New Public Health Guidelines Allow Restaurants to Sell Groceries via Delivery, Takeout, Curbside Pick-up

Supervisor Hahn directed these guidelines be issued after restaurants-turned-markets were shut down by the Public Health Department

San Pedro, CA—Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released new guidelines allowing restaurants in LA County to sell groceries as part of their delivery, take-out, and curbside delivery services. Supervisor Janice Hahn and the Board of Supervisors directed the Department of Public Health to issue these guidelines after several restaurants that had reinvented themselves as markets during the COVID-19 crisis had been shut down for operating without a grocery license.

“These new guidelines allow restaurants to sell grocery items and unprepared food through takeout, delivery, and curbside pickup,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “I hope this helps our local restaurants stay in business, keep their employees and customers safe, and continue to feed their communities during this crisis.”

Under these new guidelines, restaurants may add grocery items such as unprepared food to their menus for purchase. Restaurants in LA County continue to be prohibited from offering dine-in services under the Safer At Home Public Health Order. All business must be done through delivery, take-out, or curbside pickup.

The new updated guidelines can be accessed here.

They include:

• Restaurants offering grocery type products (e.g. raw ingredients, products, etc.) for retail sale may only include them on their menu for delivery or take-out. They are not allowed to set-up a grocery store in their dining room for customer self-selection as this defeats the purpose of closing dining rooms to customers and is outside of their existing permit.
  • Public Health will not enforce labeling of packaged products that are packaged for convenience purposes, provided they are able to provide ingredients to customers upon request.
  • Restaurants are strictly prohibited from engaging in high-risk packaging:
    • Reduced-oxygen packaging that has not been approved by CDPH.
    • Bottles of sanitizer solution being sold without any of the required EPA labeling.
  • If a restaurant is using a portion of their dining room as back-up storage for non-food items, they must prohibit customer self-selection of these items. These products are to be provided as part of the delivery or take-out purchase.