HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO.  \

(By Delegates A. Evans, Hamilton and Eldridge)

[Introduced ]

Requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance study the impact of providing for the issuance of a home-based micro-processing permit for use by farmers market vendors.

Whereas, The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has promulgated Recommendations of the United States Public Health Service which are also known as the “Federal Food Code,” and the 2005 edition of the Federal Food Code has been adopted by West Virginia in a legislative rule of the Department of Health and Human Resources, Title 64, Series 17, “Food Establishments”; and

Whereas, The Federal Food Code requires that a “food establishment” at which food is prepared and then sold be subject to commercial kitchen requirements; and

Whereas, West Virginia’s legislative rule contains several exceptions to the definition of the term “food establishment” and specifically excludes from that term “a kitchen in a private home if only food that is not potentially hazardous is prepared for sale”; and

Whereas, the 2009 Federal Food Code’s list of potentially hazardous foods includes the following: Meat, poultry and eggs; fish and shellfish; cooked vegetables; dairy products; mushrooms; cut melons; unmodified cut tomatoes or mixtures of cut tomatoes; untreated garlic-in-oil mixtures; baked goods subject to spoilage; reduced sugar jams and jellies; pickles and salsa; and raw seed sprouts; and

Whereas, legislation has been proposed to provide for the issuance of a home-based micro-processing permit to allow the holder of such permit to prepare micro-processed foods in a kitchen in a private home or community kitchen for sale at a farmers market; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance is hereby requested to study the potential economic benefits as well as the public health and food safety ramifications of amending article thirty-five, chapter nineteen of the Code of West Virginia to include a new section providing for the issuance of a home-based micro-processing permit and providing that a kitchen in a private home or community kitchen where home-based micro-processed foods are prepared for sale by a vendor at a farmers market is permitted if the vendor has a micro-processing permit; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance report to the regular session of the Legislature, 2017, on its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts of any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the expenses necessary to conduct this study, to prepare reports and draft necessary legislation, be paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.