The Unintended Consequences of Illegal Roadside Food Vending

As county supervisor, constituent concerns are a top priority, especially those that involve the health and safety of the community. Since early summer, my office has been inundated with complaints about roadside food vending machines, particularly taco operations in the rights-of-way along state highways 246 and 154. Pop-ups are the equivalent of an outdoor restaurant. Large pickup trucks come and unload equipment such as a cart, tables, a shade structure, a propane or charcoal grill, possibly a flat-top griddle or deceivescondiments and maybe even bright lights and loud music. They drop someone off to cook, then drive off to the next location, not returning to pick them up until late at night.

The rise of this illicit activity is the result of a new state law, Senate Bill 972, which went into effect in January 2023 and completely decriminalizes the sale of food on the roadside. It prohibits misdemeanors or infractions, allowing only administrative citations with limited fines. While Bill 972 was intended to increase opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs, we have instead seen an influx of large syndicates from Los Angeles setting up shop in our area.

These pop-up restaurants operate without local permits, without hand-washing and clean meat facilities, and without refrigerating the meat they cook, which is a clear violation of food safety regulations and a risk of serious foodborne illness outbreaks. County environmental health officers have issued administrative tickets on several occasions, but to little effect. It is difficult to name the responsible party, as the cooks often have no identification. Administrative fines are ineffective, because it is difficult to prosecute people who do not pay. Even with tickets and confiscation of equipment, the pop-up restaurants are back in business the next day or even within hours.

Food safety isn’t the only concern. Shops frequently use open flames and propane along roadsides, next to dry brush, with no regard for fire safety measures. Voters have sent images of hot grease and food waste thrown on the ground.

I am particularly concerned about the dangers posed by street vendors on the roads. Pop-up stalls are often set up in high traffic areas, particularly at busy intersections where pedestrians and vehicles converge, or along verges that should provide space for drivers to avoid vehicles but are now taken up by equipment, tables and customers’ cars. Cars double-park on the roadways and pedestrians race across busy motorways to reach the pop-up stalls. They are an attractive nuisance that will sooner or later lead to a tragic accident.

Illegal roadside vending also creates unfair competition for locally licensed and authorized food trucks, as well as traditional food businesses, including micro-enterprise home cooking operations (MEHKOs), many of which are owned by small businesses like the ones SB 972 sought to help. These entrepreneurs play by the rules: they pay for permits, undergo regular health inspections, contribute to the local economy with the ingredients they buy and the taxes they pay. Our neighbors who have invested time, labor, and money in their businesses are being undermined by illicit vendors who do not face the same costs.

It’s not just a 3^rd This is a district problem, occurring in our cities and across our state. Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse and I are convening a task force of local and state agencies to determine how we can better leverage the various levels of government to combat illicit roadside vending. We will then make a public presentation to the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) Board of Directors, which includes representatives from our county’s eight cities and five supervisors.

We all need to work together to solve this problem. I strongly encourage people to forgo illicit pop-ups and instead patronize our local certified food trucks (look for a Santa Barbara County Environmental Health sticker on the back window) and brick-and-mortar restaurants. I also suggest bringing your concerns to the Governor’s office and be on the lookout for the next SBCAG meeting where this issue will be discussed in more detail.

Together, we can better ensure that food sold to the public is safe, that roads remain as safe as possible, and that small, local businesses do not face unfair competition. If we do not address this issue now, the problems will only get worse to the detriment of the consumers we are trying to protect and the entrepreneurs we are trying to protect.