Renewal guide · Health permit
Health permit renewal for restaurants, bars, and bakeries
The health permit is the paper that lets the door stay open. It is also the paper that lives in a drawer, a kitchen office, or a photo roll until an inspector asks for it. This page is about what that permit is, how families of one-location shops usually handle renewal, and how to file the certificate so the date is not a surprise.
This page is a checklist, not legal advice. Rules and fees belong to your county health department. Always use their page and their form.
What a health permit is
A food-service health permit (sometimes called a food service permit, health license, or food establishment permit) is issued by the local health department — not by the city business-license office, and not by the fire marshal. Those are separate shelves:
- Health — food service / sanitation
- City or county business license — occupation tax
- Fire — suppression and inspection
- Grease trap — often the water or environmental side
MustRenew lists them as different items so one renewal does not hide another.
Who this is for
Single-location restaurants, bars, and bakeries. If you run more than one storefront, each address usually has its own permit and its own date.
When people miss it
Most shops do not forget the health permit because they hate paperwork. They forget it because:
- The certificate is on the wall and nobody copies the expiry
- The mail goes to an old kitchen fax or a landlord
- The owner is covering a shift when the reminder card arrives
- They assume “the city license” covers health
The first warning is often an inspector, a landlord, or a closed sign. The list should exist before that.
What to do with the paper you already have
- Take the certificate off the wall or out of the folder.
- Photograph the face of it — office name, permit number, expiry.
- Confirm the date.
- Put the photo on the health permit shelf, not in a camera roll named “IMG_1844.”
That is the whole filing job. You should still renew on the health department’s form and pay them, not a software company.
What MustRenew does on this item
Tell MustRenew your business type and county. The Renewal List starts with the health permit for that kind of shop, with the issuing office and the source page we last checked. Then you photograph the certificate. The office, the number, and the expiry are read into that item. Reminders go out at 90, 60, 30, 14, and 3 days.
It does not file the renewal for you. It does not talk to the health department. It does not replace their application.
What MustRenew does not do
- Legal advice
- A promise that your county’s list is complete
- A calculation of late fees
- Medical or food-safety instruction
Every item shows the office and the date we checked the source. If the county changes a rule, their page wins. For an example of what that looks like item by item, see our guide to what a restaurant in Augusta–Richmond County has to renew.
Related papers that get mixed up with health
Keep these as their own renewals:
- City business license / occupation tax
- Fire inspection
- Grease-trap certificate
- Food manager or food-handler cards
- Alcohol license, if you have a bar
A bakery and a bar do not owe the same stack. The list should follow the shop type.
One location
MustRenew is $29/month for one storefront: the list, unlimited photos, reminders, and a dated pack you can hand to a landlord or an inspector. Multiple locations are $49/month.
Start with the permit on the wall
If you can see the certificate from the pass, you can photograph it tonight. The date on that paper is the only date that matters for this item. Build the list for your county, file the health permit, then add fire and the city license when you find those certificates.
It is a checklist. The health department still owns the permit. MustRenew itself is built and run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a checklist like this stays short and current.