A dog eating meat from a street vendor’s bag before being served to customers. Cockroaches coming out of a food truck. Mice running next to the open sauce. Raw meat baked without heat refrigeration. People urinating near kitchen equipment. These are just a few of the stomach-churning allegations listed in a staggering 662-page dossier of 9,746 public health complaints about mobile food vendors filed throughout Los Angeles County from 2023 to early 2026. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health received 9,746 public health complaints about mobile food vendors from 2023 to early 2026. David Buchan is seen from Ca Post Oil street vendors running down the street. David Buchan for Ca Post The ugly details, obtained by the California Post through a public records request, come as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass this week ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop issuing criminal citations to street vendors who flout the rules. The move will give free rein to unauthorized food carts throughout the city, which could allow conditions to worsen even further. The complaints uncovered by the Post, filed with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, offer disturbingly few clues about the actions taken in response to the sickening alleged discoveries. Mayor Karen Bass this week ordered Los Angeles police to stop issuing criminal citations to street vendors who break the rules. Andy Johnstone for CA Post For example, at a taco stand near Hawthorne Boulevard, a complainant claimed that workers had nowhere to wash their hands and did not change gloves. “There was also a dog eating meat from the bag and the guy kept serving the meat from that bag,” the complaint states. Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter, delivering California’s top news, sports and entertainment to your inbox every day. Thanks for signing up! The case was simply marked “closed.” Near LAX, another whistleblower reported open sauce and condiments next to trash cans while mice ran around nearby. That complaint was designated “cancelled.” The complaints uncovered by the Post offer few clues about the actions taken in response to the alleged discoveries. Andy Johnstone for CA Post And in Venice Beach, a complaint alleged that sausages, buns and condiments were left “warming in the sun all day.” In that case, the complaint was considered “justified,” without providing further details. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health declined to provide details on what those determinations meant or whether any action was taken as a result. Download the California Post app, follow us on social media, and subscribe to our newsletters California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Instead, the agency said it has “shifted law enforcement’s focus on unauthorized sidewalk food sales to the street level, to focus on larger organizations that control many street-level operations to conduct enforcement at the source.” Garbage piled up around street food vendors. Ca Post’s David Buchan Stuart Waldman, executive director of the Los Angeles Business Federation, called the long list of complaints about street vendors “worse than I thought.” “It’s crazy to think that a brick-and-mortar restaurant can close if employees don’t wash their hands, leave butter out overnight, and their refrigerator runs two degrees hotter than they’re supposed to,” he told the Post. “And mobile food vendors don’t have bathrooms, employees don’t wash their hands, they don’t have refrigeration, whatever.” Vendors cook and serve food outdoors as questions grow over sanitation, permitting and oversight. CA Post’s Toby Canham George Francisco, board president of the Westside Council of Chambers of Commerce and co-chair of the Los Angeles County Business Federation’s Responsible Governance Committee, said the complaints were “not surprising.” “I’ve seen worse and I’ve probably seen more, personally,” he told the Post. “The idea of a truck arriving with pieces of compressed meat in the back, skewering them and grilling them to sell is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen.” In the city of Los Angeles, street vendors need a city vending permit, while those selling food also require a Los Angeles County public health permit. The county oversees food safety, while city officials enforce other rules governing where and how vendors can operate. Mobile food vendors operate along a busy sidewalk in Los Angeles. Toby Canham for CA Post On Thursday, Bass said his office “strongly supports street vendors” while also ordering Los Angeles police to stop criminally citing them, even if they lack the necessary permits or set up in front of brick-and-mortar stores. His administration is also working to dismiss criminal subpoenas that it says were issued improperly. His office did not respond to questions about the public health complaints. Bass’ stance pits her against Councilwoman Nithya Raman, her opponent in the mayoral race, who has argued that the city should make it easier for vendors to obtain permits and enter the legal system. “Street vending is a vibrant part of Los Angeles and can coexist with our traditional businesses when vendors operate safely, cleanly, following all appropriate rules and with a license,” his office said in a statement to the Post. “We have regulations to make sure providers meet health and safety standards, but consistent enforcement across the city requires departments that are efficient and responsive.” An estimated 50,000 vendors operate throughout Los Angeles, while as of September 2024, only 687 active sales permits were registered. Only 53 of those permits were for food vendors. On a recent visit to the El Salvador Corridor in Pico-Union, vendors had set up near red sidewalks and in other areas where vending is restricted, and grease and dirty water spill into sewers. Raúl Claros walks through the Los Angeles neighborhood where he has pressured officials to better regulate street vending. Toby Canham of CA Post Vendors prepares and sells food from sidewalk stalls. David Buchan for Ca Post Business owners say inconsistent enforcement of the law has allowed problems to grow. David Buchan for Ca Post Raúl Claros, co-founder of the El Salvador Corridor Association, estimates that there are now more than 120 street vendors in the area. “It’s the Wild West,” he said of the corridor, which has become a commercial and cultural center for Salvadoran immigrants. Claros doesn’t want vendors to be expelled, but it does want to grant them permits, inspect them and provide them with places where they can sell safely without crowding sidewalks or setting up directly outside existing businesses. “You legalized [street vending]but you won’t invest in it,” Claros told The Post, referring to state laws that made street vending more immune to criminal law enforcement, while leaving local governments to manage the system on the ground. Miguel Carranza and his wife Irma Díaz, owners of El Corredor restaurant, face challenges from illegal street vendors operating in the area. Toby Canham for CA Post Traditional restaurant owners say they are struggling to compete with vendors operating nearby without the same overhead. Toby Canham for CA Post For Miguel Carranza and his wife, Irma Díaz, the problem is especially personal. Carranza emigrated from El Salvador and started as a street vendor before the couple made the jump to a food truck and then a traditional business, opening the El Corredor restaurant in 2010 along the corridor. Now, after surviving COVID and inflation, their business faces another challenge just meters from traffic in a neighborhood where street vending has expanded. lunch, El Corridor can remain virtually empty on the street. Vendors compete for nearby customers without the same rent and other overhead. Brenda Montoya, a second-generation business owner along the corridor, remembers a dramatically different neighborhood before COVID and the rise of street vending outside her store. “Everything, the economy was better here,” Montoya told The Post. made it easier for vendors to operate legally. David Buchan for Ca Post Sidewalk stalls compete for space with pedestrians, businesses and other vendors along the busy Los Angeles street. Toby Canham for CA Post Now, he said, customers are scarce, as street vendors sell some of the same merchandise offered by rent-paying stores just a few feet away. “Right now everything is a little empty, with no sales,” he said.
