The purpose of this symposium is to discuss the unique challenges faced by mobile food establishments (MFE) and how we can work together to identify and overcome these obstacles. The food truck phenomenon has gained national media attention and with an estimated 20,000 plus trucks nationwide has rapidly grown to become the newest food craze. In a 2009 industry survey annual revenue from food trucks was around $1.2 billion and growth rates from 2007-2012 was approximately 8.4% annually. With the growth of food trucks comes a variety of food safety obstacles such as operating in a small space, reliance upon generators to keep food at correct temperatures, licensing concerns and limited water supply. Since the trucks are on the move another challenge is the opportunity for regulators to see the truck in service at an event. This symposium will address specific MFE inspection challenges and risk factors and provide participants ideas on how to overcome these challenges. According to the FDA over 2,000 different state and local agencies are responsible for inspecting food trucks, which results in food truck safety standards that vary widely across the country. The symposium will strive to provide insight into specific state regulations regarding food truck standards. Mobile food operation concepts widely vary in size and complexity and include self-sufficient trucks, trucks that must report back to a commissary, canteen style trucks where all serving or cooking of food is done from outside of the truck and trucks that only sell pre-packaged non-TCS. Speakers will include information on food truck design, commissary and mobile support unit requirements.

Presentations