The Farquhar report on 2024 state Legislative food safety actions
Editor’s Note: Thirty years ago, hundreds of reporters were assigned to cover State Legislatures, and competing wire services tracked everything. Today’s corporate entertainment media sees all that as an unnecessary expense, and state legislative coverage has become thin to zero.
That makes it a real challenge for those of us trying to keep up with food safety in the 50 states. With 2,700 state and local health departments being the foundation for surveillance of food-borne illness in the county, being current on state legislatures is critical.
Food Safety News readers are fortunate that technology and Doug Farquhar, the government affairs director for the National Environmental Health Association, keep us up to date on state action.
His 2024 report continues the series of analyses he has provided Food Safety News readers since the tracking system was put together. The following Farquhar report offers the first complete look at 2024 Legislative actions by the 50 state Legislatures. Here is that report:
For the 2024 state legislative sessions that began in January 2024, state legislators introduced 250 bills related to food safety. Of these bills, 41 were passed and enacted into law, with another 11 eligible for signing by the state governor. Further, four bills have been vetoed by state governors.
Retail Food Safety Bills
Of the 45 bills introduced on retail food safety, 13 were enacted into law in California (with 5 other bills eligible for governor signing), Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia.
In Arizona, the legislature passed H 2328, which allowed a municipality to prohibit a mobile food unit from operating in a residential area or near a public transit center. The state governor, however, vetoed this piece of legislation.
The California legislature passed several bills on retail food safety, but only two have been signed by the governor and chaptered to date: A 2721 and A 375. California A 2721 relates to the recycling and processing inedible kitchen grease and requires renderers to be licensed and pay fees. The California Fair Food Delivery Act (A 375) requires the first name and picture of the delivery driver to be provided for any food delivery service.
The others not yet chaptered but passed by the California legislature include the following:
• California S 1490 allows a food facility to request removal from any food delivery platform.
• California A 2786 relates to certified mobile farmers markets and requires them to participate in the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
• California A 1975 makes medically-supportive food under the Medi-Cal program.
• California A 2316 prohibits a school district or charter school from providing school breakfasts or lunches containing certain substances, including dyes such as red 40 or yellow 5. All these bills await the governor’s signature.
The other enacted bills include:
• In Colorado, the legislature enacted H 1322, which directs the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to conduct a feasibility study to explore seeking federal authorization to provide nutrition and housing services that address Medicaid health-related social needs and to integrate health-related social needs (HRSN) services with existing housing and nutrition-related services.
• Florida S 676 addresses food delivery and prohibits food delivery platforms from taking or arranging food delivery without the establishment’s consent.
• Indiana H 1258 requires local health departments to inspect and issue permits for mobile retail food establishments.
• Maryland S 723 requires baby food manufacturers to conduct testing for toxic heavy metals.
• New York S 1195 requires the Department of Agriculture and Markets to facilitate an educational program on the standards retail food stores must meet and how consumers may report these stores.
New York S 509 requires internet-based food delivery services to post their web links to state health foodservice data.
• Oklahoma H 3995 requires mobile food establishments to have fire extinguishers, and H 4060 requires donated and wild game foods provided in good faith to be exempt from criminal or civil liability.
• Utah S 73 restricts the state regulation of local foods and directs that the state may not control local foods’ distribution or sale price in response to an emergency. The state also enacted H 291, which clarifies appointments and reporting provisions for the Local Food Advisory Council.
• Virginia S 283 requires the public instruction superintendent to study and recommend offering students free school meals statewide, including options to reduce or eliminate student meal debt.
Food Freedom and Cottage Foods
Of the 50 bills on so called food freedom or cottage foods, 12 were passed by their legislatures and were enacted into law. Bills on food freedom were passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. The enacted bills include:
• Alaska H 251 exempts certain foods and drinks prepared in an uninspected kitchen from state labeling, licensing, packaging, permitting, and inspection requirements. The law also allows for the acquisition of meats employing an ownership share.
• The Arizona legislature enacted two bills on cottage foods: H 2042 and H 2079. H 2042 requires cottage food products to be packaged at home with a label of the preparer’s registration number and a list of ingredients. H 2079 prohibits a county from requiring a food handler to have a certificate or attend a training course for persons who volunteer to handle food less than three times a year if overseen by a certified food protection manager.
• Hawaii H 2144 expands homemade food opportunities by allowing the direct sale of such foods to consumers by phone or the Internet.
• Illinois S 2617 provides that a cottage food operation shall not sell certain food items or processed foods containing certain hazardous items. The director of agriculture may be exempt from inspection of the slaughter of animals at certain preparers if labeled and not sold to consumers
• Iowa H 2257 exempts certain establishments engaged in slaughtering and preparing poultry products from inspections.
• New Hampshire H 1565 removed processed acidified food from the definition of potentially hazardous foods.
• New York S 1979 requires the state to study the economic impact of creating kitchen incubators. This bill passed the legislature but requires the governor’s signature for enactment.
• Oklahoma enacted H 2975, which provides the registration numbers of homemade food producers for labeling purposes.
• Utah’s S 73 restricts the state regulation of local food and limits rulemaking authority.
• Vermont H 603 enacted exemptions for inspections of poultry slaughtering sold at the producer’s premises. The law also repealed the requirement that uninspected poultry may only be sold as a whole bird at the farm, at a farmers’ market, or to a food restaurant.
• Virginia H 759 requires a specified pH value for pickles and acidified vegetable products if sold to consumers for consumption and not resale.
In Wyoming, the governor vetoed the PRIME Act (S 103), which provided for the sale of homemade meat products.
Manufactured Foods and Labeling
In total, 27 bills related to manufactured foods and labeling those foods were introduced, with 6 bills passing in Arizona, California, Maryland, and New York. These bills include:
• Arizona H 2042 addresses the labeling of cottage foods (see above for details).
• California A 660 prohibits selling a food item for human consumption after the sell-by date.
• California A 1830 focuses on wet corn masa. This law requires the inclusion of information on folic acid on the nutrition label. This bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.
• In Maryland, the legislature enacted H 97 and S 723, which require testing of baby food for toxic heavy metals before packaging and providing information on toxic heavy metals on the label.
• New York S 1195 requires the Department of Agriculture and Markets to maintain a database of graded inspections on its website.
Meats and Dairy
There were 79 bills relating to meats and dairy. Most dairy bills were about the sale of raw milk. Bills on meat focused on wild game, cell-based meat, cultivated meats, shellfish, or meat inspections or related to exemptions from regulation (discussed above under the Food Freedom section). Of these 79 bills, 17 were passed and included:
• Alabama S 23 prohibits manufacturing, selling, or distributing meat from cultured animal cells.
• Delaware S 273 legalizes selling and distributing raw milk and its products directly to consumers for human consumption.
• Iowa S 2391 prohibits the misbranding of cultivated meat food products.
• Iowa S 2601 exempts from inspection of animals slaughtered or any meat or meat food products prepared on a custom basis, not for sale.
• Louisiana H 429 prohibits selling imported seafood to public school students.
• Louisiana H 467 provides for the sale of raw milk. It also authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture to suspend raw milk sales, distribution, or movement.
• The Louisiana legislature enacted S 40, S 62, and S 166, all relating to seafood. S 40 updates membership requirements to the Seafood Safety Task Force. S 62 provides funding for the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism for the sampling, testing, and monitoring of raw seafood products of foreign origin that are imported and stored in the state. S 166 prohibits misleading marketing of seafood products, provides for food establishment requirements, and authorizes the Department of Health with oversight.
• Louisiana S114 relates to meat and poultry inspection and allows the agriculture commissioner to provide voluntary state inspections for specific slaughterhouses.
• In New Mexico, the Livestock Board is to adopt rules (S 37) regarding a comprehensive meat inspection program for inspecting, processing, and selling meat and poultry products.
• Utah H 375 modifies provisions related to the Domesticated Elk Act and establishes requirements for importing domesticated elk from east of the 100th meridian.
• Virginia H 1460 provides that a person must not label any product as Virginia Verified Meat unless the product meets the definition of the state’s verified meat program.
• West Virginia H 4911 authorizes the intrastate sale of raw milk and imposes labeling requirements.
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