Channel 9 investigates unlicensed food trucks

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An urgent health concern has arisen among a popular trend in Charlotte -- the increasingly popular food trucks in the city.

Unlicensed food trucks are driven up and down several roads across the city.

Licensed trucks have to follow proper health procedures, including sanitation, food handling and refrigeration. The unlicensed variety can pretty much do whatever they want.

Vanessa Fuentes and members of her family, who operate the mini taco truck along South Boulevard and Archdale, are frustrated because they have competitors who are breaking the law by not getting permitted by the health department.

"Putting your gloves on, washing your hands at the appropriate time, cooking the meat well, it can be an issue, not for the truck, but for all of us,” Fuentes said.

Lynn Lathan, a supervisor with Mecklenburg County Environmental Health, said her department inspects food trucks.

She said the unlicensed variety is a big problem because sanitation and food handling are not up to par.

"We have found facilities that are operating illegally where we get a report of 90 people sick,” Lathan said. "They don't have the capacity to do the kind of work they are doing."

Some of the food truck operators are working out of the back of a pickup truck.

Lathan said that before you buy from a food truck, it's important to check and make sure a truck has a sanitation grade.

A few weeks ago, an inspector caught a man operating out of the back of his van in a parking lot, and he wasn't licensed.

When the inspector asked for the man’s license, he got verbally aggressive and she had to retreat to her car.

"I find that most of the time people get irate like that because they know what they are doing is incorrect,” Lathan said. “It's not OK for that to happen."

The health department said there are dozens of illegal operators.

Inspectors say you have a right to see their permit.

Charlotte city leaders just expanded hours for legal food trucks earlier this year.

In March, rules were changed to let food trucks stay open past 9 p.m. Zoning rules were also changed to allow food trucks to park near school and church properties.

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