Food Processors Win Reprieve for Local Inspectors

Imagine a group of business owners turning down a chance to get government inspectors out of their hair, and instead lobbying to keep the inspections.

That unlikely scenario had startled Sacramento legislators doing double takes last week before modifying a statewide food inspection bill to exempt Southern California from proposed changes.

The amended bill, if it sails through the Legislature as expected, will represent the first political victory for a fledgling food-processing group here, the Food Industry Business Roundtable.

“FIBR saved the inspection programs by telling them we were concerned,” said Yvette Nunez of the nonprofit Community Development Technologies Center, which provides staff support to FIBR. Sacramento politicians “were very surprised. They thought, if we do less inspections, why wouldn’t they want it?

“But our concern was about illegal manufacturing and quality,” Nunez said. “Once manufacturers know they’re not going to get inspected, would they get sloppy? We worried about the reputation of Southern California.”

About 40% of food processors in the state are in Southern California. Many are smaller companies that prepare ethnic foods such as tortillas, menudo, noodles and wontons. Northern California is dominated by giant companies that do a lot of canning, including Campbell, Dole and Del Monte.

Food inspections also are handled differently depending on the process used. Most Northern California companies get routine visits from state officials who keep a watch on the heat-treated canning processes, whereas Southern California companies for the most part rely on local health departments that watch over non-canning food preparation and packaging.

For the California League of Food Processors, the industry group up north, state and local inspections seemed to be a duplication of effort. Food processing companies would be better served, they thought, if the state handled all inspections. Under Assembly Bill 1548, they proposed raising food-inspection fees to hire more state inspectors to visit processing plants, knowing that, even with the new hires, the number of plant visits would decrease.

The bill sailed through the state Assembly and looked like a slam-dunk. As a courtesy, the league sent a copy of the bill to FIBR, expecting that food manufacturers here would be pleased by the prospect of fewer inspections. But FIBR raised objections, said Henry Leong, owner of Quan Yuk Noodle Co., who chairs the group’s legislative committee.

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First, many Southern California companies have been paying state fees for years, yet rarely see a state food inspector, whereas local health inspectors visit at least twice a year. FIBR members were concerned that fees would go up but there would be no increase in service, Leong said.

Second, FIBR members were concerned about food safety. Without local inspections, they feared that so-called “bandit food manufacturers” would gain a bigger foothold. Already, bandit manufacturers pose some problems here, Leong said.

Some of them process cheese in their homes and sell the uninspected product directly to local restaurants, raising contamination fears. Others cook dumplings or other Asian foods in their homes, which turn up in plastic bags on supermarket shelves, unlabeled and uninspected. Sometimes, meats or other goods are transported to restaurants and markets by processors who fail to use refrigerated trucks.

Licensed food manufacturers rely on local officials to police the bandits and feared that state inspectors would be hard-pressed to do the job, Leong said.

Finally, FIBR has over the three years of its existence worked hard to establish good relationships with local food inspectors and didn’t want to see its hard work dumped along with the local inspectors.

“All of us felt that the food processing standards would be compromised if it were only left up to state inspectors,” Leong said.

So, AB 1548 was modified to say Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and the city of Vernon can continue to use local health inspectors. In addition, the proposed increase in state fees would be lower here.

Gina Harpur, FIBR president and the general manager of Juanita’s Foods, says the first-time exercise of FIBR’s political clout was exhilarating for the group, most of whose 40 members are small companies with 50 or fewer employees. FIBR arose out of organizing work undertaken by the former Rebuild LA after the 1992 riots and began with six companies, including Juanita’s.

“There have been tons of benefits,” Harpur said of the opportunities created by FIBR for local food manufacturers. They include connections with county and federal officials, a trade mission to China with Los Angeles city officials, development of leadership skills and ongoing education on processing, marketing, Web sites and the Y2K computer problem.

“This whole process has been real enlightening for us,” Harpur said. “We’ve made connections we never had before.”

FIBR can be reached at (213) 763-2520, Ext. 227, or via the Web at https://www.fibr.com.

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Times staff writer Vicki Torres can be reached at (213) 237-6553 or at vicki.torres@latimes.com.