BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2130 Page A Date of Hearing: March 25, 2014 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH Richard Pan, Chair AB 2130 (Pan) - As Amended: March 20, 2013 SUBJECT : Retail food safety. SUMMARY : Repeals a prohibition on bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food by food employees and replaces it with prior law, which required food employees to minimize bare hand contact. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires food employees to minimize bare hand and arm contact with nonprepackaged food that is in a ready-to-eat form. 2)Requires food employees to use utensils, including scoops, forks, tongs, paper wrappers, gloves, or other implements, to assemble ready-to-eat food or to place ready-to-eat food on tableware or in other containers. Allows food employees to handle ready-to-eat food without the use of utensils if hands are cleaned in accordance with current hand washing requirements. 3)Repeals existing law that prohibits bare hand contact with ready to eat food, as detailed in 1) and 2) below. EXISTING LAW : 1)Prohibits food employees from contacting exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands and instead requires the use of suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment. 2)Provides an exception to the prohibition in 1) above for a food facility that obtains prior approval from the local enforcement agency (LEA) and maintains the following written procedures and documentation: a) For each bare hand contact procedure, a listing of the specific ready-to-eat foods that are touched by bare hands. b) Diagrams and other information showing that hand washing facilities are installed, located, and maintained in accordance with current law. AB 2130 Page B c) A written employee health policy that details the manner in which the food facility complies with current law that prevents employees with gastrointestinal illness from handling food and requires reporting of employees who are experiencing such illness to the LEA. This policy is required to include: i) Documentation that food employees acknowledge that they have been informed to report information about their gastrointestinal symptoms and diseases, as specified; ii) Documentation that food employees and conditional employees acknowledge their responsibilities to report gastrointestinal symptoms and comply with consequent exclusions from food handling, as specified; iii) Documentation that the person in charge acknowledges his or her responsibilities to report sick employees to the local enforcement agency; iv) Documentation that food employees acknowledge that they have received training in the risks of contacting the specific ready-to-eat foods with bare hands and in various requirements of current law, including proper hand washing techniques and requirements; where to wash hands; proper fingernail maintenance; prohibition of jewelry; and good hygienic practices; v) Documentation that hands are washed before food preparation and as necessary to prevent cross-contamination by food employees during all hours of operation when the specific ready-to-eat foods are prepared; vi) Documentation that food employees contacting ready-to-eat foods with bare hands use two or more of the following control measures to provide additional safeguards: double hand washing, nail brushes, a hand antiseptic after hand washing, incentive programs such as paid sick leave that assist or encourage food employees not to report to work if they are ill, or other control measures approved by the LEA; and, vii) Documentation that corrective action is taken when AB 2130 Page C the requirements specified in (i) through (vi) above are not followed. 3)Establishes the California Retail Food Code (CRFC), which states the intent of the Legislature to occupy the whole field of health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities and makes standards set forth in CRFC exclusive of all local health and sanitation standards relating to retail food facilities, with specified exceptions. Finds and declares that the public health interest requires that there be uniform statewide health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities to assure the people of this state that the food will be pure, safe, and unadulterated. 4)Under the CRFC, contains comprehensive food safety provisions related to management and personnel; general food safety; cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and utensils; water, plumbing, and waste; and physical facilities. 5)Requires food employees to thoroughly wash their hands, including detailed washing, rinsing, and drying procedures, with particular attention paid to the areas underneath the fingernails and between the fingers. Requires hand washing before engaging in food preparation; after touching body parts other than hands; after using the restroom; after coughing, sneezing, using a tissue, using tobacco, eating, or drinking; when switching from working with raw to ready-to-eat food; before dispensing or serving food; and after engaging in various other activities that contaminate the hands. Requires hand washing to be carried out in sinks exclusively dedicated to hand washing. 6)Requires food handlers to obtain a food handler card every three years from an accredited provider, as specified. Requires food handler cards to be issued only upon successful completion of a training course that meets specified requirements, including both of the following: a) The course provides basic, introductory instruction on the elements of knowledge related to food safety, including: foodborne illness and toxins; time and temperature control; personal hygiene, including the association of hand contact to foodborne illness; methods of preventing food contamination; procedures for cleaning AB 2130 Page D and sanitizing equipment and utensils; and problems and potential solutions associated with temperature control, preventing cross-contamination, housekeeping, and maintenance; and, b) The course and examination are designed to be completed within approximately two and one-half hours; the examination consists of at least 40 questions regarding the required subject matter; and a minimum score of 70% on the examination is required. FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has not yet been analyzed by a fiscal committee. COMMENTS : 1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . The author writes that, in 2013, the Legislature passed a bill, AB 1252 (Committee on Health), Chapter 556, Statutes of 2013, that made many, mostly minor, changes to the CRFC. Like all Health Committee-authored bills, AB 1252 was intended to be a consensus bill. It had no opposition, and it was agreed that if opposition to any of the bill's provisions arose at any point in the process, those provisions would be immediately removed from the bill. The author indicates that, since AB 1252 took effect on January 1, 2014, many small restaurants and bars have raised serious concerns about a provision in the new law that prohibits bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food. Given these businesses' concerns about the cost and public health value of this prohibition, the author states that the Committee bill process was not appropriate for this provision, which should have been fully vetted and debated before being enacted. This bill is intended to give food facilities relief from the bare hand contact prohibition, allowing businesses to follow 2013 law until the value of prohibiting bare hand contact can be assessed. 2)BACKGROUND . The CRFC is largely a product of the recommendations of the California Retail Food Safety Coalition (CRFSC), a body of public health and food industry representatives. The CRFSC periodically sponsors bills to update CRFC that contain provisions reached through its consensus process. In 2013, the CRFSC sponsored AB 1252, a Health Committee-authored bill that contained numerous such AB 2130 Page E provisions, including the restoration of the definition of hot dog to state law, a clarification of the definition of service animals to conform with federal regulations, and authorization for food facilities to use temporary alternative storage methods, such as a trailer, for food storage during holidays, emergencies, remodels, or other circumstances, if approved by the local environmental health department. However, among its many noncontroversial, minor, and technical changes, AB 1252 contained a prohibition on bare hand contact with ready to eat food without prior approval from the local environmental health department. No opposition to any of AB 1252's provisions, including the bare hand contact prohibition, was registered through the legislative process. (It is the custom and practice of the Assembly Health Committee, for Committee-authored bills, to immediately remove any provision to which opposition arises.) However, as local environmental health departments began communicating with food facilities in preparation for the bill's implementation, media reports began to indicate that many small restaurants and bars were surprised, frustrated, and confused about the bare hand contact prohibition. Three petitions on change.org gathered a combined 20,000 signatures in favor of repeal of the bare hand contact provision in AB 1252. Federal Food Code. The federal Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Food Code is a model for local, state, and federal jurisdictions that are responsible for ensuring food safety. According to the FDA, the Food Code represents FDA's best advice, updated every four years, for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety and protection of food offered at retail and in food service. All 50 states have adopted food codes patterned after the FDA Food Code; California's food safety law, the CRFC, is patterned after the FDA Food Code published in 2005. Although the CRFC is modeled on the FDA Food Code, there are important differences between them. For example, California's food handler card law (created by SB 602, Padilla, Chapter 309, Statutes of 2010), requires all food handlers to complete a course in food safety and obtain a food handler card within 30 days after hire at a food facility. There is no comparable requirement in the FDA Food Code. Foodborne illness. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne illness is a common, AB 2130 Page F costly-yet preventable-public health problem. The CDC estimates that each year roughly one in six Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases. According to CDC's 2011 estimates, the most common foodborne illnesses are caused by norovirus and by the bacteria Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and Campylobacter. Since 1996, CDC has documented various trends in foodborne illness; overall, the incidence of infection with six key foodborne pathogens (Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, an Escherichia coli strain, Vibrio, and Yersinia) has declined by 22%. Equivocal evidence on glove use and food safety. The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), within the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, provides impartial scientific advice to federal agencies to use in developing integrated food safety systems from farm to table and to ensure food safety in domestic and imported foods. In 1999, the NACMCF issued a set of recommendations on bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods. The NACMCF found, based on the evidence, that bare hand contact can contribute to the transmission of foodborne illness and recommended three measures to counter this risk: a) the exclusion of ill workers from contact with ready-to-eat foods and food contact surfaces; b) proper handwashing; and c) minimizing bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods. The NACMCF found that available scientific data was insufficient to support a blanket prohibition of bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods. Since the NACMCF recommendations were published, a number of studies have investigated the connection between bare hand contact and foodborne illness. These studies have had mixed conclusions. Some studies have shown that proper glove use can decrease the transfer of pathogens to food.<1>,<2> Yet despite evidence that proper glove use, in combination with --------------------------- <1> Michaels, Barry, Cheryll Keller, Matthew Blevins, Greg Paoli, Todd Ruthman, Ewen Todd, and Christopher J. Griffith. "Prevention of food worker transmission of foodborne pathogens: risk assessment and evaluation of effective hygiene intervention strategies." Food Service Technology 4, no. 1 (2004): 31-49. <2> Montville, Rebecca, Yuhuan Chen, and Donald W. Schaffner. "Glove barriers to bacterial cross-contamination between hands to food." Journal of Food Protection 64, no. 6 (2001): 845-849. AB 2130 Page G hand washing, can reduce food contamination, some studies suggest that the use of gloves in food service environments may provide food workers with a false sense of security and increase the risk of cross contamination by reducing hand washing and leading workers to wear gloves too long. One study found that attempted and appropriate hand washing rates were significantly lower when gloves were worn (18% and 16%) than when gloves were not worn (37% and 30%).<3> Another study analyzed tortillas purchased from fast food restaurants for the presence of various pathogens; coliform bacteria were found in 9.6% of samples handled by gloved workers and 4.4% of samples handled by bare hands, although this difference was not statistically significant.<4> 3)SUPPORT . Supporters of this bill argue that AB 1252's bare hand contact prohibition will require bars, bakeries, and restaurants to buy and discard thousands of disposable gloves, imposing a significant financial burden and environmental impact, and that glove changes will result in a loss of operational efficiency. These businesses indicate that they were not involved in the discussion surrounding AB 1252. Many of these supporters from the food service industry express the opinion that the use of gloves is no safer than a thorough hand washing, as it creates a false sense of comfort that hands need not be washed. 4)PREVIOUS LEGISLATION . a) AB 1252 (Committee on Health) makes numerous technical, clarifying, and noncontroversial changes to the CRFC and prohibits bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food without prior authorization from the local environmental health department. b) SB 309 (Padilla), Chapter 309, Statutes of 2010, -------------------------- <3> Green, Laura R., Carol A. Selman, Vincent Radke, Danny Ripley, James C. Mack, David W. Reimann, Tammi Stigger, Michelle Motsinger, and Lisa Bushnell. "Food worker hand washing practices: an observation study." Journal of Food Protection 69, no. 10 (2006): 2417-2423. <4> Lynch, Robert A., Margaret L. Phillips, Brenda L. Elledge, Sridhar Hanumanthaiah, and Daniel T. Boatright. "A preliminary evaluation of the effect of glove use by food handlers in fast food restaurants." Journal of Food Protection 68, no. 1 (2005): 187-190 AB 2130 Page H requires a food handler to obtain a food handler card within 30 days after hire date at a food facility, and every three years thereafter, upon successful completion of a food safety training course. c) SB 241 (George Runner), Chapter 571, Statutes of 2009, makes a number of clean up changes to the CRFC and provides for the regulation of temporary and mobile food facilities under the CRFC. d) SB 144 (George Runner), Chapter 23, Statutes of 2006, repealed and reenacted the California Uniform Retail Food Facilities Law as the CRFC. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support Biba Restaurant, Sacramento Bits, Bites, and Boxes, Loomis Citizen Hotel, Sacramento de Vere's Irish Pub, Sacramento Der Biergarten, Sacramento Eden Vale Inn, Placerville Freeport Bakery, Sacramento Grange Restaurant and Bar, Sacramento Mulvaney's B&L, Sacramento River City Brewing Company, Sacramento River City Saloon, Sacramento Three individuals Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Ben Russell / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097