BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 359
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 3, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
William W. Monning, Chair
SB 359 (Ed Hernandez) - As Amended: June 27, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 38-0
SUBJECT : Food facilities: hand washing.
SUMMARY : Makes a number of technical, clarifying, and
conforming changes to existing law governing food safety and
sanitation requirements for retail food facilities in
California. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows the hot holding of nonprepackaged, potentially
hazardous food to be part of limited food preparation under
certain conditions.
2)Requires food handler employees to wash their hands before
initially donning gloves for working with food; when changing
tasks; prior to working with ready-to-eat or raw foods; and,
when gloves become damaged or soiled. Clarifies that
handwashing is not required between glove changes when no
contamination of the gloves or hands has occurred.
3)Prescribes requirements for the use of single-use gloves and
prohibits them from being washed for subsequent use.
4)Requires an employee with a cut, sore, rash, lesion, or wound
to take specified precautions when contacting food, and
prohibits an employee who has an open or draining lesion or
wound from handling food.
5)Authorizes food facilities to use temporary alternative
storage methods and locations for food storage as approved by
the local environmental health department (LEHD).
6)Makes various clarifying changes to provisions governing
adequate water heater capacity for mobile food facilities with
dish washing sinks.
7)Clarifies that existing law prohibiting the use of trans fats
in all food facilities and governing compliance and
enforcement apply to both temporary and mobile food
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facilities.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the California Retail Food Code (CRFC) to govern
all aspects of retail food safety and sanitation in California
and makes LEHDs primarily responsible for enforcing the CRFC
through local food safety inspection programs.
2)Defines a food handler to mean an individual who is involved
in the preparation, storage, or service of food in a food
facility, other than an individual holding a valid food safety
certificate or an individual involved in the preparation,
storage, or service of food in a temporary food facility.
3)Requires all food employees to follow specified hygienic
practices, including handwashing and the use of gloves.
4)Requires food employees to report to the person in charge of a
food facility when a food employee has a lesion or wound that
is open or draining, unless specified conditions to cover or
protect the lesion are met.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill's provisions are not anticipated to impose
any significant additional costs on local enforcement agencies.
Because local enforcement agencies have the authority to impose
regulatory fees, this bill does not impose a reimbursable state
mandate.
COMMENTS :
1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the author, this bill is
intended as a clean up measure to make several technical,
non-controversial clarifications and conforming changes to the
CRFC. The author states that the changes in this bill are
needed to ensure the best and most effective implementation of
the state's principal retail food sanitation law.
Specifically, among other things, this bill clarifies provisions
in the CRFC related to hand-washing procedures and glove use
when working with food and establishes sanitary precautions
that an employee with a cut, sore, rash, lesion, or wound must
take when coming into contact with food in order to eliminate
cross-contamination and food-borne illness risk. Additionally,
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the author notes that refrigerated food trailers are commonly
used by restaurants and grocery stores during holidays,
emergencies, remodels, or other high sales volume times, but
the CRFC does not specifically authorize the use of any
alternate storage methods and, as a result, LEHDs lack the
ability to approve their use. The author states that this
bill will allows LEHDs to authorize the use of trailers and
other temporary food storage alternatives.
2)BACKGROUND . The CRFC is modeled after the federal Food and
Drug Administration's Model Food Code (Food Code), which is
updated every four years to enhance food safety laws based on
the best available science. Between each four-year period,
the FDA makes available a Food Code Supplement that updates,
modifies, or clarifies certain provisions. The Food Code
assists food control jurisdictions at all levels of government
by providing them with a scientifically sound technical and
legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment
of the industry, such as restaurants, grocery stores, and
institutions like nursing homes. 48 states and territories
have adopted food codes patterned after the Food Code,
representing 80% of the U.S. population. The California
Retail Food Safety Coalition, a broad-based stakeholder group
of federal, state, and local regulators and the retail food
industry, reports that the CRFC is over 90% equivalent to the
Food Code in terms of its substantive food safety and
sanitation content.
3)SUPPORT . Yum Brands, Inc. writes in support that this bill
makes the further clarifications to the CRFC that are
necessary to ensure uniform health and sanitation standards
for mobile and other retail food facilities in California.
4)PRIOR LEGISLATION .
a) SB 946 (Steinberg), Chapter 650, Statutes of 2011, would
have, among other things, enacted provisions substantially
similar to this bill. These provisions were deleted and
the chaptered version of SB 946 was amended to deal with
health care coverage for pervasive developmental disorder
or autism.
b) SB 241 (Runner), Chapter 571, Statutes of 2009, makes a
number of clean up changes to the CRFC and provides for the
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regulation of temporary and mobile food facilities under
the CRFC.
c) SB 1359 (Runner) of 2008, which was substantially
similar to SB 241, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger
who, in his veto message, stated that it was due to the
historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State Budget and
the bill did not meet the standard of the highest priority
for California.
d) SB 744 (Runner), Chapter 96, Statutes of 2007, makes
numerous technical, clarifying, and nonsubstantive changes
to the CRFC.
e) SB 144 (George Runner), Chapter 23, Statutes of 2006,
repeals and reenacts the California Uniform Retail Food
Facilities Law as the CRFC.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Yum Brands, Inc.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Cassie Royce / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097