Colorado food trailer permits, explained accurately

Last verified: 2026-08-19

Who issues your licence

Colorado's retail food rule is 6 CCR 1010-2, adopted by the State Board of Health in January 2024 and effective 16 March 2024. It is short — seven sections — because §2.6 incorporates the FDA Food Code 2022 by reference, excluding four provisions (patio dogs, preoperational inspections, permit to operate, and inspection/correction of violations).

That structure is genuinely useful: it means the physical specification for your trailer comes from one document you can download and read, rather than from fifty separate city checklists the way it does in Texas.

Who licenses you is the messier half. CDPHE issues retail food licences directly in only nine counties:

• Clear Creek
• Dolores
• Gilpin
• Moffat
• Ouray
• Park
• Pitkin — except the City of Aspen, which runs its own programme
• Rio Blanco
• San Juan

Everywhere else — which includes every Front Range metro, so Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Pueblo, Greeley, Fort Collins and Boulder — you apply to your county or district public health agency. Denver runs its own regime entirely.

The fees, which are statutory

This is unusual enough to be worth spelling out. Colorado retail food licence fees are set in state statute — CRS 25-4-1607, as rewritten by SB25-285 effective 1 January 2026 — and the statute expressly allows a county or district board of health to set fees lower than the listed figures, but not higher.

Separate local fees you should budget for: the City of Colorado Springs charges $110/year for its own mobile food vendor licence ($25 per additional unit, $55 late renewal). Front Range Fire Rescue, covering Windsor and Severance, charges $75 for a twelve-month mobile vendor fire permit. Denver charges a separate zoning permit. Fire permit fees vary by department.

Plan review — and the Denver trap

Mobile units require plan review in Colorado, and it is a real submittal. The common pattern is a $155 filing fee plus hourly review, capped at $580 (CDPHE) or $900 (Boulder, Mesa and Gunnison among others).

What CDPHE asks for: menu, facility floor plans, equipment specifications with manufacturer information, and mechanical diagrams for plumbing, electrical and ventilation.

Turnaround: CDPHE responds within 14 days. Boulder County publishes up to eight weeks, plus 14 business days for revisions. Plan around the slow case.

HB25-1295: what it does and doesn't do

House Bill 25-1295, "Food Truck Operations," was signed on 20 May 2025 and took effect 1 January 2026, creating Article 11.6 of Title 29, C.R.S. A great deal of what's written about it online overstates it. Here is the accurate version.

Fire inspection and the FMAC checklist

Colorado has no mandatory statewide fire code for general occupancies. The Division of Fire Prevention and Control adopted the 2021 International Fire Code, but its jurisdiction covers specific categories — limited gaming structures, waste tire facilities, state-licensed health facilities, public school buildings and fire suppression systems. Local governments adopt their own fire codes independently.

In practice, though, the state has converged. The Fire Marshals Association of Colorado publishes a standardised Mobile Food Vehicle pre-inspection checklist keyed to the 2024 IFC — in English and in Spanish — and since HB25-1295 it is effectively the vehicle for reciprocal fire permits. If you are building or buying a trailer for Colorado, that checklist is the document to build to.

What the trailer must physically have

Because Colorado adopts the FDA Food Code 2022, the plumbing and facility specs are the Food Code's — with local sizing tests layered on at plan review.

For what changes physically in a trailer built for Colorado rather than Texas — altitude orifices, freeze protection, brakes and awnings — see building a food trailer for Colorado.

Commissary, and the self-contained route

A commissary is the default in Colorado, and it is written into the statutory definition itself (§29-11.6-102(6)). Denver requires standard units to report to a commissary for servicing, restocking and maintenance each operating day. Elbert County requires a current commissary agreement. Pueblo County states plainly that most mobile units will not be fully self-contained and that it is likely vendors must use a commissary.

A self-contained exemption does exist, but it is local rather than statewide and it is conditional. Denver's version requires all of:

1. a mop sink, a food prep sink and a three-compartment sink on board, plus adequate cooking and storage;
2. a limited menu — described as a single category, for example burgers only or salads only;
3. a written operation plan covering supply storage, maintenance and water servicing;
4. department approval before fabrication;
5. re-approval for any change after approval.

What we couldn't verify

We'd rather tell you what we don't know than pretend.

• Denver's current licence and fire permit fees. The figures circulating come from a trade association rather than a city page. Get them from Denver Excise & Licenses directly.
• El Paso, Jefferson, Adams, Arapahoe, Weld and Pueblo county mobile licence fees aren't published in fetchable schedules. Budget from the statutory figures and confirm by phone.
• Denver's current mobile unit guide edition. The richest published spec source we found is the 2022 edition. The 10-gallon and 10 in × 10 in figures come from it — confirm they're current with DDPHE.
• A "readily movable" or no-permanent-connections rule. We found none in the state rule or in county packets. Some jurisdictions likely enforce it through zoning instead.
• Any count of licensed mobile units in Colorado. None is published, and the HB25-1295 fiscal note explicitly declines to estimate. Any page quoting you a number is guessing.