I just received a good question from a slinger who is in the start-up phase of his hot dog biz. I don’t pull any punches with my answer. Read on…

Steve,

I appreciate the way you answer your emails.

I live in Indiana and am pursuing licensing here. I also work a lot in Illinois and know of several good locations there. Do you know if a “safe food” certificate is accepted all over? Would I need separate licenses for both states? That would be costly for just starting out, not to mention the added time.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

John

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Hi John,

You will need a separate license and health permit for each county you sell in. While this may at first glance seem counterproductive, I see it as a very good thing.

I would hate to see a national health code for several reasons…

1. Freedom of location. While a few counties do have tough restrictions and high fees, many more are still extremely reasonable to do business in both from a code and fee standpoint. We have wheels under our little restaurants and the freedom to easily travel to a county that is friendly to our industry if necessary.

2. Freedom from “code bloat”. If a national health code were implemented, history strongly suggests that any reasonable and intelligent local codes would be replaced by the typically bloated legislation favored by both aisles in our “modern” federal government system. We don’t need a 2500 page health code book.

3. Freedom from hidden taxation. Whenever the national government decides to regulate a private industry they see it as an opportunity to stick their hand in your pocket and take an ever bigger “cut”of your profits in the form of “fees”, making it exponentially harder for private business owners (you and I) to be successful.

4. Freedom. Period. I believe that local and states rights should supercede federal bullying as intended by our founding fathers. We are losing our American freedoms at an alarming rate to a federal system that is out of control and run by an elite political class who have exempted themselves from being bound by the same laws that they force you and I to live under.

Don’t tread on me. Or my local health department.

Rant over. Sell ’em all, slinger!

-Steve

P.S. Feel free to copy and share the Food Code Sovereignty flag at the top of this article (some slingers are even using it as their Facebook profile pic). That’s great, but you are not allowed to alter the image in any way.