Enrolled Bill Summary

House Bill 2844 amends the Health and Safety Code to provide for the licensing, regulation, and inspection of mobile food vending operations by the Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The bill sets out general provisions, including provisions providing for the bill's preemption of a local authority's power and, effective September 1, 2025, for the authority of the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules to implement the bill's provisions regarding mobile food vendors.

House Bill 2844 requires a person to obtain a mobile food vendor license from DSHS to operate as a mobile food vendor in Texas and sets out provisions regarding the application for and issuance and renewal of such a license, including certain health inspection requirements for an applicant's food vending vehicles. The bill requires DSHS to develop a guide on the mobile food vendor licensing procedures and to establish and maintain a mobile food vendor database. With respect to mobile food vendor operations, the bill sets out provisions regarding compliance with state and local law, food vending vehicle driver requirements, operational standards, and food safety.

House Bill 2844 requires the executive commissioner by rule to establish certain classifications of mobile food vendors for purposes of conducting health inspections and provides for the authority of DSHS or a local authority to investigate a mobile food vendor on reasonable suspicion the vendor is violating the law or on receipt of a health or safety complaint. Subsequently, the bill provides for the enforcement by DSHS of the bill's provisions regarding mobile food vendor operations, including by providing for license denial, suspension, or revocation and for an administrative penalty.

House Bill 2844 also includes provisions setting out certain small-scale food business permit exemptions and repeals the provision that provides for a required permit for the operation of a mobile food service establishment issued by Dallas, Harris, or Tarrant County.

Except as otherwise provided, House Bill 2844 takes effect July 1, 2026.