BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2130
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2130 (Pan) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
Policy Committee: HealthVote:18-0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill repeals a prohibition on bare hand contact with
ready-to-eat food by food employees and replaces it with prior
law, which required food employees to minimize bare hand
contact.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible state costs.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . In 2013, a committee bill (AB 1252 (Committee on
Health), Chapter 556, Statutes of 2013) made changes to the
California Retail Food Code (CRFC). AB 1252 was intended to be
a consensus bill. It had no opposition, and it was agreed
that if opposition to any of the bill's provisions arose at
any point in the process, those provisions would be
immediately removed from the bill.
The author indicates many small restaurants and bars have raised
serious concerns about a provision in the new law that,
effective January 1, 2014, prohibits bare hand contact with
ready-to-eat food. This bill is intended to revert to prior
law, giving food facilities relief from the bare hand contact
prohibition.
2)Changes to Hand Hygiene Rules Controversial. The CRFC
establishes uniform statewide health and sanitation standards
for retail food facilities. AB 1252 was sponsored by the CRFC
Coalition, which advises on periodic updates to the CRFC. The
Coalition is comprised of stakeholders from public health and
AB 2130
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the retail food industry, although their retail food
membership is predominantly larger companies. Small
restaurants were generally not informed about the changes to
the bare hand contact rules until this year, when county
environmental health began enforcement of the new rules. The
reversion to prior law is supported by numerous small
restaurants.
Although the CRFC is enforced at the local level,
environmental health directors statewide have agreed to a
"soft roll-out" where they are not penalizing facilities for
failure to comply with the January 1, 2014 change, until July
1, 2014 . Research is inconclusive on whether prohibiting bare
hand contact with ready-to-eat food offers optimal prevention
of disease transmission. Many in the industry suggest the use
of gloves creates a false sense of comfort and can increase
risk of contamination.
3)Urgency . This bill states in order to protect public health
and safety by developing better food safety procedures for
ready-to-eat food and by avoiding confusion among local health
agencies and small businesses at the earliest possible time,
it is necessary it take effect immediately. It is the author's
intention to allow time for continued debate around optimal
hand sanitation, but in the meantime to revert to prior law,
which required minimizing bare hand contact.
Analysis Prepared by : Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081