112500-112635

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
SECTION 112500-112635




112500.  When used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise
requires:
   (a) "Food" means any article used by man for food, drink,
confectionery or condiment, or which enters into the composition
thereof, whether simple, blended, mixed or compounded.
   (b) "Locker" means the individual sections or compartments of a
capacity of not to exceed 25 cubic feet in the locker room of a
frozen food locker plant.
   (c) "Frozen food locker plant" means an establishment in which
space in the individual lockers is rented, leased, or loaned to
individuals, firms, or corporations, for the storage of food for
their own use and which is artificially cooled for the purpose of
preserving the food. The term includes service locker plant, storage
locker plant, and branch locker plant.
   (d) "Service locker plant" means a frozen food locker plant in
which patrons' foods are prepared or packaged by the operator of the
plant before the foods are placed in the lockers for storage.
   (e) "Storage locker plant" means a frozen food locker plant, the
operator of which does not prepare or package the foods of patrons.
   (f) "Branch locker plant" means a frozen food locker plant in any
location or establishment artificially cooled in which space in
individual lockers is rented, leased, or loaned to individuals,
firms, or corporations for the storage of food for their own use
after preparation for storage in a central or parent plant.
   (g) "Frozen" means food frozen in a room or compartment in which
the temperature is plus 5 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.
   (h) "Temperature" means the average air temperature in
refrigerated rooms.
   (i) "Department" means the State Department of Health Services.
   (j) "Operator" means any person, firm or corporation operating or
maintaining a frozen food locker plant.
   (k) "Processor" means an establishment in which, for compensation
directly or indirectly, meat or meat products are cut, wrapped, or
frozen to be delivered for frozen storage by the ultimate consumer.




112505.  No person hereafter shall engage within this State in the
business of operating any frozen food locker plant without having
applied for and obtained from the director of the department a
license for each such place of business. Applications for the license
shall be made in writing to the director of the department, on the
forms and with the pertinent information as he or she may deem
necessary. These licenses shall be granted promptly as a matter of
right unless conditions exist that are grounds for denial of a
license, as hereinafter set forth.



112510.  The annual license fee for a frozen food locker plant shall
be twenty-five dollars ($25). Such fees shall be paid into the
General Fund.


112515.  Upon receipt of the application for a license accompanied
by the required fee, the department shall promptly inspect the plant
to be licensed and shall issue a license; provided, the plant, its
equipment, facilities and its surrounding premises, and its
operations comply with this chapter and regulations pertaining to
this chapter. The department shall inspect all frozen food locker
plants licensed under this chapter, whenever the department considers
the inspection necessary. The department and its representatives
shall have access to the plants at all reasonable times for the
purpose of making inspections.


112520.  The license issued hereunder shall be in a form as the
department shall prescribe and shall be under the seal of the
department and shall set forth the name of the licensee, the location
for which the license is issued, the period of the license and other
information as the department may determine. Licenses shall be for a
term of one calendar year and shall be renewed annually. The license
is nontransferable. The original license or a certified copy thereof
shall be conspicuously displayed by the licensee in the locker plant
for which the license is issued.



112525.  The floors, walls and ceilings of frozen food locker plants
shall be of a construction and finish that they can be conveniently
maintained in a clean and sanitary condition. The lockers in any
plant shall be so constructed as to protect the contents from
contamination, deterioration or injury. Lockers with perforated
bottoms shall be provided with a suitable unperforated liner or tray.



112530.  Any frozen food locker plant using a toxic gas refrigerant
shall have at least one gas mask of a type approved by the department
and shall keep the same where it will be readily accessible.



112535.  All rooms of a frozen food locker plant shall at all times
be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition. All equipment and
utensils shall be cleaned when put into use and shall be thoroughly
cleaned after each day's use and shall be so stored or protected as
not to become contaminated. Lockers shall be thoroughly cleaned
before they are leased or put into the possession of any patron. The
premises and surroundings of the plants shall be maintained in a
clean and sanitary condition. The food stored shall be protected from
filth, flies, dust, dirt, insects, vermin and any other
contamination and from any unclean or filthy practice in the handling
thereof or caring therefor. No food shall be stored in a condition
or in a manner as to cause injury to or deterioration of articles of
food in adjacent lockers.



112540.  Frozen food locker plants shall have an ample water supply
readily available and the water that comes in contact with any food
product or the equipment shall be uncontaminated. Such plants shall
be provided with adequate toilet facilities so located as to be
readily accessible to employees and equipped with adequate washing
fixtures or have such fixtures or facilities convenient thereto and
shall be supplied with running water, single soap and single towel
service. The doors of all toilet rooms shall be full length and
self-closing and no toilet room shall open directly into any room in
which foods are prepared, processed, chilled, frozen or stored.
Toilet facilities and rooms shall be kept in a clean and sanitary
condition.



112545.  The director shall publish and declare reasonable
regulations as are consistent with the enforcement of the provisions
of this chapter providing for adequate cleanliness and sanitation to
protect public health.


112550.  The refrigeration system for a frozen food locker plant
shall be equipped with reliable controls for the maintenance of
uniform temperatures as required in the various refrigerated rooms
and shall be of adequate capacity to provide under extreme conditions
of outside temperature and activity of the plant, the following
temperatures in the several rooms, respectively:
   (a) In pre-cool, chill, or aging rooms, temperatures shall be
commensurate with good commercial practice.
   (b) In locker rooms, temperature shall not exceed plus five (5)
degrees Fahrenheit, with customary commercial variations.
   The foregoing temperatures shall not be construed as prohibiting
variations therefrom as may occur during short periods of time
incidental to operating conditions beyond the control of the
operator.



112555.  Any processor, prior to delivery to the consumer, shall
quick-freeze all meat or meat products in a blast-type freezing room
at zero degrees Fahrenheit with one side of the package exposed to
circulated air, or in a still-air-type freezing room at a minimum of
minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit with one surface side of each package in
direct contact with coils of a freezing plate. This section shall not
apply to the sale of retail cuts of meat sold over the counter.



112560.  Thermometers in good order shall be provided in all rooms
held under low temperature at locations therein that will reflect
true storage temperatures of foods in the rooms.



112565.  No frozen food locker plant shall be licensed under this
chapter unless the following facilities are provided:
   Sufficient chill or aging room space, freezing facilities, locker
room, and facilities for cutting, preparing, wrapping and packaging
meats and meat products, except that storage locker plants and branch
locker plants need install only locker room facilities as specified
in Section 112550.



112570.  A branch plant may be operated only in conjunction with a
parent locker plant that shall have processing facilities
sufficiently large for the locker plant and all branch plants.



112575.  Storage of fish and game by patrons shall comply with
federal and state fish and game laws. All pertinent abstracts of
state and federal fish and game regulations shall be furnished by the
department and shall be conspicuously displayed in the locker plant.




112580.  Every operator of a frozen food locker plant, shall keep a
record showing names and addresses of renters of lockers and the
records shall be available for examination by the Director of Food
and Agriculture or his or her representatives, or the department or
its representatives, during business hours of the plants.




112585.  Only food for human consumption, or clean, sanitary
byproducts therefrom to be used for food, shall be stored in the
frozen food locker plant. Each package of food wrapped and frozen for
storage shall be labeled designating the product and identifying the
processor.



112590.  The person owning or operating a frozen food locker plant
shall have a lien upon all property therein for all charges due from
the owner of the property. The lien may be secured and enforced in
the same manner as warehousemen's liens are secured and enforced.



112595.  Operators of frozen food locker plants operating solely as
such shall not be construed to be warehousemen or public utilities,
nor shall receipts or other instruments issued by those persons in
the ordinary conduct of their locker business be construed to be
warehouse receipts or subject to the laws applicable thereto.




112600.  Cold storage or refrigerating warehouses subject to Chapter
6 (commencing with Section 112350) shall be exempt from the
licensing provisions of this chapter.



112605.  The licensing provisions of this chapter shall not apply to
retail premises in which individual frozen food lockers are not
rented, leased, loaned, or otherwise furnished to individuals, firms
or corporations, or processors.


112610.  The department, after notice and hearing, may revoke the
license issued for any frozen food locker plant for failure to comply
with the provisions of this chapter. The proceedings under this
section shall be conducted in accordance with Chapter 5 of Part 1 of
Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, and the department
shall have all the powers granted therein.



112615.  In the event the director suspends or revokes any license,
the licensee may obtain judicial review of the order by filing a
petition for a writ of mandate in accordance with the Code of Civil
Procedure in the superior court of the county in which the licensed
premises are located within thirty (30) days from the date notice in
writing of the director's order revoking or suspending the license
has been served upon said licensee.



112620.  The liability of the owner or operator of lockers for loss
of goods in lockers or in the owner's or operator's care shall be
limited to negligence of the owner or operator or his or her
employee.


112625.  Upon the signed petition of at least 25 owners or operators
of frozen food locker plants licensed under this chapter, the
director shall within 10 days after receipt of said petition, cause
to be held at places and at times as he or she may provide, a public
hearing for the purpose of gathering facts and data for the revision,
correction or amendment of any rule or regulation issued pertaining
to this chapter.



112630.  This chapter shall be known as the "Frozen Food Locker
Plant Act of 1951."



112635.  Any person who violates any of the provisions of this
chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be
punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than
one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail
for a term not exceeding six months, or by both the fine and
imprisonment.