STAND. COM. REP. NO. 985
Honolulu, Hawaii
H.D. 1
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
Thirty-First State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 770, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect the health of Hawaii's consumers by establishing a task force to:
(1) Review and recommend specific actions to ensure that Hawaii's food imports, including meat, produce, and all dairy products, are sourced, transported, stored, and distributed to retailers, restaurants, institutions, schools, or any place designated for sale to the public, in compliance with the federal Food Safety Modernization Act; and
(2) Develop specific recommendations to ensure that all foods and brands imported into Hawaii do not mislead or confuse the public through name, pictures, artwork, or statements in packaging or by advertising that the imported food's origin is from Hawaii or has the same freshness or qualities as food that is locally produced.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and one individual.
Your Committee finds that aligning the State's food safety standards with the food safety science requirements in the Food Safety Modernization Act from source point to sale will safeguard our most vulnerable populations from ailments, hospitalizations, and death associated with bacterial infections linked to foodborne illnesses. Your Committee further finds that the growth in demand for local products has caused an increase of non-locally made products to be marketed and packaged. The scope of the proposed task force includes finding mechanisms to protect against continued misrepresentations of the origin of products as being from any place within Hawaii if the origin of the product is not actually from the State, thereby ensuring consumers that they are purchasing and supporting local products.
Your Committee has
amended this measure by:
(1) Adding the Director of Health as a member of the task force, as the appropriate party with food security concerns under their purview;
(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1,
2021; and
(3) Making
technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and
consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 770, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 770, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,
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________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
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