"Commissary" and "CPF" are the same thing. CPF stands for Central Preparation Facility — a licensed, fixed food establishment where your vehicle is supplied, cleaned, and serviced. Whether you need one depends on how your operation is set up.
But HB 2844 created a path around it, and a lot of operators don't know whether they qualify. So we called DSHS and asked.
You may not need a commissary if…
- You don't need to store food overnight at all — or
- You have an approved place to keep your food stored and held at required temperatures when the truck isn't operating, and you can handle water and waste properly.
What the Law Actually Says
Section 437B.004(4)(D) prohibits requiring a mobile food vendor to associate with a commissary if the vehicle carries the equipment necessary to comply with state law and properly disposes of grease and other cooking waste. Both conditions have to be true at the same time.
That's the legal standard. What it means in practice is where operators get stuck — which is what we asked DSHS about.
The Overnight Storage Test
A DSHS compliance representative explained the practical question this way: the commissary exists so your truck has somewhere to be resupplied and serviced. If you can handle that yourself, you don't need one.
He described it as: if you can connect somewhere overnight where your refrigeration stays running and your food stays cold, you don't need a commissary to resupply your truck every day. If you don't have the ability to do that, then you need to use a commissary.
Reported as his explanation during a phone conversation. It is not published policy and we have not verified how it is applied in every case.
One operator on the call raised the obvious objection: hard-connecting to water and power overnight seems to conflict with the requirement that the unit stay readily movable. He did not treat those as contradictory. Being plugged in overnight for food storage is not the same as being permanently installed.
What the overnight spot needs
- Commercial property with a potable water setup — not a private residence
- Water is the main requirement. Power can come from a generator when needed
- The location needs to be approved, but he indicated it does not necessarily need to hold a CPF permit itself
If You Don't Store Food Overnight, This May Not Apply to You
This is the part most operators miss. The overnight power question only matters if you actually need overnight food storage.
He gave the example of an operator who works one event a week and disposes of remaining food at the end of the shift. That operator would not necessarily need somewhere to plug in overnight at all.
Likely a stronger case
Weekend event vendor. Sells through or discards remaining food at close. Nothing held overnight.
Larger trailer with refrigeration capacity beyond what's carried, parked at a commercial site with potable water access.
Likely still needs a CPF
Daily operation carrying food over between shifts with no approved place to store or hold it.
No approved potable water source or no documented way to dispose of grey water and grease.
These are illustrations of how the standard was described to us, not a determination about your operation. Your inspection is what settles it.
What Type III Operators Need to Know
Asked whether a Type III operator who cooks and preps on the vehicle can still qualify, he said yes — they can prep everything on the truck and hold it, but they have to prove the refrigerators maintain temperature throughout the process.
That's a documentation burden, not a disqualification. If you're Type III and relying on the exemption, temperature records are the thing that carries it. See the full Type I, II, and III breakdown →
Does This Vary by County?
We asked directly. He said this is a statewide standard — if DSHS says the setup is acceptable, it's acceptable. That's a meaningful change from the pre-HB 2844 patchwork, where commissary enforcement varied widely between jurisdictions.
Local requirements that exist separately from your DSHS license — fire marshal permits, city site rules — can still apply on top of it.
Qualifying Is One Thing. Proving It Is Another.
The rule's wording is specific: each requirement must be checked during inspection.
The practical implication is this. You may believe your truck qualifies for the CPF exemption, but you still need to be prepared to demonstrate that each applicable requirement is satisfied when DSHS inspects the unit. A truck that genuinely could operate without a commissary still comes up short if the operator can't show the water source, the waste disposal arrangement, and the records when the inspector asks for them.
Already have the truck? Don't assume you need a commissary — and don't assume you're exempt. Find out what you'd need to demonstrate first.
That puts three different people in the same spot, needing different things:
You already own the truck
You think you qualify, but you're not sure what DSHS actually wants to see. What documents? Does it need a letter? How do you document a water source and a waste disposal location? What happens when the inspector looks at it?
You don't need to start over. The next step is usually making sure your operation, your documentation, and your paperwork line up with what the rule requires — before you submit or go into inspection. That's what the $99 Pre-Inspection Review is for, with the CPF documentation add-on if the exemption is the piece you're stuck on.
You're working on your application right now
Settle the exemption question before it becomes the thing holding up your file. An unsupported exemption claim means arranging a CPF after the fact and going back through scheduling.
You haven't bought the truck yet
Don't just ask whether you can get a permit for a unit. Ask whether it can actually satisfy the requirements you'll have to demonstrate at inspection — refrigeration capacity, water, waste. A truck can look like a bargain right up until that question gets answered.
Already have your truck and working on the exemption? Our CPF Exemption Review checks your actual setup — refrigeration capacity, water source, waste disposal, and servicing arrangement — tells you whether the exemption is realistic, and helps you prepare the documentation you'll need to show. Available on its own or as an add-on to the $99 review.
SEE CPF REVIEW OPTIONS →How to Request the CPF Exemption
Here's the part that surprises people: there is no DSHS form for this.
There is no standard exemption form. The operator writes a letter explaining how the operation functions, supported by documentation. DSHS wants to understand how your setup actually works day to day.
What the Exemption Letter Should Cover
Based on how it was described to us, the letter is written by the food truck owner and should explain the operation well enough that a reviewer can see why a commissary isn't needed. That means covering:
- How your operation actually runs — daily or event-based, what you prepare, what you carry, what happens to food at the end of service
- The address where the unit is parked and serviced
- The utilities available there — potable water, power, and how each is used
- Your hours and pattern of operation
- How food is stored and held, including refrigeration capacity relative to what you carry
- How water is sourced and how grey water and grease are disposed of
Supporting documentation
The letter alone isn't the whole package. Supporting documents that back up what you're claiming matter — particularly agreements or contracts covering grey water disposal, potable water sourcing, and food storage. A claim without paperwork behind it is the most common reason an otherwise qualifying setup gets stopped.
What the Adopted Rule Actually Requires
The adopted rule states that an MFV may operate without a CPF or commissary if all requirements of the paragraph are met, and that each requirement must be checked during inspection.
Two things follow from that wording. First, it isn't a partial-credit test — the rule says all requirements. Second, the exemption is demonstrated at inspection, not declared on a form. DSHS's Mobile Food Vendor Guide lists a CPF/Commissary Exemption Checklist as a required document for operators claiming it.
The requirements most operators get stopped on
The paragraph runs through a lettered list of requirements. These are the ones that decide most cases in practice:
- Equipment capacity. Equipment for cooling and heating food, and for holding cold and hot food, must be sufficient in number and capacity for what you actually run.
- Approved potable water source. Your water has to come from an approved source. The rule is explicit that this cannot be an untested well or a private residence — which is where the phone guidance above and the written rule line up exactly.
- Approved waste disposal. Sewage and other liquid waste must be removed at a facility approved for waste servicing, or by a sewage transport vehicle.
- Records on the vehicle. You must keep records showing the physical address — and, where needed, letters of authorization — for your approved potable water sources and wastewater disposal locations. Those records have to stay available on the unit and apply to your current licensing cycle and locations of operation.
⚠ Don't mistake these for the whole list
The four above are the ones operators most often fail on, but the paragraph contains more than four requirements. Others address food storage protection from contamination, storage of equipment, utensils and single-service articles, warewashing compartment dimensions, and maintaining proof of loaded vehicle weight.
If you're relying on the exemption, read the full paragraph — or have someone go through the whole checklist against your actual unit. Passing three of four is the same as passing none.
The records requirement inside the exemption paragraph is about addresses and authorization letters for your water and waste locations. The servicing area activity log — dates and times you obtained water and disposed of waste — comes from a different provision, §226.8(c)(4), and applies regardless of your exemption status. Operators frequently merge these two and end up short on one of them.
The Servicing Area — The Part Most Operators Miss
Getting the exemption doesn't mean you stop having to account for water and waste. It means you account for them somewhere other than a commissary. That place is your servicing area, and DSHS treats it as its own documented requirement.
The servicing area is the location used for filling your potable water tank and disposing of wastewater and other liquid waste. Under the current Chapter 226 framework, the area must include overhead protection for any supplying, cleaning, or servicing operation. If the servicing area is not owned by the MFV operator, a signed letter of authorization is required.
What you have to be able to show
- Where you get potable water — a specific, approved location, not "wherever I can"
- Where liquid waste is disposed of — including grease and cooking waste where it applies
- A signed authorization letter from the property owner if the location isn't yours
- A servicing area activity log documenting when you obtained potable water and when you disposed of sewage, liquid waste, and grease
A servicing area may not be a private home or living quarters. This appears in DSHS's own documentation and matches what compliance staff told us by phone about needing a commercial location with a potable water setup. It is one of the few points where the verbal guidance and the written record line up exactly.
A note on the older DSHS variance template
DSHS has published a Mobile Food Unit Variance Request Template for a Central Preparation Facility. If you find it, read the fine print: it is dated 2019 and built on the older TFER §228.221 framework, not the Chapter 226 rules created by HB 2844. That may be why compliance staff told us there is no current form — an older MFU-era template existing on the DSHS site is not the same thing as a current Chapter 226 form you are supposed to file. We are not treating that document as the current process, and neither should you without confirming it directly with DSHS.
Our CPF Exemption Review includes a ready-to-use Servicing Area Authorization Letter and Activity Log — built around what DSHS's own guide says has to be identified and logged, formatted so you can hand the letter straight to a property owner. We send it to you after your review, along with guidance on filling it out for your specific setup.
SEE CPF REVIEW OPTIONS →⚠ What we are still verifying
- Whether DSHS applies a consistent written standard to exemption letters, or reviews them case by case
- Whether specific document formats are required for water and waste agreements
- How the exemption interacts with Type I operators, where food source documentation rules differ
Bottom Line
The commissary question isn't really about whether you have a building. It's about whether your operation can handle food storage, water, and waste on its own — and whether you can document that convincingly.
The letter is where the operator has to make the case clearly. A short, vague letter with no supporting agreements doesn't give DSHS much to work with, even when the underlying setup is sound. That task falls on the operator.
Last verified: September 2, 2026.
Source disclosure: Statutory language is from Texas Health and Safety Code §437B.004(4)(D) and 25 TAC Chapter 226. Statements regarding the overnight storage test, parking and utility requirements, Type III temperature documentation, statewide application, and the contents of the exemption letter were provided during a direct phone conversation with a DSHS compliance representative and are identified as such throughout. These are reported as staff explanations of current practice, not as published policy. We are continuing to seek written confirmation. The published DSHS Mobile Food Vendor Guide and adopted rules remain the controlling sources.