L.A. Food Trucks Have Half As Many Health Violations As Brick And Mortar Restaurants

People may like to call them roach coaches, but it turns out that food trucks may actually be safer than your standard sit-down restaurant. A recent report by the Institute of Justice says that in comparison to traditional restaurants, food trucks and carts actually receive less violations. The study involved food-safety inspection reports form seven cities—Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Louisville, Miami, D.C., Seattle and Boston. In all but Seattle, food trucks and carts performed better. In L.A., restaurants had about double the violations their wheeled competitors did. For Los Angeles, the study used inspections from 2009-2012, for a total of 45,611 reports. Trucks had an average of 3.59 violations, while carts only had 2.37 and restaurants had 7.82.

The seven cities selected for the study have the same health standards for both types of eateries. The testers also took into account what day it was, what the weather was like and what the trucks and restaurants were serving, Eater LA reports. It’s also worth nothing that trucks and carts tend to serve less items and therefore have an easier space to control than a large kitchen.

This is good news for food truck operators in cities that haven’t embraced them yet, as well as public opinion. It's also great considering that in April, it was reported that 40 percent of food trucks hadn't been inspected.