MADISON, WI – In Madison, people dining at food carts don’t have to eat their veggies, but in the future, they could get the choice.

The city’s Vending Oversight Committee, as part of its annual review of food carts, on Wednesday was scheduled to  discuss whether carts must offer vegetarian menu items.

Although the idea is on the agenda for discussion, there is no formal proposal for the requirement and the committee will not be voting on the matter Wednesday.

The suggestion came from a city food cart reviewer who is a vegetarian, street vending coordinator Warren Hansen said.

“I always tell new applicants to include at lease one vegetarian item because there’s a demand for it,” Hansen said. “It’s just good business.”

But actually requiring the option is probably impractical, Hansen said.

In refining its scoring system, the committee also will consider adding “green” points for using biodegradable or recyclable containers, environmentally friendly fuel choices, or buying local, and discuss whether to toss out high and low scores that can skew a rating.

The city deploys about 20 raters — about half of them city employees — to score carts in the last week of September. Scores are based on food, apparatus and originality. Points can be added for seniority and deducted for heath citations.

The city licenses 48 food carts. The top five scorers this year were FIB’s — Fine Italian Beef and Sausage, Curt’s Gourmet Popcorn, Zen Sushi, Dandelion Vegetarian foods and El Burrito Loco. Complete cart rankings are at go.madison.com/cartrankings.

The committee was to meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Room 313 of the Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

We’ll keep you updated if this story changes.

Find the original article by Dean Mosiman at the Wisconsin State Journal <here>