FDA says dogs allowed in outdoor dining areas if restaurants permit it

While most Angelenos are used to seeing pups on restaurant patios, the U.S. Government has now weighed in, providing national guidance on whether people can bring their pet pooches to dinner. 

In 2020, the Conference for Food Protection, a group of food industry experts, requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issue a national recommendation on if it was safe for dogs to be in restaurants. 

Some three years later, the FDA says that according to its food code, dogs are allowed in outdoor dining areas if that’s the restaurant’s policy. 

On Ventura Boulevard, there are plenty of pup-friendly patios.   

“I don’t go anywhere that doesn’t allow dogs. So, I’m more inclined to take her where dogs are accepted. More than accepted, happy to have her,” Bradley Anderson, with Studio City Life Magazine, told KTLA.  

“During the pandemic, people became so attached to their animals, and they don’t want to leave them at home anymore,” said Mary Healy with Pawsitively Paleo. 

She loves spoiling dogs so much, she makes treats for the dogs that visit. 

“I think that in a well-established environment where they have restrictions on don’t be in the way of people or servers, it’s perfectly fine,” she said.  

The FDA agrees and says apart from service dogs, people’s pet dogs should not be let inside of restaurants.  

Yelp searches using the “dogs allowed” filter jumped almost 60% in the last two years and nearly half of states already allow dogs outside restaurants. Now, that recommendation is nationwide.  

“What that will allow is for people like me who have dogs and love to travel to go to other states and sit outside and eat, which means I can now bring my dog when I travel,” dog owner Ilana Minkoff said.  

California has allowed this for nearly 10 years, a decision based on a New Zealand study that said the risk of having Fido around food was low. The FDA looked at that same study and recommended restaurants have signs saying that dogs are welcome. The government also suggested that restaurants allowing dogs should have a plan in place to handle pet waste. 

Unfortunately for some people, cats and other pets are still not allowed.