FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 892

91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY


INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE SANDERS BROOKS.

Read 1st time February 28, 2001, and 1000 copies ordered printed.

TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk

2103L.01I


AN ACT

To repeal sections 196.230 and 196.235, RSMo 2000, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to sanitation in food establishments, with a penalty provision.




Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Sections 196.230 and 196.235, RSMo 2000, are repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 196.230, 196.232 and 196.235, to read as follows:

196.230. 1. The director of the department of health and [his] the director's assistants or agents [by him] appointed by the director, the state, county, city and town health officers shall have full power at any time to enter and inspect every building, room, basement or cellar, occupied or used, or suspected of being used, for the production for sale, manufacture for sale, storage, sale, distribution or transportation of food and all utensils, fixtures, furniture and machinery used as aforesaid, and if upon inspection any food producing or distributing establishment, conveyance, employer, operative, employee, clerk, driver or other person is found to be violating any of the provisions of sections 196.190 to 196.265, or if the production, cooking, preparation, manufacture, packing, storing, sale, distribution or transportation of food is being conducted in a manner detrimental to the health of the employees and operatives and the character or quality of the food therein being produced, manufactured, packed, stored, sold, distributed or conveyed, the officer or inspector, making the examination or inspection, shall furnish evidence of [said] such violation to the prosecuting attorney of the county in which the violation occurs, and it shall be the duty of all prosecuting attorneys to represent and prosecute, in behalf of the people, when called upon by the director of the department of health to do so, all such cases of offenses arising [under] pursuant to the provisions of sections 196.190 to 196.265. When complaint is made by the [said] director of the department of health, security for costs shall not be required of the complainant in any case at any time of the prosecution or trial.

2. All state, county and municipal health officials or inspectors shall utilize the 1999 Missouri Food Code for the inspection of entities listed in subsection 1 of this section.

3. The department of health shall notify its division of nutritional health services of any violation of sections 196.190 to 196.265 by a grocery store that is found during an inspection conducted pursuant to subsection 1 of this section.

196.232. Any grocery store, convenience store or food distributing establishment that redeems state-issued Woman, Infant and Children (WIC) vouchers and receives two unsatisfactory health examinations or inspections from the department of health within a three-year period shall not participate in the WIC program for a period of not less than six months.

196.235. Any person who violates any of the provisions of sections 196.190 to 196.230, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished for the first offense by a fine of not less than [ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars] one hundred dollars a day for each day of such violation, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court.



Missouri House of Representatives