KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew accompanies Fresno County’s food vendor inspection team.
FRESNO COUNTY (KMJ) — A number of Fresno County agencies have been on the road Wednesday to make sure taco trucks and sliced fruit vendors are playing by the rules.
Starting out at Fresno County’s Juvenile Justice Center, south of Fresno on Highway 99, teams from Fresno County’s DA’s Office, Environmental Health, Ag Commissioner’s Office, and Sheriff’s Department, all set out to bring down the law on unlicensed food vendors.
The group split into smaller units and KMJ, along with other valley media teams, traveled with them south to Five Points. The small community is just west of NAS Lemoore, and there stood a single taco truck. The truck was inspected and everything was found in order.
“We’re checking the fruit vendors – produce and cut fruit – to make sure they’re operating legally”, says Environmental Health’s Kim Hultquist. “On the taco trucks there’s a permit on the back. It’s a brown sticker for this year, and that says they’re permitted”.
Strictly speaking fruit vendors who slice it prior to sale are breaking the law. “There are produce stands”, continues Kim, “there’s one over north of Fresno. That’s set up legitimately but they are not doing cut fruit there”.
From that point the convoy traveled even further south to where the Highway 198 and 269 cross over each other, north of Huron.
We were expecting to find the area by the side of the road with at least a few unlicensed taco trucks and sliced fruit vendors, but the only evidence that someone was there were the tire tracks left in the dust. The running theory was that they’d been tipped off after the earlier inspection.
But despite that, the Sheriff’s Detectives accompanying us on the journey didn’t feel it was a wasted endeavor.
“It’s not really disappointing”, says Sheriff’s Detective Isaac Torres. “Our ultimate goal is to make sure people get the message.
“Number one you have to make sure you’re licensed through the county or through the state, what ever municipality you’re in. Also two is the food safety regulations that come into play.
“We love to see businesses grow but we also want to make sure everybody’s in compliance with the laws because it’s not fair for businesses that are legitimate that are abiding by the laws and then you have some businesses that are not”.
While we were packing up, a taco truck did pull into the area. Seeing the opportunity, Environmental Health representatives stopped the driver and asked to see his proof of licensing with the county. He had everything he needed, a call was made back to the office in Fresno to double check, and he was soon back on the road again.
Hear the report as it aired on KMJ:
