Summary — HB 6128 (Food Law Amendments)
Status & Timeline
- Introduced: Nov. 14, 2024 (Reps. Dievendorf & Paiz).
- Passed House: Dec. 13, 2024 (immediate effect).
- Referred to Committee on Government Operations: Dec. 18, 2024.
- Incorporated into HB 5605: Mar. 18, 2025.
- Primary statutory citations amended: MCL 289.3103 et seq.; repeals MCL 289.5109 and 289.7103.
Purpose
- To amend Michigan’s Food Law mainly by moving smoked‑fish administrative rule requirements into statutory law and to make a small number of related clarifying changes to foodborne‑illness investigation procedures and other statutory cross‑references.
Key provisions and changes
- Smoked‑fish processors: The bill incorporates smoked fish requirements into statute (see amended sec. 7105 and related sections). Major elements include:
- Required use of temperature‑indicating and temperature‑recording devices placed and sited to measure warmest/coldest relevant points.
- Calibration and accuracy‑check requirements at installation and at least annually (more often if manufacturer indicates), with maintenance of accuracy‑check records (time/date, standard/method, readings before correction, corrective actions, and operator name).
- Immediate repair/replace requirement if a device cannot be calibrated.
- Processing, handling, storage, preparation and transport temperature requirement of at or below 3.3°C (38°F).
- Requirement that fresh fish be inspected and washed with potable water (full text truncated in source).
- Conformance option: processors that demonstrate compliance with federal seafood regulation (21 C.F.R. part 123) may be exempt from the state smoked‑fish rule requirement.
- Foodborne illness outbreak definition: Amends the statutory definition so that an outbreak may be declared when “two or more persons” (language removes the requirement that the persons be from different households) consumed a common food and have similar illness/symptoms or excrete the same pathogen. Single cases of certain severe illnesses (e.g., botulism) remain reportable.
- Investigation procedures: Updates the reference for outbreak‑investigation procedures to the 6th edition of "Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness" (International Association for Food Protection) (previously the 5th edition).
- Reporting & evaluation process: Clarifies requirements for local health department evaluation reports (form, signature, furnishing a copy to the person in charge) and communications systems for outbreak response.
- Repeals: Repeals MCL 289.5109 and 289.7103 (statutory repeals specified in the bill).
Who is affected
- Fish processors and fish‑smoking establishments (newly codified procedural, equipment, calibration, recordkeeping and temperature control requirements).
- Local health departments and MDARD (investigation and reporting procedural changes).
- Food safety inspectors and businesses involved in outbreak investigations.
- Consumers indirectly benefit from tightened statutory controls on smoked fish handling and clearer outbreak investigation standards.
Potential impacts
- Codifies existing administrative smoked‑fish rules into statute, increasing legal permanence of those requirements.
- May increase compliance and recordkeeping burden for small smoked‑fish processors (device calibration, accuracy logs).
- Clarifies the outbreak threshold, potentially increasing the number of incidents that qualify as outbreaks (by removing the “different household” limitation), and modernizes investigative guidance by referencing a newer edition of investigation procedures.
- Repeal of two statutory sections may remove outdated provisions (would require reviewing the repealed sections to assess specific effects).
For full text and section‑level details, see the bill as passed by the House (HB‑6128) and the amended Michigan Compiled Laws references in the bill.
