Food facility employee: food handler cards.

(1) Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, and requires local health agencies to enforce these provisions. The code defines food facility to mean an operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption at the retail level, and includes, among others, public and private school cafeterias, and excludes, among others, private homes. The code requires a food handler to obtain a food handler card, as specified, and to maintain the card for the duration of his or her employment as a food handler. A person who violates any provision of the code is guilty of a misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided. This bill would require an employee of a food facility that is a business organized for profit that offers meal subscription plans, as defined, who is a food handler to obtain a food handler card in accordance with the requirements described above. By imposing duties on local officials and creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.