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Apply for a vendor's temporary food facility permit

Two women in a food booth with one handing an object to a customer

In order to operate your temporary food facility (TFF) at a temporary event in the County, you must have a valid in-County mobile food facility or TFF permit from our office.  

Your permit must be posted in clear view at your booth or TFF at all times during operation. 

We may require additional licenses, permits or registrations in order for us to approve a TFF operation in certain cases such as processed foods distribution and the manufacture of milk and soft-serve onsite. See below to learn more.

If you already have a mobile food facility (MFF) permit from our office, you won't need to apply for an operating permit. Be sure to review your obligations as a participating vendor at a temporary event.

Vendors without County MFF permit

You will need to submit a temporary food facility application if you do not have a permit to operate a mobile food facility (MFF) in the County of Santa Clara. This applies to you if you have an out-of-County permit to operate an MFF.  If you're a cottage food maker or a restaurant, bakery, produce store or any retail storefront with an in-County permit, you will also need to submit an application.

  1. Complete a TFF application.
  2. If you have an out-of-County MFF permit, make a copy of your valid Environmental Health permit issued by your local jurisdiction. If you don't have this permit and are an occupied MFF, we can accept California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) Insignia. 
  3. If providing multiuse utensils at the event, produce a plan for review and approval to address the volume and storage of potable water for warewashing and wastewater capacity.
  4. Gather the above and submit them with the applicable fees to the event coordinator. This person will distribute permits to all applying vendors once our office approves all of the event applications. 

If you will operate more than one (1) food booth, submit a separate application and TFF permit fee for each one. 

Additional licenses and permits

If any of the following applies to your operations at the event, secure the necessary license or permit. This is required in order for us to issue you a permit. >>This is for MMFs, regardless where they got permit and not submitted by event coordinator?

OfferRequirement
Pre-packaged processed foods A Processed Food Registration (PFR) from the California Department of Public Health – Food and Drug Branch 
Manufacture of milk, ice cream or soft-serve productsA CDFA license 
Foods from a home kitchen  A Cottage Food Operator registration or permit from any jurisdiction correct?
Potentially hazardous foods (PHFs) will be held at room temperature An approved Time as a Public Health Control (TPHC) plan. Is this a one-time thing from SCC? See Time as a Public Health Control (TPHC) Guidelines for guidelines. >>Show sample plans? Is this a shared thing submitted by event coordinator?