Establishes the sanitary retail food store grant program to provide funding to retail food stores that fail inspections to correct deficiencies if such stores are unable to sustain the costs to immediately correct critical deficiencies, are located in food deserts, and would otherwise be unable to stay in operation due to their inability to meet and maintain sanitary standards.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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2461
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 20, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sens. PERSAUD, BORRELLO, MAY, MYRIE -- read twice and
ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
Agriculture
AN ACT to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to estab-
lishing the sanitary retail food store grant program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The agriculture and markets law is amended by adding a new
2 section 501 to read as follows:
3 § 501. Sanitary retail food store grant program. 1. Legislative
4 intent. The legislature hereby finds, determines, and declares that
5 retail food stores located in New York should maintain proper sanitary
6 conditions to ensure the health and safety of all patrons. Preserving
7 stores that are unable to meet proper sanitary conditions, and are
8 located in areas where low-income people have limited access to afforda-
9 ble and nutritious food, is in the best interest of those communities
10 and the state. The legislature hereby declares that in order to ensure
11 the health and safety of its citizens, and preserve retail food stores
12 located in food deserts, the department shall create a sanitary retail
13 food store grant program.
14 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms
15 shall have the following meanings:
16 (a) "Critical deficiencies" means factors that are leading causes of
17 foodborne illnesses, including but not limited to the following:
18 (i) insect, rodent, bird, or vermin activity likely to result in prod-
19 uct contamination;
20 (ii) contact surfaces are unclean or not properly sanitized, such as
21 food contact equipment, utensils, or conveyances for potentially hazard-
22 ous foods;
23 (iii) employee handwashing facilities inadequate for establishments
24 handling exposed foods;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03193-01-3
S. 2461 2
1 (iv) equipment cleaning or sanitizing facilities inadequate for estab-
2 lishments handling potentially hazardous foods; and
3 (v) potentially hazardous foods are not stored at safe temperatures.
4 (b) "Food desert" shall mean an area with limited access to affordable
5 and nutritious food, particularly such an area that is composed of
6 predominately lower-income neighborhoods and communities.
7 3. Sanitary retail food store grant program. Subject to the availabil-
8 ity of funds, the commissioner shall establish a sanitary retail food
9 store grant program to ensure that retail food stores that are unable to
10 sustain the costs to immediately correct critical deficiencies, are
11 located in food deserts, and would otherwise be unable to stay in opera-
12 tion due to their inability to meet and maintain sanitary standards, may
13 be awarded funds to correct such critical deficiencies to ensure commu-
14 nities with limited food sources are held harmless and have access to
15 retail food stores with proper sanitary conditions.
16 4. Eligibility. To be eligible to receive sanitary retail food store
17 grant program funding, retail food stores shall meet the following
18 criteria:
19 (a) found to have critical deficiencies that were not or could not be
20 corrected at the time of inspection creating a need for immediate
21 corrective action or fails for two consecutive inspections;
22 (b) located in a food desert whereby closing the retail food store
23 would have a substantial impact on the community it serves;
24 (c) the retail food store is able to establish that it does not have
25 adequate funding or resources to correct the critical deficiencies, nor
26 would it be able to attain such funding within a reasonable amount of
27 time to prevent a negative impact to the community;
28 (d) the retail food store is able to establish that it is unable to
29 attain credit or loan for all or part of the costs needed to correct the
30 critical deficiencies; and
31 (e) the retail food store supplies the community with affordable and
32 nutritious food, such as fresh produce, canned goods, and refrigerated
33 foods.
34 5. Grants. The commissioner shall make grants to retail food stores
35 located in food deserts and meet all eligibility criteria that submit a
36 plan to correct the critical deficiencies and maintain proper sanitation
37 for at least five years. The grant shall be based on the scope and
38 nature of the resources associated with correcting the critical defi-
39 ciencies and the long-term maintenance of the correction of critical
40 deficiencies. Grants shall be approved and released every six months in
41 order to provide retail food stores with certainty on when they will be
42 able to attain funding and resources to correct the critical deficien-
43 cies and failed inspections.
44 § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 500 of the agriculture and markets law,
45 as amended by section 8 of part I1 of chapter 62 of the laws of 2003, is
46 amended to read as follows:
47 4. (a) The department shall inspect each retail food store at least
48 once in every twelve month period. Any store that fails two consecutive
49 inspections shall be inspected at least once in every six month period
50 until [it has passed] no critical deficiencies were found or critical
51 deficiencies were found but remedied at the time of the inspection for
52 two consecutive inspections. In the event that a retail food store was
53 found to have critical deficiencies that were not or could not be
54 corrected creating a need for immediate corrective action or fails for
55 three consecutive inspections, the department [may, in its discretion,]
56 shall order such establishment to cease all retail operation until it
S. 2461 3
1 passes inspection or suspend or revoke any license issued to such estab-
2 lishment pursuant to article twenty-C of this chapter. However, the
3 department may, in its discretion allow such establishments to maintain
4 operation even if they would otherwise need to cease operation if they
5 are able to establish that they qualified for the sanitary retail food
6 store grant program, described in section five hundred one of this arti-
7 cle, and would otherwise be able to remedy their critical deficiencies
8 but were not awarded a grant in that calendar year due to exhaustion of
9 funds for the grant program.
10 (b) For the purposes of this subdivision, "critical deficiencies"
11 means the same as such term is defined in section five hundred one of
12 this article.
13 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
14 it shall have become a law.
