STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1339--A 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 9, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SIMON, DAVILA, TAYLOR, GIBBS, COOK -- read once and referred to the Committee on Agriculture -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee 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, in cooperation with the 13 empire state development corporation, create a sanitary retail food 14 store grant program. 15 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms 16 shall have the following meanings: 17 (a) "Potentially hazardous foods" means any foods that can support the 18 rapid growth of disease-causing bacteria, including but not limited to 19 the following: meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, pre-sliced or cooked vege- 20 tables, dairy, sliced fruit and cooked rice; 21 (b) "Critical deficiencies" means factors that are leading causes of 22 foodborne illnesses, including but not limited to the following: EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02814-03-5
A. 1339--A 2 1 (i) insect, rodent, bird, or vermin activity likely to result in prod- 2 uct contamination; 3 (ii) contact surfaces are unclean or not properly sanitized, such as 4 food contact equipment, utensils, or conveyances for handling potential- 5 ly hazardous foods; 6 (iii) inadequate employee handwashing facilities; 7 (iv) lack of proper equipment for cleaning and sanitizing surfaces 8 where any potentially hazardous foods are prepared, stored and sold; and 9 (v) potentially hazardous foods that are not stored at safe temper- 10 atures. 11 (c) "Food desert" shall have the same meaning as section two hundred 12 sixty of this chapter. 13 3. Sanitary retail food store grant program. Subject to appropriation, 14 the commissioner, in conjunction with the commissioner of the empire 15 state development corporation, shall establish a sanitary retail food 16 store grant program to ensure that retail food stores that are unable to 17 sustain the costs to immediately correct critical deficiencies, are 18 located in food deserts, and would otherwise be unable to stay in opera- 19 tion due to their inability to meet and maintain sanitary standards, may 20 be awarded funds to correct such critical deficiencies to ensure commu- 21 nities with limited food sources are held harmless and have access to 22 retail food stores with proper sanitary conditions. 23 4. Eligibility. To be eligible to receive sanitary retail food store 24 grant program funding, retail food stores shall meet the following 25 criteria: 26 (a) found to have critical deficiencies that were not or could not be 27 corrected at the time of inspection creating a need for immediate 28 corrective action or fails for two consecutive inspections; 29 (b) located in a food desert whereby closing the retail food store 30 would have a substantial impact on food access to the community it 31 serves; 32 (c) the retail food store is able to establish that it does not have 33 adequate funding or resources to correct the critical deficiencies, nor 34 would it be able to attain such funding within a reasonable amount of 35 time to prevent a negative impact to the community; 36 (d) the retail food store is able to establish that it is unable to 37 attain credit or loan for all or part of the costs needed to correct the 38 critical deficiencies; and 39 (e) the retail food store supplies the community with affordable and 40 nutritious food, such as fresh produce, canned goods, and refrigerated 41 foods. 42 5. Grants. The commissioner shall make grants to retail food stores 43 located in food deserts and meet all eligibility criteria that submit a 44 plan to correct the critical deficiencies and maintain proper sanitation 45 for at least five years. The grant shall be based on the scope and 46 nature of the resources associated with correcting the critical defi- 47 ciencies and the long-term maintenance of the correction of critical 48 deficiencies. Grants shall be approved and released every six months in 49 order to provide retail food stores with certainty on when they will be 50 able to attain funding and resources to correct the critical deficien- 51 cies and failed inspections. 52 § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 500 of the agriculture and markets law, 53 as amended by section 8 of part I1 of chapter 62 of the laws of 2003, is 54 amended to read as follows: 55 4. (a) The department shall inspect each retail food store at least 56 once in every twelve month period. Any store that fails two consecutive
A. 1339--A 3 1 inspections shall be inspected at least once in every six month period 2 until [it has passed] no critical deficiencies were found or critical 3 deficiencies were found but remedied at the time of the inspection for 4 two consecutive inspections. In the event that a retail food store was 5 found to have critical deficiencies that were not or could not be 6 corrected creating a need for immediate corrective action or fails for 7 three consecutive inspections, the department [may, in its discretion,] 8 shall order such establishment to cease all retail operation until it 9 passes inspection or suspend or revoke any license issued to such estab- 10 lishment pursuant to article twenty-C of this chapter. However, the 11 department may, in its discretion allow such establishments to maintain 12 operation even if they would otherwise need to cease operation if they 13 are able to establish that they qualified for the sanitary retail food 14 store grant program, described in section five hundred one of this arti- 15 cle, and would otherwise be able to remedy their critical deficiencies 16 but were not awarded a grant in that calendar year due to exhaustion of 17 funds for the grant program. 18 (b) For the purposes of this subdivision, "critical deficiencies" 19 means the same as such term is defined in section five hundred one of 20 this article. 21 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after 22 it shall have become a law.