SB 1067: Food facilities.

Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities and the preparation of various types of defined foods. Under existing law, local health agencies are primarily responsible for enforcing the code. A person who violates a provision of that code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided.

The code, among other things, defines various forms of animal-derived food, including, among others, meat, poultry, and game animal and terms related to food preparation. The code specifies requirements for obtaining, preparing, and serving animal-derived raw foods, and, among other things, allows specified foods that are raw or have not been thoroughly cooked, as specified, to be served if the consumer specifically orders the food to be individually prepared less than thoroughly cooked, or the food facility notifies the consumer that the food is raw or less than thoroughly cooked.

This bill would revise those definitions and the provisions regulating obtaining and preparing those raw foods. The bill would delete the provisions regarding consumer notice and instead require a retail food facility to inform consumers of the significantly increased risk of consuming specified animal food that is served or sold raw, undercooked, or without otherwise being processed to eliminate pathogens through a disclosure and reminder, as specified.

The code requires a person in charge of a food facility and all food employees to have adequate knowledge of, and be properly trained in, food safety. The code also requires food facilities that prepare, handle, or serve nonprepackaged potentially hazardous food, except temporary food facilities, to have an owner or employee who has successfully passed an approved and accredited food safety certification examination. The code specifies the contents of that examination, including knowledge of foodborne illness, as specified.

This bill would require the person in charge of a food facility to have adequate knowledge of major food allergens, as defined, foods identified as major food allergens, and the symptoms that a major food allergen could cause in a sensitive individual who has an allergic reaction and to educate food facility employees regarding those matters. The bill would also require the food safety certification examination to include describing foods identified as major food allergens and the symptoms that a major food allergen could cause in a sensitive individual who has an allergic reaction.

The code requires a food facility that packages food using a reduced-oxygen packaging method, as specified, to have a hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) plan, that satisfies specified criteria, approved by the department for all potentially hazardous foods that are packaged using reduced-oxygen packaging.

This bill would provide that an HACCP plan is not required under specified circumstances, including, but not limited to, that the food is held at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower during refrigerated storage.

By imposing new enforcement requirements on local health agencies, and by creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.