HB 122-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2023 SESSION
23-0114
09/04
HOUSE BILL 122-FN
AN ACT relative to microenterprise home kitchen operations.
SPONSORS: Rep. Ankarberg, Straf. 7; Rep. Cushman, Hills. 28; Rep. Coulon, Graf. 5
COMMITTEE: Environment and Agriculture
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ANALYSIS
This bill defines homestead food operations and provides food service licensing exemptions for them.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
23-0114
09/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Three
AN ACT relative to microenterprise home kitchen operations.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Homestead Food Operations. Amend RSA 143-A:3, IV to read as follows:
IV. "Food service establishment" means any fixed or mobile, attended or unattended restaurant; coffee shop; cafeteria; short order cafe; luncheonette; grill; tearoom; sandwich shop; soda fountain; tavern; bar; cocktail lounge; nightclub; roadside stand; industrial feeding establishment; food processing plants; food vending operation; private or public organization or institution, whether profit or nonprofit, which routinely serves food; catering kitchen; commissary[,]; homestead food operation, or similar place in which food or drink is prepared for sale or for service on the premises or elsewhere; and any other eating and drinking establishment or operation in which potentially hazardous food is served or provided for the public with or without charge.
2 Homestead Food Operation Licensure. Amend RSA 143-A:5, VII to read as follows:
VII. Homestead food operations selling less than a maximum annual gross sales of $[20,000] $50,000, as adjusted for inflation annually by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Northeast Region, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, of food, excluding potentially hazardous food as defined in RSA 143-A:12, I(b), from the homestead residence, at the owner's farm stand, or at farmers' markets.
3 New Paragraph; Homestead Food Operations Licensing Exemptions. Amend RSA 143-A:5 by inserting after paragraph VII the following new paragraph:
VII-a. Homestead food operations shall be exempt from all of the following licensing requirements:
(a) Hand washing facilities requirements, provided that a hand washing sink is supplied with warm water and located in the toilet room and supplied.
(b) Any requirements related to sinks, ware washing machines, and manual or machine sanitation.
(c) Any prohibitions on the presence of people unnecessary to the food facility operation in the food preparation, food storage, or ware washing areas.
(d) Any requirements related to the posting of no smoking signs.
(e) Requirements that limit consumer access to the food facility through food preparation areas.
(f) Requirements relative to display guard, cover, and container requirements, provided that any food on display that is not protected from the direct line of a consumer's mouth by an effective means is not served or sold to any subsequent consumer.
(g) Any requirements which limit the outdoor display and sale of foods.
(h) Requirements to provide clean drinking cups and tableware for second portions and beverage refills.
(i) Requirements pertaining to the characteristics and certification of utensils and equipment, provided that utensils and equipment are designed to retain their characteristic qualities under normal use conditions.
(j) Requirements pertaining to the characteristics, construction, and multi-use of food-contact and nonfood-contact surfaces, provided that food contact surfaces are smooth, easily cleanable, and in good repair.
(k) Requirements pertaining to the characteristics, construction, and disassembly of clean in place (CIP) equipment.
(l) Requirements which limit the use of wood as a food contact surface and in connection with other equipment.
(m) Any requirements relating to ventilation, provided that gases, odors, steam, heat, grease, vapors, and smoke are able to escape from the kitchen.
(n) Requirements that cold or hot holding equipment used for potentially hazardous food be equipped with integral or permanently affixed temperature measuring device or product mimicking sensors.
(o) Requirements pertaining to the installation of fixed, floor-mounted, and table mounted equipment.
(p) Dedicated laundry facility requirements, provided that linens used in connection with the homestead food operation shall be laundered separately from the household and other laundry.
(q) Requirements pertaining to water, plumbing, drainage, and waste.
(r) Any requirement that a homestead food operation have more than one toilet facility or that access to the toilet facility not require passage through the food preparation, food storage, or utensil washing areas.
(s) Requirements relative to light intensity, light source, and light bulbs.
(t) Requirements to provide and use lockers, storage facilities, and designated dressing areas, and that food facility premises be free of litter and items that are unnecessary to the operation, provided that personal effects and clothing not ordinarily found in a home kitchen are placed or stored away from food preparation areas and dressing takes place outside of the kitchen.
(u) Requirements which limit the presence and handling of animals, such as domestic, service, or patrol animals, as kept outside of the kitchen and dining areas during food service preparation.
(v) Requirements pertaining to floor, wall, and ceiling surfaces, provided that the floor, wall and ceiling surfaces of the kitchen, storage and toilet areas are smooth, of durable construction, and easily cleanable with no limitations on the use of wood, tile, and other nonfiber floor surfaces ordinarily used in residential settings.
(w) Any requirements which impose local evaluations or grading systems for food facilities.
(x) Any requirements which limit or prohibit the use of a kitchen in a private home as a food facility, provided that food is not prepared in designated sleeping quarters. Open kitchens adjacent to living and sleeping areas, kitchens in efficiency, studio and loft style residences, and kitchens without doors at all points of ingress and egress may be used in homestead food operations.
4 Defining Homestead Food Operations. Amend RSA 143-A:12, I(a) to read as follows:
(a) "Homestead food operation" means [a person who produces homestead food products, excluding potentially hazardous food, only in the home kitchen of that person's primary residence in New Hampshire.] a food service establishment that is operated by a New Hampshire resident in a private home where food is stored, handled, and prepared for, and may be served to, consumers, and that meets all of the following requirements:
(1) The operation has no more than one full-time equivalent food employee, not including a family member or a household member.
(2) Food is prepared, cooked, and served on the same day.
(3) Food is consumed onsite at the homestead food operation or offsite if the food is picked up by the consumer or delivered within a safe time period based on holding equipment capacity.
(4) Food preparation does not involve processes that require a HACCP plan, or the production, service or sale of raw milk or raw milk products
(5) The sale of raw oysters is prohibited
(6) Food preparation is limited to no more than 30 individual meals per day, or the approximate equivalent of meal components when sold separately, and no more than 60 individual meals, or the approximate equivalent of meal components when sold separately, per week. Local law enforcement may decrease the limit of the number of individual meals prepared based on food preparation capacity of the operation, but shall not, in any case, increase the limit of the number of individual meals prepared.
5 New Subparagraphs; Defining Homestead Food Operations. Amend RSA 143-A:12, I by inserting after subparagraph (c) the following new subparagraphs:
(d) Homestead food operations shall only sell food directly to consumers and not to any wholesaler or retailer. For the purposes of this paragraph, the sale of food prepared in a homestead food operation through an internet website or mobile application is a direct sale to consumers.
(e) Homestead food operations do not include either of the following:
(1) Catering kitchens.
(2) Private or public organizations or institutions, whether profit or nonprofit, which routinely serve food.
(f) For the purposes of this section, "New Hampshire resident in a private home" means an individual who resides in the private home when not elsewhere for labor or other special or temporary purpose.
6 Defining Homestead Food Operations. Amend RSA 143-A:12, II to read as follows:
II. Homestead food operations selling less than a maximum annual gross sales of [$20,000] $50,000, as adjusted for inflation annually by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Northeast Region, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, of food, excluding potentially hazardous food, from the homestead residence, at the owner's own farm stand, at farmers' markets, or at retail food stores are exempt from licensure and departmental inspection under this subdivision, except that the department may inspect when the department has reason to suspect an imminent health hazard as defined in RSA 143-A:3, IV-b.
7 Defining Homestead Food Operations. Amend RSA 143-A:12, III to read as follows:
III. Homestead food operations that exceed the [$20,000] $50,000, as adjusted for inflation annually by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Northeast Region, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, maximum annual gross sales limit or homestead food operations who wish to sell food products, excluding potentially hazardous food, to restaurants or other retail food establishments, over the Internet, by mail order, or to wholesalers, brokers, or other food distributors who will resell the homestead product shall be licensed under RSA 143-A:4.
8 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
23-0114
11/9/22
HB 122-FN- FISCAL NOTE
AS INTRODUCED
AN ACT relative to microenterprise home kitchen operations.
FISCAL IMPACT: [ X ] State [ ] County [ X ] Local [ ] None
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| Estimated Increase / (Decrease) | |||
STATE: | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 |
Appropriation | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Revenue | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Expenditures | $0 | Indeterminable | Indeterminable | Indeterminable |
Funding Source: | [ X ] General [ ] Education [ ] Highway [ X ] Other - Food inspection license fee revenue is deposited into the state general fund. | |||
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LOCAL: |
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Revenue | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Expenditures | $0 | Indeterminable | Indeterminable | Indeterminable |
METHODOLOGY:
This bill increases the homestead food operations threshold from $35,000 to $50,000 in annual gross sales. Entities selling less than the threshold amount are not subject to licensure and inspection requirements under RSA 143-A. The Department of Health and Human Services states that since it does not track homestead food operations by gross sales, it is unable to determine how many establishments would no longer require inspections or pay the annual food service licensure fee. The fiscal impact to the state general fund (into which the fees are deposited) is therefore indeterminable. In addition, the bill amends the definition of a homestead food operation to allow for no more than 30 meals per day and 60 meals per week to be served from a private home, and removes any licensing requirements for these entities. The Department states that for safety reasons, it does not currently allow meal preparation of foods requiring temperature control, and that there will be no revenue lost from license fees in this instance since these operations are not currently allowed or licensed.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association states that the bill will likely increase the number of existing homestead food operations exempt from health and safety inspections. The Association notes that some municipalities operate their own, standalone health departments, while others have health officers that assist the Department of Health and Human Services in their inspection duties. Both the Association and the Department note that home kitchens are frequently implicated in the microbial contamination of food, and the Association further states that the decrease in inspections may lead to an increase in food-borne pathogens, resulting in an increase in health officer inspections and related wages. The Association assumes that the precise impact on local expenditures is indeterminable.
It is assumed that any fiscal impact will begin in FY 2024.
AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Department of Health and Human Services and New Hampshire Municipal Association