Everything You Need To Know About Starting a Food Truck Startup India

Food Carts, especially of the delightful street food, are the cornerstone of Indian urban lifestyle. However, much like everything else – they have started to evolve into Food Trucks. Food trucks are different – they can physically go to places where the demand is the most. Their mobility and their affordability give them an edge of versatility where the chances of profits are present and high. Just imagine – a restaurant on wheels – where everyone is invited – and they don’t even have to walk through the door.

Such a versatile, affordable and mobile nature of Food Trucks has made it slowly preferred by Food entrepreneurs. So, if you are an aspirant of Food business, but want it to be affordable – this blog is for you – as we are going to tell you everything that you need to know to start a food truck.

Let us start a Food Truck Business in India

Through the following steps, you are not only going to know about the budget and the pre-requisites of starting a food truck but will also know about the licenses that you need. So, let us help you take your first steps to start a food truck business in India:

Choose an affordable food truck: 

Accessibility to places and affordability on the pocket – are the reasons that most choose food truck business. As the foundation of this business, a food truck, therefore, should be as per your exact requirements. What are you selling? How you are going to prepare it? How much space is needed? How are you going to interact face to face with the customers? What kind of terrain you are going to ride your food truck on? Take note of these questions, and answer them.

As you answer these questions, you are going to automatically formulate the budget that you need to get started. With this, you would have taken the first step to start a food truck business.

Next step is to decide the raw material needed: 

What are you going to make in the food truck – is the deciding question when you are looking for raw materials to set it up. You are going to need a specific table to serve and communicate with your customers to take their orders.  

Then, you have to get kitchen equipment. As the food truck is in India, you need a bit of Indian flare to make your business resonate with your customers. So, your kitchen equipment can be like a stove, chakla, skillet (tawa), knives, paltan, kadhai, chimti, fryer, and some food preservation and reheating equipment such as microwaves and refrigerators.

They are only general equipments that you might want to purchase – there is no compulsion that you HAVE to purchase these exact equipments. You can expect the cost of these equipments to be around 2 to 3 Lakh rupees.

Other than the raw materials to set up the kitchen, there are also other raw materials needed – to set up the food. Meats, veggies, spices, and even fruits can be purchased in bulk. However, if you want to actually make a profit, you need to find a cost-effective way to combine quality and affordability of your food.  

Decide the best route and area to run your Food truck in:

 If a food truck is the foundation of the food truck business, the best route is the foundation to make this business successful. Therefore, the fourth thing that you have to decide upon is the route and area upon which you are going to sell and market yourself. Let us give you some hints for the location:

1. The tired office workers are always looking for good food – mostly because many of them are from another state, and therefore, don’t have access to meals from home.
2. If you want to be a fast food truck, you cannot go wrong with establishing your route around schools and colleges.
3. If you want to establish a healthy food truck – for healthy foods and juices – right beside the gym is the winning location.

Finally, to start the business, you need the legal license and registration: 

All the above points are associated with the Startup Food truck business plan. They tell you not only how to set up a food truck, but also make the venture successful. However, without proper legal license and registration, you cannot legally operate the food truck. So, this final point is dedicated to the legal license and registration you need to legally establish a food truck business in India.

A food truck business is a relatively small venture – but has the potential to become a franchise. Therefore, our recommendation for business registration for a food truck is to register it as an OPC or One Person Company. Once your business has grown enough, you can choose private limited company registration. The process of business incorporation is something that can be completed efficiently by CAs and CSs. Don’t worry about the costs. The services are not expensive and the registration is done quickly.

After you have registered your business, you need to mandatorily get the legal license to be a Food business operator. It is called the FSSAI License. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is the authority that issues it. As a Food truck is mostly confined within a region (at least initially), you are only going to need the basic FSSAI registration.

Finally, if you want more help from the government to get more funds for your food truck, there is always a Startup Registration with Startup India. Startup India is an initiative meant to highlight and encourage entrepreneurs to make the “make in India” dream, a reality. So, if you want, you can get the startup registration certificate to put your food business onto a government springboard to be successful.  

Once you have acquired both the legal license and legal registration, you are ready to operate your food truck.

For Further queries, feel free to reach out through the comments. We are always present and always willing to answer.

Author: Dushyant Sharma

Hey there, I'm Dushyant Sharma. With the extensive knowledge I've gained in past 8 years, I have been creating content on various subjects such as banking, insurance, telecom, and all the important registration and licensing processes for various companies. I'm here to help everyone with my expertise in these areas through my articles.