BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 384|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 384
Author: Perea (D), et al.
Introduced:2/18/15
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 7-1, 7/8/15
AYES: Hernandez, Hall, Monning, Nielsen, Pan, Roth, Wolk
NOES: Nguyen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mitchell
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-2, 6/1/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Food safety
SOURCE: California League of Food Processors
DIGEST: This bill eliminates the January 1, 2016, sunset date
on provisions of law establishing a $100 food safety fee on
registered food processors, which supports education and
training programs related to food safety, thereby making this
program permanent.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1)Requires every person engaged in the manufacture, packing, or
holding of any processed food to have a valid registration
from the Department of Public Health (DPH), establishes a fee
schedule for food registration permits based on the size of
the facility and the number of employees, and requires this
registration to be renewed annually.
2)Requires every person who is engaged in the manufacture,
packing, or holding of processed food to pay a food safety fee
of $100 to DPH in addition to the annual registration fee for
food processors.
3)Requires the food safety fee revenue to be used by DPH to
assist in developing and implementing education and training
programs related to food safety. Requires these programs to be
developed in consultation with representatives of the food
processing industry, and to include education and training in
the prevention of microbial contamination.
4)Exempts from the food safety fee requirements companies that
are exclusively involved in flour milling, dried bean
processing, or in the drying or milling of rice, or to those
individuals whose gross annual income from the registered food
processing business is $20,000 or less and DPH has determined
the fee would result in substantial economic hardship.
5)Sunsets the provisions of law establishing a food safety fee
on January 1, 2016.
This bill eliminates the January 1, 2016, sunset date on
provisions of law which establish a $100 food safety fee that
registered food processors are required to pay in addition to
annual registration fees, and which require DPH to use the
resulting funds to develop and implement a food safety education
and training programs, thereby making this food safety program
permanent.
Background
The food safety program that is being made permanent by this
bill was established by AB 1559 (Cardoza, Chapter 727, Statutes
of 1997). According to the Senate Health and Human Services
Committee analysis of that bill, AB 1559 was sponsored by the
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California League of Food Processors after several dramatic news
stories highlighted the issue of contaminated foods, and
microbiological contamination had even reached some "low-risk"
food products leading to isolated cases of illness. The $100 fee
was not a new fee, but rather a re-direction of an existing $100
fee that food processors had been paying to the Department of
Pesticide Regulation for pesticide regulation and research.
Recent training programs offered by DPH's Food and Drug Branch
include courses on food labeling, current good manufacturing
practices, and food recalls. These courses and other courses are
offered for free to registered food processors.
Comments
Author's statement. According to the author, this bill is an
industry supported bill that makes permanent a fee that is used
by DPH to fund an education and training program for food
processors. This program deals with sanitation and contamination
prevention methods and has been proven to be effective in
reducing cross contamination by food processors. Due to this
success, the food processors want to make the funding of the
program permanent, so they have asked to have the fee sunset
date deleted.
Prior Legislation
AB 2612 (Committee on Agriculture, Chapter 393, Statutes of
2010), among other provisions, extended the sunset on the food
safety fee to January 1, 2016.
AB 1081 (Mathews, Chapter 401, Statutes of 2005), among other
provisions, extended the sunset on the food safety fee to
January 1, 2011.
AB 2981 (Committee on Agriculture, Chapter 535, Statutes of
2002), among other provisions, extended the sunset on the food
safety fee to January 1, 2006.
AB 1548 (Cardoza, Chapter 915, Statutes of 1999), among other
provisions, extended the sunset on the food safety fee to
January 1, 2003.
AB 1559 (Cardoza, Chapter 727, Statutes of 1997), established
the food safety program within DPH, and required a $100 food
safety fee to be paid by food processors to support the food
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safety program.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, ongoing costs
of $640,000 per year for DPH to provide education and training
to food processors on safe handling of food products, fully
offset by fee revenues (Food Safety Fund).
SUPPORT: (Verified8/28/15)
California League of Food Processors (source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Chamber of Commerce
Morning Star Company
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/28/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author, this bill is
sponsored by the California League of Food Processors (CLFP),
which states the Food Industry Education and Training Program,
administered by DPH, provides food safety education and training
to registered food processors to reduce preventable foodborne
illnesses and injuries and to assist California food processors
in improving their operations. CLFP states that it supports the
$100 food safety fee that is assessed on food processors to fund
this program, and believes that it is a successful collaboration
between industry and government. The California Chamber of
Commerce states in support that the food safety program has been
highly effective at providing multi-lingual training to food
processing workers on the basics of food safety, sanitation, and
best management practices, and supports the purpose of this bill
to remove the sunset date which will allow DPH to continue
collecting the $100 food safety fee on a permanent basis. The
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
states in support that in order to improve and ensure the health
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of Californians, it is imperative to invest in education and
training programs related to food safety.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-2, 6/1/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, 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,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NOES: Brough, Harper
Prepared by:Vince Marchand / HEALTH /
8/31/15 12:47:39
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