Opening a Food Business in Scioto County Starts at the Health Department, Not With a Logo

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A catchy name does not make a kitchen legal per the health department. In Scioto County, food licensing sits with the health department at 612 6th Street, Suite D, Portsmouth. Phone (740) 355-8358. That is the office that already handles vital statistics. Environmental health is the desk that handles food.

Plan on a license before the first sale if you are cooking for the public: a restaurant, a trailer, a festival stand, a concession at a ballfield. Cottage-food rules are a different, narrower lane for certain shelf-stable goods, and they are not a workaround for hot meals, cream pies, or a cooler of chicken. If the product needs refrigeration in a way the cottage rules do not allow, you are in the licensed-kitchen conversation.

What inspectors look for is boring and specific. Water source, wastewater, hand sinks, cold holding, and a person who knows the temperatures. A rented hall and a pop-up tent fail those tests more often than the recipe does. Ask for the application and the plan-review requirement before you buy a trailer. Equipment bought first is how people own a sink that is two inches too small.

Portsmouth city and the county health department are not interchangeable on every permit. Confirm which office has the address where the food will be made and where it will be served. A city block and a township lot can land on different clipboards.

Call the food desk, ask which application matches the menu, and do not print menus until that answer is in writing.

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