Guides
Ghost kitchen licensing requirements: who decides what
Ghost kitchen licensing requirements sit in six layers: health, tax, labor, disability access, facility and platforms. See the permits and who decides each.
What to take away
- Ghost kitchen licensing requirements split across six separate authorities: the health department, the tax agencies, the labor agencies, the disability access rules, the facility and fire departments, and the delivery platforms. No single license covers all six.
- A commissary permit usually covers the building shell and shared equipment. Which approvals stay with you as the operator is a written question for the health authority, not an assumption from the lease.
- Platform merchant terms are enforceable private rules. A rating threshold or refund policy can suspend an order stream faster than any inspection.
- Employment and public access are compliance layers, not afterthoughts. Late-night youth work rules and an inaccessible pickup counter both create liability.
- Keep one evidence file with dated written answers, permit expiries, and training records. Compliance is what you can show on the day someone asks.
A ghost kitchen has no dining room, no host stand and no liquor license. It still has a health permit, a payroll, a sales tax obligation, a facility lease and a platform contract. Each one answers to a different office.
This guide maps those six layers, the questions that belong to each, and the permits usually in play. The answer changes with the state, the county, the city and the facility type, so the decider matters more than any single national checklist.
The permits are usually the same handful: a food service or retail food establishment permit from the state or county health authority (county environmental health divisions in California, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the five boroughs), a business license or registration from the city or the secretary of state, a seller's permit or resale certificate from the state revenue department (the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts), a certificate of occupancy from the building department, and a food handler or certified food protection manager credential such as ServSafe for staff. Which of them apply to your operation is a question for the office that issues each one.
The six layers and who decides each
| Layer | Who decides | What it covers | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food safety and permits | State or county health department | Kitchen approval, operator permit, inspections, food handler training, hot-holding, labeling | The FDA state directory, then the local office it names |
| Business and tax | State business registry, state revenue department, IRS | Entity, registration, tax ID, sales tax on delivered food, income records | IRS starting-a-business pages and your state revenue site |
| Employment | U.S. Department of Labor, state labor agency, EEOC | Wages, overtime, timekeeping, youth work rules, nondiscrimination notices | DOL and EEOC small-business pages, then the state agency |
| Public access | U.S. Department of Justice ADA guidance, local building code | Pickup counters, customer-facing points, your ordering site and app | The DOJ small-business guide and your building department |
| Facility | Landlord or facility operator, fire marshal, building department | Occupancy, ventilation, fire suppression, grease, waste, hours, what the facility's approvals cover | The lease or license agreement and the departments it names |
| Platform terms | Each platform's current merchant agreement | Onboarding documents, rating thresholds, refund rules, listing content | The terms you signed, re-read at every change notice |
The map is complete when every row has a name, a date and a written answer. Anything still blank is an open risk.
Six Compliance Layers and Deciders
Layer
- Food safety and permits
- State or county health department
- Business and tax
- State registry, revenue dept, IRS
- Employment
- DOL, state labor agency, EEOC
- Public access
- DOJ ADA guidance, building code
- Facility
- Landlord, fire marshal, building dept
- Platform terms
- Each platform's merchant agreement
Who decides
- Food safety and permits
- Permits, inspections, labeling
- Business and tax
- Entity, tax ID, sales tax
- Employment
- Wages, overtime, youth rules
- Public access
- Pickup counters, ordering site
- Facility
- Occupancy, ventilation, fire, waste
- Platform terms
- Onboarding, ratings, refunds
Covers
- Food safety and permits
- Business and tax
- Employment
- Public access
- Facility
- Platform terms
Food safety: the model code and the code that applies
The FDA publishes the Food Code as a model for retail and food service. It is not a license and not a law. States adopt it, adapt it or write their own version.
What governs your kitchen is whatever the inspecting authority has adopted. The FDA's directory of state retail food codes and agencies identifies that body. Read the model code for vocabulary, then ask the real authority what a delivery-only operation in your facility type must do.
Three questions belong in writing to the health department:
- Which approvals does the shared or commissary permit cover, and which must the operator hold separately?
- What does a delivery-only kitchen owe on hot-holding times, container labeling and allergen information that a dine-in restaurant does not?
- What inspection happens before the first sale, and what triggers a re-inspection?
Food safety procedure itself is not something this article can supply. ServSafe training, the FDA Food Code and your county health authority are the sources, and an inspector's sign-off is the only approval that counts.
Employment: the federal floor and the state layer above it
The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division publishes compliance assistance for small businesses on minimum wage, overtime, timekeeping, youth employment and recordkeeping. States and some cities add stricter rules on top.
The EEOC enforces the federal anti-discrimination laws that reach hiring, scheduling and pay, so a job ad that narrows a role by a protected characteristic is a labor exposure rather than a marketing choice.
Federal Floor vs State Layer
Federal (DOL/EEOC)
- Minimum wage
- Federal floor
- Overtime
- Federal rules
- Timekeeping
- Recordkeeping duty
- Youth employment
- Federal limits
- Classification
- Federal tests
- Tip credits
- Federal rules
State and city
- Minimum wage
- Often stricter
- Overtime
- May add rules
- Timekeeping
- May add rules
- Youth employment
- Stricter late-shift rules
- Classification
- Varies by state
- Tip credits
- Not uniform
A kitchen that runs until 2 a.m. collides with youth work rules and overtime more often than a lunch counter does. Ask the state labor agency what applies to a shift that ends after midnight.
Classification, tip credits and deductions vary by state and are not uniform. The IRS, your state revenue department and a licensed CPA or employment attorney are the authorities. The hiring guide in this cluster treats these as part of the scorecard for every role.
Tax: two departments, two different questions
The federal question is entity choice, tax identification and the records you keep from day one. The state question is registration and sales tax.
The federal identification number comes from the IRS on Form SS-4. The state side runs through the state business registry for the entity and the state revenue department for the seller's permit or sales tax account.
Who Remits Delivery Sales Tax
- Platform collects payment from customer
- Check your state's sales tax rules
- Check the platform's arrangement in that state
- Write to your state revenue department
- Keep the dated reply with your permits
- Reply sets what menu price must carry
Delivery adds a twist a dine-in restaurant never faces. On many platforms the platform collects payment from the customer, and in most states that levy a sales tax, a marketplace facilitator law puts the duty to collect and remit on the platform for orders placed through its marketplace. Orders that come through your own website or phone line generally stay your own obligation.
Describe your platforms and your own ordering channel in writing to your state revenue department and keep the reply. A platform's general description is written for every state at once and is not an answer about your obligation. The reply changes what a menu price has to carry, so it belongs with the permits.
Public access, including the parts that are not a building
The Department of Justice's ADA guide for small businesses covers public accommodation concepts for existing facilities: removing barriers where readily achievable, accessible routes and service practices.
A ghost kitchen has less frontage than a restaurant. It still has a pickup window, a customer counter at a shared facility, and an ordering site. Each is customer-facing.
Ask whether each one is accessible, and treat the digital channel as part of the same question. Building code questions go to the building department; the DOJ guide explains the concept, not your building.
Facility: what the lease covers and what it does not
The lease or facility agreement is where occupancy limits live. It also covers ventilation, fire suppression, grease handling, and waste. The agreement covers permitted hours and shared-equipment rules. The fire marshal and building department enforce the parts the landlord cannot waive.
Lease Covers vs Enforced by Others
Lease or facility agreement
- Occupancy limits
- Stated in lease
- Ventilation
- Covered in agreement
- Fire suppression
- Covered in agreement
- Grease handling
- Covered in agreement
- Waste
- Covered in agreement
- Permitted hours
- Set by agreement
Fire marshal and building dept
- Occupancy limits
- Enforced, cannot waive
- Ventilation
- Enforced
- Fire suppression
- Enforced
- Grease handling
- Enforced
- Waste
- Enforced
- Permitted hours
- Enforced
Read the facility agreement for what its approvals cover before you sign anything. Then confirm the same point with the health authority, because a landlord's description of its own permit is not a determination.
Platform terms as a compliance layer
The merchant terms you sign with DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub set onboarding documents, how refunds are charged back, the rating or cancellation thresholds that affect visibility, and what listing content is allowed. These are private rules, and they are enforced faster than public ones. A suspension removes an order stream overnight.
Keep the current terms for every platform in the compliance file beside the permits. Re-read them at each change notice, because the thresholds move.
Products change the answers
A menu change is a compliance change. A staged group drop raises hot-holding and labeling questions. A retail shelf can change your facility classification. A beverage brand can raise questions the food permit never covered.
The products and packages guide explains how formats differ. The rule holds: a new format goes back to the health authority before it goes on a listing.
The evidence file, item by item
Compliance is what you can produce. One folder, physical or digital, holding:
- The food service or retail food establishment permit for the kitchen, with its inspection sign-off.
- The business license or registration for the entity.
- The seller's permit, sales tax account or resale certificate.
- The certificate of occupancy for the space.
- Food handler cards and any certified food protection manager certificate.
- The signed facility or commissary agreement, with the written answer on which approvals it covers.
- The certificate of insurance the facility and the platforms require.
- The dated written replies from the health authority, the revenue department and each platform.
The Compliance Evidence File
- Permits with issue and expiry dates
- Dated written answers from each authority
- Facility agreement and approvals clause
- Food handler and manager certifications
- Inspection reports and corrective actions
- Platform merchant terms as signed and amended
- Insurance certificates and sales tax reply
The tracking sheet is the part people skip. A permit that expires on a Tuesday in a month nobody is watching is the same as no permit. Put every expiry, every training renewal and every terms change on one calendar with a reminder thirty days out.
An inspector, a platform reviewer or a facility operator asks for these on a bad day. Having them in one place is most of what compliance means in practice.
Phasing the work
- Before the first kitchen hourbusiness registration and tax identification; the health authority conversation; the facility agreement read for what it covers.
- Before the first listingthe permits the platform's onboarding asks for; insurance certificates; employment setup if anyone besides you will work.
- Before each changemenu format, hours, delivery radius, a second brand or a new facility each go back to the relevant row of the map.
- On a scheduleexpiries, training renewals and terms changes, tracked on the calendar above.
What this guide leaves to others
The market and money questions live in the startup and market guide. The employment detail lives in the hiring guide linked earlier in this article. Insurance has its own article in this cluster because it is the layer that pays when one of the others fails.
Common questions
Does a commissary's license cover me?
Sometimes partly, never entirely in a way you should assume. Ask the health authority which approvals stay with the operator, and get the facility's answer in writing too.
Is a home kitchen an option?
State cottage-food rules — California's Homemade Food Act is the best-known — cover a narrow list of shelf-stable foods and usually cap annual sales. Platforms generally require a licensed commercial kitchen, so the health authority's answer decides whether a home kitchen is an option at all.
Do I need food handler certification?
Many jurisdictions require it for some or all staff, and some require a certified manager on site. It is set by the health authority, so ask them what applies.
What about sales tax on platform orders?
Who collects and remits tax on delivered food varies by state and by platform arrangement. Your state revenue department is the authority; the platform's terms describe what the platform does, not what you owe.
