BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 143|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 143
Author: Wood (D)
Amended: 6/15/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/10/15
AYES: Hernandez, Nguyen, Hall, Mitchell, Monning, Nielsen,
Pan, Roth, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Food facilities
SOURCE: The Wine Institute
DIGEST: This bill extends an exemption from food facility
regulation, that currently exists for breweries, to enable
wineries to offer prepackaged non-potentially hazardous food.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the California Retail Food Code (CalCode), which
establishes health and sanitation standards for retail food
facilities, as defined. Makes the Department of Public Health
responsible for the adoption of regulations to implement and
administer CalCode, and vests local enforcement agencies with
primary responsibility for enforcement of CalCode.
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2)Defines a food facility as an operation that stores, prepares,
packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human
consumption, on or off the premises, regardless of whether
there is a charge, at the retail level. Food facilities
include, but are not limited to, permanent and non-permanent
facilities, public and private school cafeterias, restricted
food service facilities, licensed health care facilities,
commissaries, mobile food facilities, mobile support units,
temporary food facilities, vending machines, certified
farmers' markets, as specified, and farm stands, as specified.
3)Exempts from the definition of a food facility and from the
provisions of CalCode premises set aside for wine tasting,
that comply with glassware cleaning provisions, regardless of
whether there is a charge for the wine tasting, if no other
beverage, except for bottles of wine and prepackaged
non-potentially hazardous beverages, is offered for sale for
onsite consumption, and no food, except for crackers, is
served.
4)Exempts from the definition of a food facility, and from the
provisions of CalCode, premises set aside by a beer
manufacturer, as defined, for the purposes of beer tasting,
regardless of whether there is a charge for the beer tasting,
if no other beverage, except for beer and prepackaged
non-potentially hazardous beverages, is offered for sale for
onsite consumption, and no food, except for crackers or
pretzels, is served.
5)Defines "temporary food facility" as an approved food facility
that operates at a fixed location for the duration of an
approved community event or at a swap meet and only as part of
the community event or swap meet. Defines "community event,"
for this purpose, as an event that is of civic, political,
public, or educational nature, including state and county
fairs, city festivals, circuses, and other public gathering
events approved by the local enforcement agency.
6)Requires premises set aside by a beer manufacturer for the
purposes of beer tasting, where prepackaged non--potentially
hazardous is offered for onsite consumption, to be subject to
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food safety requirements related to food storage and ensuring
food is free from adulteration and spoilage, and that gives
local enforcement officers the ability to enforce these
requirements.
This bill:
1)Expands an exemption from the definition of "food facility,"
for purposes of regulation by local health officers, that
currently exists for premises set aside for wine tasting as
long as no food other than crackers is served, by also
allowing pretzels or prepackaged food that is not potentially
hazardous to be offered for sale or onsite consumption (this
expanded exemption already exists for beer tasting premises).
2)Adds wine tasting premises, as defined, to a provision of law
which limits the size of the food display to no more than 25
square feet at beer tasting premises where crackers, pretzels,
or prepackaged food that is not potentially hazardous food is
offered for sale or onsite consumption, and which requires the
premises to comply with food safety requirements related to
food storage and ensuring food is free from adulteration and
spoilage, and that gives local enforcement officers the
ability to enforce these requirements.
3)Revises the definition of "community event," for purposes of
provisions of law regulating temporary food facilities, by
limiting community events to those conducted for no more than
25 consecutive or non-consecutive days in a 90-day period.
4)Revises a provision of law that requires buildings with a food
facility that were built before January 1, 2004 to either
provide toilet facilities or prominently post a sign stating
that toilet facilities are not provided, by limiting this
provision to food facilities that have been in continuous
operation since January 1, 2004.
Comments
1)Author's statement. According to the author, there are more
than 3,500 wineries that operate in California. Most of these
businesses are trying to find creative ways to attract new
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customers and retain loyal ones. Currently, wineries can only
serve crackers to customers that come to taste wine. A winery
must obtain a local food permit to serve chips, pretzels, or
anything else. Additionally, wineries must obtain a food
permit in order to advertise and sell prepackaged foods. This
bill allows wineries to serve vacuum sealed prepackaged food
in the tasting room and permits wineries to have a food
display of prepackaged foods that does not exceed twenty-five
square feet without needing a local food permit. This bill
would particularly benefit small wineries throughout
California. Many of these small wineries also sell olive oil,
preserves, honey or other prepackaged non-hazardous items. In
this highly competitive market place, AB 143 would help
wineries differentiate themselves by eliminating unnecessary
bureaucratic permits. The relief provided by this bill would
allow the selling of vacuumed sealed food products to loyal
consumers that want to clear their palettes between tastings
and take home a small gift, such as preserves.
2)Clean-up provisions. In addition to the exemption for
wineries, this bill contains two provisions that were included
at the request of the California Retail Food Safety Coalition
(CRFSC), which represents a wide cross-section of
organizations involved in retail food safety, ranging from
regulatory agencies to restaurants and grocers. One of these
provisions limits community events to a maximum of 25 days in
a 90 day period, for purposes of temporary food facility
requirements. In support of this provision, the CRFSC states
that when the current California Retail Food Code was drafted,
the time a temporary food facility could operate was removed
in anticipation that local zoning codes would limit how long,
and the frequency by which, a community event could operate
within a city. However, some zoning departments have incurred
significant budget and staff deficits and are not regulating
community events as they once have, resulting in a lack of
uniformity from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In addition, the
structural and operations requirements for a temporary food
facility are consistent with the transient nature of such an
event. By adding back the time into the definition, this
provision establishes boundaries that would preserve and
define a community event.
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The second provision added at the request of the CRFSC clarifies
that for purposes of provisions of law requiring toilet
facilities to be available, that a food facility had to be in
continuous operation since January 1, 2004, in order to be
exempt from certain toilet availability requirements.
Currently, this provision is worded so that any building
constructed before January 1, 2004, is exempt from this
requirement, which could mean that a brand-new restaurant
could avoid being required to have toilet facilities if they
are located in a building built before January 1, 2004.
Prior Legislation
SB 1235 (Knight, Chapter 927, Statutes of 2014), expanded an
exemption from the definition of a "food facility" to allow beer
tasting premises to serve pretzels and prepackaged
non-potentially hazardous food, in addition to crackers, and
required beer tasting premises to comply with specified
provisions of law relating to food safety, and limited the food
display area to less than 25 square feet.
AB 1014 (Fletcher, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2011), exempted
premises set aside by a beer manufacturer, as defined, for beer
tasting, from the definition of a food facility, thereby,
exempting beer tasting premises from the provisions of the
CalCode.
SB 241 (Runner, Chapter 571, Statutes of 2009), among other
things, clarified the exemption for premises set aside for wine
tasting to apply regardless of whether there is a charge for the
wine tasting.
SB 144 (Runner, Chapter 23, Statutes of 2006), established the
CalCode in order to create uniformity between California's
retail food safety laws and those of other states, as well as to
enhance food safety laws based on the best available science.
AB 1778 (Areias, Chapter 1065, Statutes of 1985), excluded
premises set aside for wine tasting if no other beverage, except
for bottles of wine and prepackaged non-potentially hazardous
beverages, is offered for sale for onsite consumption and no
food, except for crackers, is served, from the definition of a
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food facility.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified6/29/15)
The Wine Institute (source)
California Retail Food Safety Coalition
Family Winemakers of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/29/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: This bill is sponsored by the Wine
Institute, which states in support that under existing law,
wineries do not needs a local food facility permit as long as
they only provide crackers and bottled beverages like water to
patrons. The Wine Institute notes that legislation enacted last
year expands this permit exemption to breweries as long as they
only serve pretzels in addition to crackers and they have for
sale prepackaged foods, like olive oil and preserves, in a
display area no greater than 25 square feet. Consistent with
last year's law, this bill would provide the same expanded
exemption to wineries. Family Winemakers of California (FWC)
states in support that this bill merely equalizes the treatment
between beer tasting rooms and wine tasting rooms. FWC states
that sales of prepackaged food also allow a person to pair food
with wine.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
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Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Roger Hernández, Steinorth
Prepared by:Vince Marchand / HEALTH /
7/1/15 12:56:00
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