HB 1402 “Will Result in More Foodborne Illness”

House Bill 1402 would eliminate licensing requirements for small-scale food producers that sell food products from homes, roadside stands and farmers’ markets. While licensing would still be required for producers of potentially hazardous foods, producer-distributors of raw milk and raw milk products are specifically excluded from any licensing requirements.

The editors at Food Poison Journal (who knew?) are aghast. This bill will result in more foodborne illness, they write, and should include an “injury fund that will help severely injured people deal with present and future medical costs.”

Amidst its attempts to de-regulate locally produced foods entirely, will New Hampshire legislature consider an insurance requirement? Or is insurance, too, beneath the “live free or die” mantra that is currently being taken to the extreme by a few folks in New Hampshire?

Do not think that this isn’t a problem. … Raw milk producers are the primary offenders — i.e. producing a product with known risks and not doing right by customers by having insurance in place to address medical costs, past and future, for severely injured people—and it is no enticement toward insuring a business to completely de-regulate it.

HB 1402 sailed out of the House Environment and Agriculture Committee with a 13-0 vote. It is on the consent calendar for Wednesday’s House session.