Like taking a brand new automotive in for repairs whereas it’s nonetheless beneath guarantee, the Montana Native Meals Alternative Act of 2021 will likely be getting renewed consideration through the 2023 legislative session in Helena. However the 2023 Senate Invoice 202 at this level does little greater than prohibit native boards from getting concerned within the problem
Former Montana meals security official Jeff Havens, who has moved on to Walla Walla, WA, continues to concern that the Large Sky State has rolled again an excessive amount of within the title of “Meals Freedom.”
Havens desires to see the MLFCA amended to handle high-risk canned meals. As adopted in 2021, Montana’s “Meals Freedom” legislation places the general public prone to botulism poisoning. The potent neurotoxin is created beneath low-acid, low-oxygen environments and can’t be detected by sight, odor or style.
Botulism lately took the lifetime of a well known Jackson Gap, WY, clothes shop and information. In response to the Wyoming Division of Well being, consumption of canned soup was the probably trigger.
The MLFCA opens up the manufacturing and sale of such high-risk do-it-yourself meals. Montana beforehand had a cottage meals legislation on the books to allow low-risk do-it-yourself meals akin to most pies and muffins.
Inside days of the passage of the MLFCA, Havens recalled {that a} Campylobacter jejuni sickness outbreak was attributable to uncooked milk marketed beneath the brand new legislation. The uncooked milk provider answerable for the outbreak reportedly left Montana in early 2022.
The adjustments to the MLFCA proposed in SB 202 embody:
— Boards of County Commissions are made topic to the legislation the place Farmer’s Markets are involved.
— Transactions are usually not topic to rules by Boards of County Commissions.
— Home made meals and meals merchandise offered at a farmer’s market or farm stand are topic similar label and different necessities.
The first sponsor of SB 202 is Sen. Gregory Hertz, R-Polson. He’s additionally the daddy of the MLFCA.
Hertz is the president and CEO of Moodys Market Inc., which operates six grocery shops together with Tremendous 1 Meals in Polson; Harvest Meals in Ronan, Lolo, Thompson Falls, and St. Maries, ID; and Blacktail Grocery in Lakeside. Moodys Market Inc. at present employs about 225 workers.
“The extent of absurdity that Montana has fallen is already appalling and poised to fall even additional if Hertz’s new invoice is adopted,” Havens stated.
At a minimal, Havens says the Meals and Shopper Security unit of the Montana Division of Well being and Human Companies “has the responsibility and obligation to create a steering doc, regarding business meals substances” to be used beneath the Act. It ought to restrict merchandise to solely intrastate substances.
“Ideally, events with authorized standing would problem this unconstitutional legislation to forestall further shopper sicknesses and potential accidents and deaths,” Havens stated. The MLFCA violates the “single topic” rule of the Montana State Structure, he says.
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