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In 1999, the Ohio General Assembly passed, and Governor Taft signed, Sub. H.B. 223, which created Chapter 3717 of the Ohio Revised Code. Chapter 3717 is known as the Retail Food Establishment and Food Service Operation Law. This law created the Retail Food Safety Advisory Council. One of the key duties of this council was to make recommendations for the Ohio Uniform Food Safety Code. Through the recommendations of this council and other public input, Chapter 3717 of the Ohio Administrative Code (actual regulations known as the Ohio Uniform Food Safety Code) became effective March 1, 2001.

This law and resulting regulations created a sweeping change in the approach to regulating retail food establishments and food service operations in Ohio. It was intended to streamline the licensing and inspection process and create one licensor and inspector (local health department) for each retail food establishment/food service operation. While this law and subsequent regulations were created with good intents, there have been some unanticipated, negative impacts.

Sub. S.B. 136 was passed by the Ohio General Assembly and signed by Governor Taft in Nov. 2001. This law will fix numerous negative impacts for farmers, beekeepers, maple syrup and sorghum processors, direct agricultural marketers and those involved in cottage food production. As of this date, we are working with the Ohio Department of Agriculture to develop rules that will become part of the Ohio Administrative Code and provide further detail on how to carry out the new laws approved in Sub. S.B. 136.

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