Food Safety
How Kitchen Yard supports safe food practices across all operator types.
Kitchen Yard is a marketplace — we connect you with independent food operators who are responsible for their own food safety practices and compliance. Here's what you should know about how food safety works on our platform.
Microenterprise Home Kitchen
Permitted under California AB 626. MEHKO operators undergo annual health department inspections of their home kitchen. Permits are issued by county environmental health departments with requirements including food handler certification, kitchen inspections, and food safety training.
Cottage Food Operations
Registered under California AB 1616. Cottage food operators produce approved non-potentially-hazardous foods (baked goods, jams, granola, dried fruits, etc.) from their home kitchen. These items have lower food safety risk due to their non-perishable nature.
Licensed Caterers
Hold standard commercial kitchen licenses and food service permits. These operators work from inspected commercial kitchens and follow all standard food service regulations including ServSafe certification.
What Kitchen Yard does
Permit tracking
We collect permit information during onboarding and track expiration dates. Operators receive reminders when permits are approaching renewal.
Meal counters
We track daily and weekly meal counts on operator dashboards for informational purposes, helping MEHKO operators stay aware of their volume.
Allergen disclosure
Every menu item includes allergen tags. Customers must acknowledge allergen information before completing checkout.
Complaint system
Customers can file food safety complaints through the app. We aggregate complaints and notify our admin team for review, but we do not block operators from selling.
Important information
Kitchen Yard is a marketplace, not a food producer. We do not prepare, cook, package, or deliver food. Each operator is an independent business solely responsible for their food safety practices, ingredient sourcing, allergen management, and regulatory compliance.
Compliance tools are informational only. Permit reminders, meal counters, and sales cap trackers are provided as helpful tools for operators. Kitchen Yard does not enforce sales caps, block operators from selling, or guarantee that any operator is currently in compliance with local regulations.
Allergen information is operator-provided. While we require operators to tag allergens on every menu item, Kitchen Yard cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of allergen disclosures. Customers with severe allergies should contact operators directly.
Report a food safety concern
If you've experienced a food safety issue or suspect a foodborne illness from a meal ordered through Kitchen Yard, please take the following steps:
- Seek medical attention if you are feeling ill.
- Contact us immediately at safety@kitchenyard.space.
- Report the incident to your local county health department.
- Preserve any remaining food for potential testing.
You can also file a complaint through the Kitchen Yard app or our contact page.