(a) Every person who is engaged in the manufacture, packing, or holding of processed food in this state shall pay a food safety fee of one hundred dollars ($100) to the department in addition to any fees paid pursuant to Section 110470.
(b) Revenue received pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the Food Safety Fund created pursuant to Section 110050. A penalty of 10 percent per month shall be added to any food safety fee not paid when due.
(c) Upon appropriation, the food safety fees deposited in the Food Safety Fund shall be used by the department to assist in developing and implementing education and training programs related to food safety. These programs shall be developed in consultation with representatives of the food processing industry. Implementation shall include education and training in the prevention of microbial contamination.
(d) This section does not apply to companies exclusively involved in flour milling, dried bean processing, or in the drying or milling of rice, or to those individual registrants the director determines should not be assessed because substantial economic hardship would result to those registrants. For the purposes of this subdivision, the substantial hardship exemption shall be extended only to registrants whose wholesale gross annual income from the registered business is twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) or less.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 477, Sec. 1. (AB 384) Effective January 1, 2016.)