Home California Homemade Food Act Signed by Governor Brown

Homemade Food Act Signed by Governor Brown

by ECT

Sacramento – CA Governor Brown has signed Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia’s (D-Coachella) Homemade Food Act making California the first state in the nation to allow a permitting process for home cooks to prepare and sell meals to the public.

AB 626 adds clarity to existing food laws, improves public health safeguards and creates a new, county-level permitting and inspection process for “microenterprise home kitchens.” This legislation stands to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on local economies throughout the state as well as for immigrants, women, low-income residents, and communities of color.

“The success of AB 626 will propel California into the new food enterprise frontier, one that is just, inclusive and contains opportunities for all. Legitimizing these home businesses will offer a means of economic empowerment and pathways for many to achieve the ‘American dream’ of success and income self-sufficiency,” exclaimed Assemblymember Garcia who put forward this legislation in response to feedback from his constituents experiencing difficulties navigating through the state’s stringent cottage food laws.

This measure will knock down barriers for marginalized populations who often lack access to the professional food world.

“For many people throughout the state, cooking and selling meals from their home kitchen is the only means by which they are able to earn an income to help their families,” shared Mayor Pro Tem Emmanuel Martinez, City of Coachella.

“Many of us have seen and bought food from these folks, such as the famous Elotero, or person who sells hot dogs, tacos, or cakes who, because of the barriers to entry, cannot afford to establish a traditional restaurant. AB 626 brings these people out of the shadows and creates a regulatory framework that nourishes their entrepreneurial spirit and facilitates the public’s access to healthy, home-cooked meals. The City of Coachella applauds the great work by our Assemblyman.”

Angela Janus, Executive Director of ShareKitchen a Coachella Valley based food industry development non-profit that has been helping culinary entrepreneurs launch businesses, agrees, “AB 626 will help foster and grow small businesses in our community and create jobs. Both our local and regional partners throughout Riverside County strongly feel that this measure will provide valuable opportunities to local cooks who can launch and grow small food businesses from home, eliminating barriers to entry into the local food economy.”

Along these same lines, the Governor has also signed into law SB 946, Safe Sidewalk Vending Act (Lara/E. Garcia). This complimentary bill coauthored by Garcia would decriminalize sidewalk vending.


Editors notes:

According to the CDC: They estimates that each year 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.

According to the Bill:

This bill would, among other things, include a microenterprise home kitchen operation within the definition of a food facility, and would define a microenterprise home kitchen operation to mean a food facility that is operated by a resident in a private home where food is stored, handled, and prepared for, and may be served to, consumers, and that meets specified requirements, including, among others, that the operation has no more than one full-time equivalent food employee and has no more than $50,000 in verifiable gross annual sales. The bill would specify that the governing body of a city or county, or city and county, shall have full discretion to authorize, by ordinance or resolution, the permitting of microenterprise home kitchen operations in accordance with the provisions of this bill, except as provided. The bill would require a microenterprise home kitchen operation to be considered a restricted food service facility for purposes of certain provisions of the code, except as otherwise provided, and would exempt a microenterprise home kitchen operation from various provisions applicable to food facilities, including, among others, provisions relating to handwashing, sinks, ventilation, and animals. The bill would require the applicant for a permit to operate a microenterprise home kitchen operation to submit to the local enforcement agency written standard operating procedures that include specified information, including all food types or products that will be handled and the days and times that the home kitchen will potentially be utilized as a microenterprise home kitchen operation.
The bill would require an Internet food service intermediary, as defined, that lists or promotes a microenterprise home kitchen operation on its Internet Web site or mobile application to, among other things, be registered with the department, to clearly and conspicuously post on its Internet Web site or mobile application the requirements for the permitting of a microenterprise home kitchen operation, as specified, prior to the publication of the microenterprise home kitchen operation’s offer of food for sale, and to submit the name and permit number of a microenterprise home kitchen operation to the local enforcement agency if it receives, through its Internet Web site or mobile application, 3 or more unrelated individual food safety or hygiene complaints in a calendar year from consumers who have made a purchase through its Internet Web site or mobile application. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

 

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7 comments

Rau Sep 24, 2018 - 7:56 am

??

Ray Sep 24, 2018 - 7:58 am

???

Dawn Sep 24, 2018 - 5:46 pm

I would NEVER buy anything prepared in someone’s private kitchen. No sidewalk vendors either or from some person going door-to-door selling tamales. Restaurants have food inspectors dropping in unexpectedly to check on the temperature and cleanliness of the establishment. I don’t want to get food poisoning or have hair in my food. I like to dine in restaurants which have an OPEN KITCHEN where you can see how the food is prepared.

Melanie Sep 24, 2018 - 10:52 pm

Being cautious is a good thing. You sound paranoid. Nobody is out to get you. Wow.

Dennis L Coates Sep 25, 2018 - 9:25 am

With a crack head like brown around the
Citizens should be getting poisoned soon. Save America, HANG a demorat

Name Sep 24, 2018 - 6:42 pm

Oh, sheltered, sheltered, Dawn ^.

MsKris Sep 24, 2018 - 8:28 pm

Lol. For real?

Comments are closed.