BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 384 (Perea) - Food safety
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|Version: February 18, 2015 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 7 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 17, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 384 would eliminate the sunset on the provision of
law imposing a $100 fee on most food processors and authorizing
the Department of Public Health to use the resulting revenue to
support education and training programs for food processors.
Fiscal
Impact: Ongoing costs of $640,000 per year for the Department
of Public Health to provide education and training to food
processors on safe handling of food products, fully offset by
fee revenues (Food Safety Fund).
Background: Under current law, food processors must register with the
Department of Public Health and are subject to regulation by the
Department to protect the public health. As part of the
registration process, food processors pay a fee to the
Department to cover the costs of regulation. In addition, food
processors pay an additional $100 fee (excluding certain small
food processors) which is used to fund a program through which
the Department provides education and training to food
AB 384 (Perea) Page 1 of
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processors on safe handling of foods. The authority to impose
the $100 fee and implement the training program sunsets on
January 1, 2016.
Proposed Law:
AB 384 would eliminate the sunset on the provision of law
imposing a $100 fee on most food processors and authorizing the
Department of Public Health to use the resulting revenue to
support education and training programs for food processors.
Staff
Comments: The program extended by this bill was first
established by AB 1559 (Cardoza, Statutes of 1997) with a
statutory sunset that has been extended several times since
then. This bill would eliminate the statutory sunset, making the
program permanent.
The recently enacted 2015-16 Budget Act authorizes four
additional positions at the Department of Public Health to
increase enforcement activities relating to food
processors. These positions will be funded from a $3.3 million
judgment against a food processor for violations of the state's
food safety regulations.
The only costs that may be incurred by a local agency relate to
crimes and infractions. Under the California Constitution, such
costs are not reimbursable by the state.
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