a mobile food unit renews annually alongside brick-and-mortar restaurants, and Section 10-9 places it into a risk category, high, medium or low, under the Illinois Food Code, 77 Ill. Adm. Code 750, that sets its annual fee. Section 10-11(d) separately requires any event with three or more mobile or temporary food vendors to designate an event coordinator, who must file an information sheet at least fifteen business days before the event.

Operating without this license is unlawful under Section 10-7, which bars anyone from running a food establishment in the county without a valid health department license, and a person who does so before licensure is issued is assessed a penalty fee under Section 10-12(e), on top of the $200 penalty fee for operating on an expired license listed in the appendix fee schedule.