BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 173|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 173
Author: Florez (D)
Amended: 6/1/09
Vote: 21
SENATE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE : 3-1, 4/21/09
AYES: Florez, Hancock, Pavley
NOES: Hollingsworth
NO VOTE RECORDED: Maldonado
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 7-3, 4/29/09
AYES: Alquist, Cedillo, DeSaulnier, Leno, Negrete McLeod,
Pavley, Wolk
NOES: Strickland, Aanestad, Cox
NO VOTE RECORDED: Maldonado
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-5, 5/28/09
AYES: Kehoe, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Leno, Oropeza,
Yee
NOES: Cox, Denham, Runner, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wolk
SUBJECT : Food safety: testing and recalls
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill provides that the State Public Health
Officer may adopt regulations for the voluntary recall of
food that, without intervention, could transmit an illness
that could kill or seriously affect the health of humans,
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including, in addition to the original condition, those
clinically plausible secondary illnesses, infections,
pathogens, contagions, toxins, or conditions arising from
the effects of the original condition.
ANALYSIS : According to the Centers for Disease Control,
it is estimated that each year 76 million Americans get
sick, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from
food-borne illness.
In 2006, SB 162 (Ortiz), Chapter 241, Statutes of 2006,
transferred public health programs from the Department of
Health Services to a new Department of Public Health (DPH).
The State Public Health Officer, serving as the executive
officer of DPH, is a governor-appointed physician and
surgeon who has substantial scientific, medical, public
health, leadership, and management experience.
According to the federal Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
plan is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating,
and controlling food safety hazards. HACCP involves seven
principles to ensure food safety at a food production site:
analyze hazards, identify critical control points,
establish preventive measures with critical limits for each
control point, establish procedures to monitor the critical
control points, establish corrective actions to be taken
when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been
met, establish procedures to verify that the system is
working properly, and establish effective recordkeeping to
document the HACCP system.
The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria
for Foods (NACMCF) was established on March 18, 1988, in
response to recommendations of the National Academy of
Sciences for an interagency approach to microbiological
criteria for foods.
The NACMCF provides impartial, scientific advice to federal
food safety agencies for use in the development of an
integrated national food safety system approach from farm
to final consumption to assure the safety of domestic,
imported, and exported foods. The NACMCF was instrumental
in formulating and standardizing the principles of HACCP
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and NACMCF subcommittees have developed microbiological
criteria for specific foods such as raw shellfish, cooked
ready-to-eat shrimp, and crabmeat. NACMCF reports provide
current information and scientific advice to participating
federal food safety agencies and serve as a foundation for
regulations and programs aimed at reducing food-borne
disease and enhancing public health.
California has been the source of a number of food-borne
illness outbreaks. Most recently, a California pistachio
processor has been identified as the source of a nationwide
recall of salmonella-contaminated pistachios. First
identified on March 26 by a Kraft Foods food-borne illness
test, FDA was able to track back the contamination to a
California pistachio producer, Setton Farms of Terra Bella,
which resulted in a nationwide recall of Setton pistachios
and pistachio products.
Earlier, California was identified as the source of a
nationwide outbreak of E. coli from spinach production.
The spinach outbreak sickened 204 people across 26 states
and lead to the death of three people.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11
2011-12 Fund
Food testing Unknown - likely significant
costs General
ongoing to process
and review testing
results
Food recalls Unknown costs
General
TSM:cm 6/1/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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