Huntington Park, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Municipal Code § 4-7.2003 sets the operating standards for sidewalk vendors and compact mobile food operations, called CMFOs, which work from pushcarts and other nonmotorized conveyances. All food must be displayed and offered in a manner approved under the California Retail Food Code. Each vendor displays the sidewalk vendor permit and any State or County permit in plain view, including the County Health Department sticker. A vendor with 25 square feet or less of display area that sells only bagged snacks, cans of soda, bottled water, whole fruits and vegetables, canned goods that do not need refrigeration, and other similar foods is exempt from the County health permit but stays subject to inspection during operating hours and on a consumer complaint or just cause.

The only signs allowed are signs affixed to or painted on the cart or its canopy, or on one's person. Every cart carries a trash receptacle large enough for customer trash, and the vendor cannot use existing receptacles on City sidewalks. The only noise-making device allowed is one bell with a maximum diameter of two inches. A cart cannot be placed where it endangers persons or property.

Unattended carts get the harshest treatment. Under subsection (i), no cart can be left on the sidewalk, public property or right-of-way outside the vendor's operating hours, and none can be chained or fastened to a pole, sign, tree or other object. Unattended carts are impounded for safekeeping with no fine for the impoundment, and the vendor retrieves the cart by contacting the Public Works Division.

Related limits in § 4-7.2002 shape the same business. Vendors cannot prepare food beyond limited food preparation under Health and Safety Code Section 113818, cannot use a motorized conveyance or a portable generator, and cannot use a cart larger than 48 inches in width and 96 inches in height.