BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 65
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Date of Hearing:
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Henry Perea, Chair
SB
65 (Wolk) - As Amended March 9, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 36-0
SUBJECT: Food labeling: olive oil.
SUMMARY: Recasts, changes, and adds to requirements for
labeling California olive oils. Specifically, this bill:
1)Recasts wording for California Olive Oil from "shall be made
of oil derived solely" to "100 % of that oil shall be derived"
from olives grown in California.
2)Deletes American Viticultural Areas (AVA) for labeling,
replacing the AVAs with specific California regions; raises
the required percentage of oil from 75% to at least 85% from
the specified region; and, adds that the percentage is by
weight.
3)Requires, for the use of the term estate in labeling olive
oil, the oil is made from at least 95%, by weight, of oil
derived from olives grown on the specified estate.
SB 65
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EXISTING LAW requires the California Department of Public Health
(CDPH) to enforce various laws regarding the manufacture,
blending, production, labeling and sale of olive oil. Existing
law requires any olive oil produced, processed, sold, offered
for sale, given away, or possessed in this state, that indicates
on its label that it is from an area that is one of the approved
AVAs under federal law, to be made of oil 75% of which is
derived solely from olives grown in that approved AVA. A
violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor, punishable by a
fine of not less than $500, nor more than $1,000, or by
imprisonment in the county jail for not exceeding one year, or
by both fine and imprisonment.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS: The California Olive Oil Industry is going through a
maturing process and trying to better define its products. Two
years ago the industry created the Olive Oil Commission of
California (OOCC) for the purpose of establishing quality
grading, labeling standards, research, and enforcement
requirements. The OOCC adopted "Grade and Labeling Standards"
in September 2014 and made one amendment to them in February
2015. The OOCC membership is for bottlers of 5,000 gallons or
more per year, upon which an assessment is paid. 2014 was the
first year for the assessment and reporting; they received the
gallons bottled reports from 65 bottlers of olive oil in
California, for the olive oil bottled from August 2014 to March
2015. The reports showed 10 producers bottled above the OOCC
threshold and accounted for 98% of all olive oil bottled in
California.
The language of SB 65 includes some of the adopted labeling
requirements OOCC has established for their membership but does
not include all of the OOCC's adopted labeling requirements.
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OOCC requirements include prohibited labeling terminology, and
requirements for the use of varietal names, among many other
requirements. SB 65 will require the 55 non-OOCC bottlers in
the state to meet a limited labeling requirement that would be
consistent with the OOCC bottlers, thereby providing some
uniformity for olive oil consumers.
Using specified regions as a labeling identifier may be an
improvement over using wine label references of AVA, although
neither the bill nor the OOCC standards provide any definition
for how a region is determined. This could create an
enforcement problem for CDPH and disputes among the bottlers
attempting to gain a marketing edge. The Committee may wish to
consider if "regions" need to be further defined.
When bottling fluids, such as in the wine industry, the Alcohol
and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau uses the volume of fluids
rather than their weight to measure the percentages. SB 65 is
comparing the weight of the fluid rather than their volume,
according to the author, due to the fact that the temperature of
olive oil affects its volume.
Previous Legislation: SB 250 (Wolk), Chapter 344, Statutes of
2013, established the OOCC to engage in olive oil quality and
nutritional research and to recommend grades and labeling
standards; prescribed membership, board of directors, powers and
duties, implementing and voting procedures, assessments and
recordkeeping, penalties, and continuation or termination of
OOCC; authorized OOCC to levy annual assessments on producers,
as defined, and authorized OOCC to expand those funds for
purposes of implementing the bill; and, becomes operative upon a
favorable producer referendum vote.
SB 818 (Wolk), Chapter 567, Statures of 2011, redefined
California's olive oil labeling requirements, making technical
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yet substantive changes, to conform to United States labeling
standards as outlined in the U.S. Standards for Grades of Olive
Oil and Olive-Pomace oil, published in the Federal Register that
took effect on October 25, 2010.
AB 1164 (Tran), Chapter 140, Statutes of 2009, made numerous
technical changes in the California codes that were recommended
by the Legislative Counsel's Office.
AB 1585 (Accountability and Administrative Review), Chapter 7,
Statutes of 2009, revised the procedure for mandatory and
voluntary reporting requirements and deleted obsolete reports.
SB 634 (Wiggins), Chapter 694, Statutes of 2008, clarified the
definition of olive oil, repealed current licensure provisions,
conformed olive oil definitions, grades and labeling
requirements to international standards, authorized the addition
of vitamin E to specified olive oil, permitted a consumer to
re-use a clean olive oil container, can, or drum; and, made
legislative findings and declarations.
AB 2824 (Agriculture), Chapter 695, Statutes of 2008, clarified
the definition of olive oil; conformed olive oil definitions,
grades and labeling requirements to international standards;
and, provided contingent enactment language with SB 634
(Wiggins).
AB 2079 (Emmerson), Chapter 73, Statutes of 2008, deemed food to
be misbranded if the labeling does not conform to federal food
allergen labeling requirements, and eliminated a licensing
requirement for persons engaged in the manufacturing, packaging,
and distribution of olive oil.
SB 65
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916)
319-2084