04/07/1998 01:35 PM Senate L&C

                                                                               
                SB 312 - FOOD/SEAFOOD/ORGANIC FOOD                             
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN LEMAN called the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee                  
meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. and announced SB 312 to be up for                
consideration.                                                                 
                                                                               
SENATOR GARY WILKEN, sponsor, said this bill consolidates existing             
statutory requirements for food production and services that are               
currently scattered throughout Title 3 and 17 under the Food, Drug,            
and Cosmetic Act (Title 17).  It helped provide greater access to              
laws of Alaska by those who are most directly affected.                        
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked if it was correct that this was just shifting             
statutes and there is nothing new added.                                       
                                                                               
MS. BETH HAGEVIG, Staff to Senator Wilken, said that is correct.               
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN LEMAN said the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI)              
had some initial concerns about the inspection seal, but this                  
wouldn't require them to do any more than what's in current law.               
                                                                               
MS. HAGEVIG said that is right and it just shifts it from Title 3              
to Title 17.                                                                   
                                                                               
SENATOR HOFFMAN asked where it repeals the obsolete statute related            
to rabies.                                                                     
                                                                               
Number 105                                                                     
                                                                               
MS. JANICE ADAIR, Director, Division of Environmental Health, said             
rabies was repealed in Section 26.  She said in most cases, except             
for the Kenai Peninsula, local governments have adopted animal                 
control powers where they deal with that type of activity.  Kenai              
and Soldotna have done it as cities, but the Borough has not, but              
they are working cooperatively with one another to deal with                   
potentially rabid animals.                                                     
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked what happens in the unorganized areas of the              
State.                                                                         
                                                                               
MS. ADAIR answered that the village public safety officers and the             
public health nurses work jointly on those issues.  DEC doesn't                
have anyone out there.  She said there is a process they go through            
and the Department of Health and Social Services has a laboratory              
in Fairbanks where they do the testing on the animal to see if it              
is, in fact, rabid.                                                            
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked to make sure that this was just shifting                  
things from one title to another and not creating any new                      
inspections or labeling that doesn't already exist in statute.                 
                                                                               
MS. ADAIR said that was correct.                                               
                                                                               
SENATOR MACKIE moved to pass SB 312 from Committee with individual             
recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.