BILL REQ. #:  H-3908.1 

Read first time 01/11/2006.   Referred to Committee on Economic Development, Agriculture & Trade.

     AN ACT Relating to ensuring the safety of milk; amending RCW 15.36.012; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the existing definition of "sale," as provided in chapter 15.36 RCW, includes arrangements, known as "cow shares," in which one or more individuals purchase one or more shares in a milk-producing animal in return for a portion of the milk that is produced. It is the intent of the legislature to clarify that the existing definition of "sale" includes these arrangements.

Sec. 2   RCW 15.36.012 and 1999 c 291 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((For the purpose of this chapter:)) The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Adulterated milk" means milk that is deemed adulterated under appendix L of the PMO.
     (2) "Colostrum milk" means milk produced within ten days before or until practically colostrum free after parturition.
     (3) "Cow share agreement" means an arrangement in which one or more individuals purchase one or more shares of a cow, goat, sheep, or other mammal in return for a portion of the milk produced by the animal.
     (4) "DMO" means supplement I, the recommended sanitation ordinance for grade A condensed and dry milk products and condensed and dry whey, to the PMO published by the United States public health service, food and drug administration.
     (5) "Dairy farm" means a place or premises where one or more cows, goats, or other mammals are kept, a part or all of the milk or milk products from which is sold or offered for sale to a milk processing plant, transfer station, or receiving station.
     (6) "Dairy technician" means any person who takes samples of milk or cream or fluid derivatives thereof, on which sample tests are to be made as a basis of payment, or who grades, weighs, or measures milk or cream or the fluid derivatives thereof, the grade, weight, or measure to be used as a basis of payment, or who operates equipment wherein milk or products thereof are pasteurized.
     (7) "Degrade" means the lowering in grade from grade A to grade C.
     (8) "Department" means the state department of agriculture.
     (9) "Director" means the director of agriculture of the state of Washington or the director's duly authorized representative.
     (10) "Grade A milk processing plant" means any milk processing plant that meets all of the standards of the PMO to process grade A pasteurized milk or milk products.
     (11) "Grade A pasteurized milk" means grade A raw milk that has been pasteurized.
     (12) "Grade A raw milk" means raw milk produced upon dairy farms conforming with all of the items of sanitation contained in the PMO, in which the bacterial plate count does not exceed twenty thousand per milliliter and the coliform count does not exceed ten per milliliter as determined in accordance with RCW 15.36.201.
     (13) "Grade A raw milk for pasteurization" means raw milk produced upon dairy farms conforming with all of the same items of sanitation contained in the PMO of grade A raw milk, and the bacterial plate count, as delivered from the farm, does not exceed eighty thousand per milliliter as determined in accordance with RCW 15.36.201.
     (14) "Grade C milk" is milk that violates any of the requirements for grade A milk but that is not deemed to be adulterated.
     (15) "Milk" means the lacteal secretion, practically free of colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows, goats, or other mammals.
     (16) "Milk hauler" means a person who transports milk or milk products in bulk to or from a milk processing plant, receiving station, or transfer station.
     (17) "Milk processing" means the handling, preparing, packaging, or processing of milk in any manner in preparation for sale as food, as defined in chapter 69.04 RCW. Milk processing does not include milking or producing milk on a dairy farm that is shipped to a milk processing plant for further processing.
     (18) "Milk processing plant" means a place, premises, or establishment where milk or milk products are collected, handled, processed, stored, bottled, pasteurized, aseptically processed, bottled, or prepared for distribution, except an establishment that merely receives the processed milk products and serves them or sells them at retail.
     (19) "Milk products" means the product of a milk manufacturing process.
     (20) "Misbranded milk" means milk or milk products that carries a grade label unless such grade label has been awarded by the director and not revoked, or that fails to conform in any other respect with the statements on the label.
     (21) "Official laboratory" means a biological, chemical, or physical laboratory that is under the direct supervision of the state or a local regulatory agency.
     (22) "Officially designated laboratory" means a commercial laboratory authorized to do official work by the department, or a milk industry laboratory officially designated by the department for the examination of grade A raw milk for pasteurization and commingled milk tank truck samples of raw milk for antibiotic residues and bacterial limits.
     (23) "PMO" means the grade "A" pasteurized milk ordinance published by the United States public health service, food and drug administration.
     (24) "Pasteurized" means the process of heating every particle of milk or milk product in properly designed and operated equipment to the temperature and time standards specified in the PMO.
     (25) "Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, company, trustee, or association.
     (26) "Producer" means a person or organization who operates a dairy farm and provides, sells, or offers milk for sale to a milk processing plant, receiving station, or transfer station.
     (27) "Receiving station" means a place, premises, or establishment where raw milk is received, collected, handled, stored, or cooled and prepared for further transporting.
     (28) "Sale" means selling, offering for sale, holding for sale, preparing for sale, trading, bartering, offering a gift as an inducement for sale of, a cow share agreement, and advertising for sale in any media.
     (29) "Transfer station" means any place, premises, or establishment where milk or milk products are transferred directly from one milk tank truck to another.
     (30) "Wash station" means a place, facility, or establishment where milk tanker trucks are cleaned in accordance with the standards of the PMO.