Mobile Food Truck Daily Safety Checklist

Running a mobile food truck requires vigilance across dozens of safety touchpoints every single day. From propane leak checks to food temperature monitoring, fire extinguisher readiness to wastewater disposal compliance, a missed inspection can mean health violations, equipment failure, or worse—putting your customers, staff, and business at risk.

Why Mobile Food Truck Operators Need a Daily Safety Checklist

Mobile food trucks face unique safety challenges that brick-and-mortar restaurants don't encounter. You're working in a compact space with propane systems, electrical generators, refrigeration units, and cooking equipment—all while parked in different locations with varying weather conditions. Health inspectors can show up unannounced, and a single violation can shut down your service for the day or result in hefty fines.

A structured daily safety checklist helps food truck owners and operators:

• Catch equipment issues early before they become expensive repairs or safety hazards
• Maintain compliance with local health department regulations and fire codes
• Protect your staff by ensuring proper ventilation, fire suppression, and safe propane handling
• Safeguard food quality through consistent temperature monitoring and storage protocols
• Document due diligence in case of inspections, insurance claims, or legal matters
• Build operational consistency across multiple trucks or staff members

What This Food Truck Safety Checklist Covers

This Paperform template is designed specifically for mobile food service operations and covers the critical safety areas that health inspectors, fire marshals, and insurance providers care about most:

Propane System Safety

Propane leaks are one of the most serious hazards in food truck operations. The checklist includes visual inspection of connections, leak testing procedures using soapy water or leak detection solution, hose condition checks, and emergency shutoff accessibility verification.

Fire Prevention & Suppression

Your food truck must be ready to handle grease fires, electrical fires, and other emergencies. The template helps you verify fire extinguisher accessibility, charge levels, inspection tags, suppression system functionality, and proper clearance around cooking equipment.

Food Storage Temperature Monitoring

Proper cold chain management isn't optional—it's the law. Record refrigerator and freezer temperatures, verify hot holding temps, check for cross-contamination risks, and ensure proper food rotation practices are being followed.

Generator & Ventilation Safety

Generators produce carbon monoxide and require proper ventilation. The checklist includes generator placement verification, exhaust hood functionality, ventilation fan operation, and carbon monoxide detector testing.

Wastewater & Sanitation Compliance

Improper wastewater disposal can result in immediate closure and environmental fines. Document your gray water tank levels, verify proper disposal procedures, check hand washing station functionality, and ensure sanitizer concentrations are within approved ranges.

Equipment & Structural Checks

Beyond the big-ticket items, the template also helps you verify door seals, electrical connections, cooking equipment calibration, flooring condition, and other structural elements that contribute to safe operations.

How Food Truck Operators Use Paperform for Safety Checklists

Paperform makes it easy to complete your daily safety inspection on any device—phone, tablet, or laptop—whether you're inside the truck, at the commissary, or on location at your service site. The form can be customized with conditional logic, so certain questions only appear based on your specific truck configuration (for example, additional propane tank checks if you run multiple systems).

Take photos directly in the form: Use image upload fields to document equipment condition, gauge readings, or any issues that need attention. These photos are automatically attached to your submission record for easy reference during repairs or inspections.

Auto-calculate risk scores: Set up calculations to flag high-risk conditions based on your responses, helping you prioritize what needs immediate attention before you start service.

Trigger automatic alerts: Connect your form to Slack, email, or SMS via Stepper workflows to notify managers, maintenance teams, or commissary staff when critical issues are identified—like refrigeration failures or propane leaks.

Built for Food Service Professionals Who Care About Safety

This template is ideal for:

• Food truck owners managing single or multiple vehicles
• Commissary managers overseeing safety protocols across fleets
• Food truck operators and chefs responsible for daily pre-service checks
• Catering companies running mobile operations for events and festivals
• Food service consultants helping clients establish safety procedures

Whether you're running a single taco truck or managing a fleet of mobile coffee carts, this checklist template helps you maintain the consistent safety standards that protect your business, your team, and your customers.

Automate Your Safety Workflow with Stepper

Once your daily safety checklist is submitted, you can use Stepper to automate the next steps in your safety workflow. Automatically create maintenance tickets in your project management tool when equipment issues are flagged, log temperature readings to Google Sheets for trend analysis, send weekly safety summaries to your insurance provider, or trigger re-inspection reminders when issues are marked for follow-up.

Paperform and Stepper work together to turn your safety checklist from a paper exercise into an active system that keeps your food truck operation running smoothly, safely, and in full compliance with health and safety regulations.

Get Started with Your Food Truck Safety Checklist Today

This template is ready to use out of the box, but fully customizable to match your specific truck configuration, local regulations, and operational procedures. Add your branding, adjust questions to match your equipment, and start building a documented safety record that proves your commitment to excellence in mobile food service.