Boston, MA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)
Key Facts
- Registration agency
- Division of Health Inspections, ISD
- Minimum vendor age
- 16 years
- License term
- 1 year
- Sanitary requirement
- new gloves per transaction (§16-2.6)
- Peddling-violation fine
- $200 (§16-2.7)
- Annual license fee
- $150 in-market / $25 elsewhere
Summary
Boston requires anyone hawking or peddling food from a cart or on foot to register with the Division of Health Inspections and carry a numbered, dated license under Code of Ordinances § 16-2.1, and requires fresh sanitary gloves per transaction when handling 'ready to eat' food from a pushcart under § 16-2.6.
No person shall hawk or peddle any fruits or vegetables or any of the articles enumerated in M.G.L. Chapter 101, Section 17 and acts in amendment thereof or in addition thereto, until he or she has been assigned a number by the Division of Health Inspections, Inspectional Services Department and until he or she has recorded with said Division, his or her name and residence, and until a recent photograph of said applicant shall be presented to the Division of Health Inspections, Inspectional Services Department, to be attached to his or her license (said photograph to be a passport size—viz., 2 inch by 2 inch) and if he or she hawks or peddles articles which are sold by weight or measure, a certificate from the Sealer of Weights and Measures that all weights, measures and balances to be used by him or her have been properly inspected and sealed.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: 2026 S-2: Current through Ordinance 2025 C. 14, passed 11-5-2025).
Full Breakdown
Chapter XVI's hawkers-and-peddlers subchapter, § 16-2, governs food sold from carts, pushcarts or by hand on Boston's streets and sidewalks outside the licensed food-truck and Haymarket-market regimes. 2(A) expressly excludes 'food vending push carts and stands' from the mobile-food-truck permitting section, leaving them under this separate registration scheme. c. 101, § 17 until the vendor is assigned a registration number by the Division of Health Inspections, Inspectional Services Department, records their name and residence with that Division, and files a passport-size photograph for their license; anyone selling by weight or measure must also have their scales sealed by the Sealer of Weights and Measures, and unsealed equipment ends the vendor's permission to operate.
1(C) limits licenses to people 16 or older, issued for one-year terms. 6 requires the vendor to use sanitary gloves, with a fresh pair for every transaction, when manufacturing, preparing, handling, serving or distributing food from a vehicle, pushcart or as a hawker or peddler. 2 additionally bars crying out wares in a way that disturbs the peace or occurs near a school or house of worship. 1, or $25 elsewhere.
Violations & Fines
Hawking or peddling goods, wares or merchandise outside what the chapter or M.G.L. c. 101, §§ 14 and 17 permit is a violation of § 16-2.7, punishable by a $200 fine under § 16-32.6(5). Selling with unsealed weights or measures automatically terminates the vendor's registration permission under § 16-2.1(A), and other § 16-2 violations carry the general $10 penalty set by § 16-32.6(A) unless a higher fine is separately listed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Boston sidewalk food cart vendors need a permit?
Are food carts covered by Boston's food-truck permit rules?
What sanitation rule applies to prepared food sold from a cart?
How much is a Boston hawker's or peddler's license?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Boston
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Sidewalk & Mobile Vending in Nearby Cities
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