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  • From: Allan Balliett <allan.balliett AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Health Department
  • Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:21:07 -0400

Hattie - Another market has come and gone. Turns out that my WV county has 'home rule,' which means the health department can set its own rules, as long as they are at least as stringent as the USDA/WV state rules. My county, for some reason, has gone overboard and are not, currently, very interested in being realistic.

They choose to believe the meats, eggs and dairy products must be kept in POWERED cooling units, that ice is not sufficient.

The county next door allows ice in coolers for eggs and cheese and frozen meats are obviously frozen meats but our county wants everything to be plugged in.

Not sure where we go from here but last weekend we didn't sell cheese. I really don't want to give up selling our wonderful meats, but it looks like that may happen.

Thanks for digging into the regs.

thanks to everyone for their ideas on this issue.

-Allan in WV

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 7:57 PM, Harriet Allen <hattie_allen AT yahoo.com> wrote:
Refrigeration is just the process of cooling.  It is not specific to method.  Back in the day, home refrigerators were cooled with ICE.  Today, fish are cooled and held under "refrigeration" with ICE.  A cooler with ICE is refrigeration.  The West Virginia regulations (and I have just read them) specify that the intention is to comply with Federal Regulations (that would be the 45 degrees).  West Virginia added the term "refrigeration" to their rendition of the regulation, but a cooler with ice is a method of refrigeration as long as the air in the cooler stays cold enough.  I'm sure that inspectors often do not understand that coolers with ice do comply with the actual regulations.  Sounds like someone needs to clarify this.  (my two cents)

I do agree that market management must be up to snuff with these issues and have a good working relationship with the Dept. of Agriculture and other regulatory bodies in the state so that farmers markets can be supported by the state and not hampered.  This is local business and local business is good for the local economy and the state.

Hattie
Hattie's Garden
Lewes, DE



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