How to prepare your food trailer before a health inspection.
Custom Trailer Pros works closely with each of our customers to help provide as much chance for success as possible. Although we cannot guarantee the food trailer will pass all inspections, we can help our customers get their trailers pre-approved before the trailer is built. This dramatically increases the chances that the trailer will pass inspections once it arrives to you.
We highly recommend giving yourself several weeks to become familiar with you trailer after receiving it before scheduling a health inspection. This gives you plenty of time to learn how to properly operate your trailer and allow us to assist in any questions that may come up.
A couple hours before your health inspection, we recommend doing the following:
- Plug the trailer into a power source and flip the “Charger” breaker on to make sure your 12V battery is sufficiently charged. If it is running low, the lights start to dim and the water pump could be affected.
- Plug in the water heater and plan that it will take a little over an hour to heat the water, depending on how cold the starting temp is. You also want to run hot water through the lines before the inspection, and then give the heater time to heat additional water…this mainly applies for the first time you’re running water through the lines. Check out our water package video for more information.
- Do a slow start up, like in the electrical package video, letting all refrigeration get to temperature before the inspector is there.
- Go through a list of health code requirements (provided by your local Health Department) to ensure you have supplies available and labeled as requested. This includes labels for your hand washing sink, utensils, trash cans, and other easily forgotten items.
You'll want to make sure you fully understand the operation of your trailer, as well as a good understanding of what your health inspection will require. This will help you be as prepared as possible for your health inspection!