Food donations and pupil meals: schools.

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 various types of food. Under existing law, local health agencies are primarily responsible for enforcing the California Retail Food Code. A violation of any of these provisions is a crime. Existing law generally prohibits food that is unused or returned by the consumer, after being served or sold and in the possession of a consumer, from being offered as food for human consumption. Existing law authorizes a container of food that is not potentially hazardous to be transferred from one consumer to another if the food is dispensed so that it is protected from contamination and the container is closed between uses or if the food is in an unopened original package and is maintained in sound condition, and if the food is checked periodically on a regular basis. This bill would exempt from this prohibition specified food that food service staff, pupils, and faculty return to a sharing table at a local educational agency, as defined, and that is made available to pupils during the course of a regular school meal time or then donated to a food bank or any other nonprofit charitable organization, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Education to update specified guidelines on the donation of leftover food.