BILL ANALYSIS
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 888
Author: Yee (D), et al
Amended: 6/21/10
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 5-0, 4/21/10
AYES: Alquist, Leno, Negrete McLeod, Pavley, Romero
NO VOTE RECORDED: Strickland, Aanestad, Cedillo, Cox
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 32-0, 5/24/10
AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Ashburn, Calderon, Cedillo,
Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, DeSaulnier, Ducheny,
Dutton, Florez, Hancock, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff,
Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Padilla, Pavley, Romero,
Runner, Simitian, Strickland, Walters, Wolk, Wright,
Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cogdill, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Price,
Steinberg, Wiggins, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 8/12/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Food safety: Asian rice based noodles
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires manufacturers of Asian
rice-based noodles to include a label on the product
packaging that includes the date of manufacture and
CONTINUED
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appropriate time for consumption, and permits food
facilities to sell Asian rice noodles that have been kept
at room temperature for no more than four hours.
Assembly Amendments were technical.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1. Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) to
administer and enforce the Sherman Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Law (Sherman Law) to regulate the contents,
packaging, labeling, and advertising of food, drugs, and
cosmetics. A violation of the Sherman Law is a
misdemeanor.
2. Requires DPH to administer the California Retail Food
Code (Cal Code) to regulate the manufacture, processing,
distribution and sale of food by a food facility. The
primary responsibility of Cal Code enforcement lies with
local health agencies. A violation of any provision of
CalCode is a misdemeanor.
3. Defines a food facility as an operation that stores,
prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides
food for human consumption at the retail level.
4. Defines a potentially hazardous food as a food that
requires time or temperature control to limit pathogenic
micro-organism growth or toxin formation that may cause
food infections or food intoxications; or a food
supporting the growth or toxin production of Clostridium
botulinum. A potentially hazardous food includes a food
of plant origin that is heat treated.
5. Excludes specified foods from the potentially hazardous
food definition, and states the scientific conditions
under which they are excluded, as specified.
6. Permits Korean rice cakes, as defined, to be sold if
they are held at room temperature for no more than 24
hours, if they have been cooked in a specified way, and
contain no animal products.
This bill:
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1. Defines an Asian rice based noodle as a confection that
contains rice powder, water, wheat starch, and vegetable
cooking oil, that the ingredients shall not include any
animal fats or any other products derived from animals.
2. States that the preparation of an Asian rice based
noodle is by a traditional method that includes cooking
by steam at not less than 130 degrees Fahrenheit, for
not less than four minutes.
3. Requires manufacturers of Asian rice based noodles to
label the noodles to indicate the date and time of
manufacture and include a statement that the noodles
must be consumed within four hours of manufacture.
4. Allows a food facility to sell Asian rice based noodles
that have been kept at room temperature for no more than
four hours.
5. Requires, at the end of the operating day, Asian rice
based noodles that have been kept at room temperature
for more than four hours to be destroyed in a manner
approved by the local enforcement agency.
6. Asian rice noodles that have been kept at room
temperature shall be consumed, cooked, or destroyed in a
manner approved by the local enforcement agency within
four hours manufacture.
Testing of potentially hazardous foods
A laboratory test for microbial activity in Asian rice
noodles was conducted in July, 2009 by Anresco
laboratories. Results of the test concluded that the
product appeared to be stable within an eight-hour period
due to very little microbiological activity, and that the
absence of E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria indicates that
the product is not a health hazard after eight hours at
room temperature.
The California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators (CAEHA), which represents the 62 local
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environmental health agencies charged with local
enforcement, argues that the random sample of one batch of
noodles used by Anesco Laboratories did not follow a
protocol approved or recognized by federal, state and local
health officials as a valid pathogen inhibition and
inactivation study. In March, 2010, CAEHA solicited the
assistance of Dr. Linda Harris, Associate Director of the
Western Institute for Food Safety and Security in the
Department of Food Science and Technology at the University
of California, Davis to design a challenge study evaluation
for an Asian rice based noodle challenge study that would
be recognized by these officials.
AB 2214 (Tran) Chapter 160, Statutes of 2006 (The Asian
Traditional Food Act) directed DPH to conduct a study of
the sale and consumption of three traditional Asian foods -
Banh Tet, Banh Chung, and Moon Cakes - after enforcement
actions by local jurisdictions to require refrigeration of
these products resulted in complaints from the
manufacturers and the community that the products are
unpalatable after refrigeration.
The study states that, each year, new and modified food
products are developed in the United States, with many of
these meeting the statutory definition of potentially
hazardous. The study reports that no regulatory agency has
the resources to conduct necessary safety studies on these
products seeking to be exempted from time and/or
temperature controls enacted to reduce the risk to
consumers. The study adds that anecdotal reports that
"these products have not been associated with an outbreak"
are not sufficient to bypass existing scientifically-based
requirements and safety studies for exemptions of time and
temperature controls are the responsibility of the
manufacturers.
The study concluded that microbial challenge studies, which
use accepted industry and academic methods to introduce
likely pathogens onto foods and monitor their ability to
survive, grow, and/or produce toxins at several points in
time, are considered the gold standard for assessing
whether food products are classified as a potentially
hazardous food.
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However, because microbial challenge studies would have
required significant resources to complete and no funding
was provided to support the study, the University of
California Laboratory for Research in Food Preservation,
which was contacted to conduct the evaluation, used
established microbiological models to estimate the ability
of selected pathogens and toxins to survive or grow in
these products.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/10)
Asian Americans for Community Involvement
Board of Supervisors Member, San Mateo County
Board of Supervisors Member, Santa Clara County
California Rice Industry Association
California Small Business Association
Fat Family Restaurants
Hocean Food Corporation
Koi Palace Restaurant
Lam Hoa Thuan Restaurant
Lucky K.T. Co Inc.
Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc., Silicon Valley
Chapter
Osha Thai Caf?
Osha Thai Noodle Caf?
Osha Thai Restaurant
Osha Thai Restaurant and Bar
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
San Francisco Department of Public Health
San Mateo Supervisor Rich Gordon
Sincere Orient Food Company
Southern California TEO-CHEW Association
Sun Mei Restaurant
Vice Mayor, Cupertino
Yan Can Cook Production, PBS, Martin Yan, host
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
California Asian rice based noodle makers are shutting
doors and eliminating jobs because of a questionable
interpretation of state law that requires the noodles to be
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refrigerated, threatening a staple of Asian cuisine.
The author states that while state regulations require
specified food to be held at or below 41 degrees
Fahrenheit, or kept at or above 140 degrees Fahrenheit,
rice noodles are meant to be kept at room temperature for
up to eight hours, and changes in temperature ruin the
noodles. The author adds that any change in production
would change a standard used by Asian communities for
thousands of years.
The author further argues that independent lab tests,
coupled with generations of Asian rice based noodle
consumption, demonstrate that they are safe and that state
laws should allow for their continued production. The
author further argues that lab tests provided prove Asian
rice noodles already fall under existing exemptions in the
law.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De
La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gatto, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight,
Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller,
Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John
A. Perez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Norby, Vacancy
CTW:nl 8/16/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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