California Retail Food Code.

Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities for regulation by the State Department of Public Health, and requires local enforcement agencies to enforce those provisions. A violation of the California Retail Food Code is generally a misdemeanor. Existing law defines "limited food preparation" and "limited service charitable feeding operation" for purposes of the California Retail Food Code. Existing law requires a proposed new or remodeled food facility to meet specified structural and other building requirements, but specifies that existing private school cafeterias and licensed health care facilities presumptively meet these requirements. Existing law limits the use of an outdoor wood-burning oven to the same premises as a permanent food facility. Under existing law, a remote food service operation located within a fully enclosed permanent food facility is not a satellite food service. Existing law exempts mobile food facilities from specified requirements, including the provision of clean toilet rooms for use by employees. Existing law requires a cottage food operation to label prepackaged foods with a notice that it was made or repackaged in a home kitchen. This bill would define "limited food preparation" to include holding, portioning, and dispensing foods prepared by a catering operation. The bill would expand the food service functions of a limited service charitable feeding operation to include, among other things, storage and distribution of commercially prepared and commercially packaged potentially hazardous cold or frozen foods, and would specify that an existing limited service charitable feeding operation facility is presumptively in compliance with structural and other building requirements for food facilities. The bill would expand the use of an outdoor wood-burning oven to additional facilities, including a temporary food facility or satellite food service. The bill would authorize a satellite food service to be temporarily located within a fully enclosed permanent food facility. The bill would authorize a local enforcement agency to exempt specified push carts operating outdoors from mechanical exhaust ventilation equipment requirements. The bill would require a cottage food operation that advertises to the public to indicate specified information on the advertisement, including that the food is made or repackaged in a home kitchen. Existing law requires food packaged using a reduced-oxygen packaging method in which Clostridium botulinum is identified as a microbiological hazard in the final prepackaged form to have a refrigerated shelf life of no more than 14 days from packaging to consumption. Existing law authorizes fish sold in a fishermen's market to be displayed whole or eviscerated, and authorizes a fishermen's market to provide a separate service to fillet, cut, or package fish for customers as a specified type of facility. This bill would extend the authorized refrigerated shelf life of food packaged using a reduced-oxygen packaging method in which Clostridium botulinum is identified as a microbiological hazard in the final prepackaged form to no more than 30 days from packaging to consumption. The bill would require a food facility that packages potentially hazardous foods using a cook-chill or sous vide process to meet specified requirements published by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The bill would authorize fish sold in a fishermen's market to be displayed packaged by an onsite permitted food facility or permitted food facility, and would authorize a fishermen's market to provide a separate service to fillet, cut, or package fish for customers at a fishermen's market booth. Existing law requires employees to thoroughly wash their hands and arms that come into direct food contact. Existing law requires single-use nonlatex gloves to be worn when contacting food and food-contact surfaces when specified criteria are met, and requires gloves to be changed, replaced, or washed as often as handwashing is required. This bill would authorize a food facility to incorporate an alternate double glove use procedure to handle raw animal proteins. By revising the standards that are enforced by local health agencies and by expanding the scope of existing crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.