To:Food Service Operators

From:Wood County Health Department

RE:Catering Food Service Operations

This letter is for your information regarding when a licensed food service operation would be considered a catering operation. Also, for those interested in becoming an approved food service caterer, a general outline is provided that may help you apply for approval as a food service caterer.

Please refer to the Ohio Administrative Code 3701-21-01(B) for the official definition of a Catering Food Service Operation. A food service caterer is one that has approval to transport and serve, store, prepare, and return utensils-equipment to the main food service commissary. Please note that where it states transport and serve rather than just transport. In our opinion, a food service caterer is more than a simple delivery person. If you are having your food picked up or are providing only delivery of food, you are not a caterer. However, if you are involved in any transport and service off premises or the storage off premises for preparation, or the returning of utensils and equipment back to the central commissary, then you are a food service caterer.

In order to obtain approval from our office as an off-premises food service caterer, you will need to:

  1. Submit in writing details of the proposed transportation and service, preparation, etc.
  2. Include a sample menu so that we can be aware of the types of foods which you will be catering.
  3. The numbers of people that are a maximum you will be serving. This could conceivably vary with the complexity of the menu. For example, one might have the ability to serve cold-cut buffet with salads to 150; however only have the ability to serve hot roast beef, potatoes and all the trimmings to only 50.
  4. A detailed listing of all equipment that will be utilized for transportation, storage, and serving of food off-premises. Many times we will need details such as restaurant data sheets for specific pieces of equipment such as refrigeration units, etc.
  5. We will also need to know an approximate distance at the maximum that you will be catering from your central commissary. The reason this information is useful to us in many times we must make a judgment as to the types of hot food or cold food holding units that you may use. The types of units could vary greatly with the distances and amount of time that such units will necessarily have to maintain proper temperatures.

The application for a food service caterer in some cases could increase your license fee. If you have any questions, please contact our office regarding this or any other matter.

Revised 3/8/2002