Activist Bureaucrats Could Spoil Texas Cottage Food Law

Link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/texas-bakers-bill/action-required-proposed-rules-for-cottage-food-labeling/310059809027616

© ignoranceorapathy.com 12/16/2011

If you cannot win at the ballot box, win in the courts. That is the mantra of the left, and special interest groups seeking to force their will on the rest of us. We have seen this time and time again with all types of rules, laws and regulations. Arizona’s elected legislature passed a law allowing police agencies within the state to enforce already enacted Federal immigration laws, enforce them, not make up new ones or make subjective assessments. Just enforce the law. The elected Governor signed the bill into law. The sore losers sued. Now some court of unelected judges are going to tell the elected legislature what the people want and need.

Texas is having similar issues with unelected activism at the bureaucratic level.
Known to be the work of the Harris County Health Dept., who have strongly opposed this legislation from the start, also believed to be the work of special interest groups like the Retail Restaurant Assoc. and a consortium of retail bakers. Once again unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats are attempting to circumvent the will of the elected legislature, the governor and the people.

Some History:
http://www.texascottagefoodlaw.com/

In the past, in Texas, it was illegal to run a "food establishment" from a residential kitchen, even if your product was low-risk baked foods like cakes and cookies. You could not have a legal home bakery.
A group of dedicated home bakers changed that in 2011.
SB 81 was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on June 17, 2011

The Texas Cottage Food Law puts Texas in the company of some 24 other states that have provision for the sale of Home Baked Items. Of course there are restrictions on the types of items, quantities and to whom they may be sold. In the original law the legislature made provisions for these things, they even went so far as to require labels on the items as Baked in a home kitchen that is not inspected by the health department.
On a quick tangent.
We have all spent our lives eating food prepared in a home kitchen that was not inspected.
Could someone find me the statistics for getting food poisoning from a home kitchen as opposed to a sit down, fast food or carry our restaurant or bakery?

Follow up:

Now, after the law has taken effect, the sore losers are surfacing. They now have to find ways to circumvent the will of the elected so they can impose the rule of the unaccountable.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/texas-bakers-bill/action-required-proposed-rules-for-cottage-food-labeling/310059809027616

DSHS is required by law to develop rules for labeling of foods sold under SB 81. The statute reads:

Sec. 437.0193. LABELING REQUIREMENTS FOR COTTAGE FOOD
PRODUCTION OPERATIONS. The executive commissioner shall adopt
rules requiring a cottage food production operation to label all of
the foods described in Section 437.001(2-b)(A) that the operation
sells to consumers. The label must include the name and address of
the cottage food production operation and a statement that the food
is not inspected by the department or a local health department.
/Block

The special interest groups soundly opposed to the Cottage Food Law and anything that even hits at competition for bakeries and restaurants wants to change this to include:
Block
(d) Labeling Requirements for Cottage Food Production Operations. All foods prepared

by a cottage food production operation must be labeled.

(1) The label information shall include:

(A) the name and physical address of the cottage food production

operation;

(B) the common or usual name of the product and an adequately

descriptive statement of identity;

(C) if made from two or more ingredients, a list of ingredients in

descending order of predominance by net weight, including a declaration of artificial color or

flavor and chemical preservatives, if contained in the food;

(D) an accurate declaration of the net quantity of contents including metric

measurements;

(E) allergen labeling shall comply with the Food Allergen Labeling and

Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA);

(F) the following statement: "Made in home kitchen, food is not inspected

by the Department of State Health Services or a local health department" in at least the

equivalent of 11-point font and in a color that provides a clear contrast to the background.

(2) Labels must be clearly legible and printed with durable, permanent ink.

(A) Ingredient statements shall be at 1/16 of an inch or larger.

Proposed - 5

(B) Ingredients shall include components of the ingredients.

(C) Net quantity of contents shall be separated from other text on the label

and must be located in the bottom third of the label.

Talk about draconian!
I want the same labels applied to all foods sold!
It is high time we start learning what is really in that hamburger and fries.
Finally now the Colonel will have to tell us the secret recipe.

Think about going to a school bake sale and buying a cup cake for what would now be $4.00 each. Due to the new labeling requirements the special interest groups want to impose, the food ingredients and identification label would be bigger and more costly than the cup cake to make.

This is what happens when you let a bunch of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats get between the elected legislature, the will of people and the people this law was supposed to help.

Part of the idea behind this law was to allow struggling families and startup businesses a legal way to move into the market place.
What these bureaucrats are trying to do is protect the special interest groups monopolies and squeeze small bakers out of business.

Texans and all Americans need to unite and take back our country this is not how we are supposed to live.

As for Texans interested in stopping this particular madness:
Submit your comments to:
Cheryl Wilson, Food Establishments Group, Policy, Standards and Quality Assurance Unit, Division of Regulatory Services, Environmental and Consumer Safety Section, Department of State Health Services,
Mail Code 1987, P. O. Box 149347,
Austin, Texas 78714-9347,
(512) 834-6770, extension 2053,
or by email to Cheryl.Wilson@dshs.state.tx.us.

Also it would be a good idea to contact your state representative and or state senator and let them know you are sick and tired of these bureaucrats interfering with the actions of the elected legislature.
After all our tax money is paying their salaries, we should not be wasting it with this type of absurdity.

Are we Texans or not?

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