Food Cart Complaint

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You can report unsafe food and unsanitary conditions in food carts, food stands, or food trucks operating on City streets or sidewalks, in parks, or at street fairs. 

You can make a complaint about a broad range of food safety issues including (but not limited to) the following:

  • Bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods
  • Spoiled or contaminated food
  • Operating without a permit
  • Roaches, mice or rats present 
  • Unsanitary practices by vendor
  • Vendor is sick
  • Missing, damaged or incorrect letter grade posted on food trucks or carts

Your complaint should include the vendor's exact location, license number (located on the cart, stand, or truck's decal), and the time of the incident.

To report that someone got sick from eating food, go to the Food Poisoning page.

Letter Grades on Food Trucks and Carts

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, the phased-in letter grading of all mobile vending units has been delayed. It will be common to see food trucks or carts without a letter grade through 2021.

Letter grades will not be issued to food stands.

You can report that a NYC Green Cart is unsanitary or operating improperly. 

Green Carts are specially licensed food cart vendors that sell only fresh fruits and vegetables and operate only in certain neighborhoods. You can tell a Green Cart from other mobile food vendors by its dark green umbrella with a NYC Green Cart logo. 

In order to assist in the investigation of your complaint, provide the permit number found on the cart.  As Green Carts are permitted to move around within a certain parameter, if you do not provide the permit number inspectors may not be able to locate the cart you are complaining about.

To report that someone got sick from eating food, go to the Food Poisoning page.

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