HOMEMADE FOOD; REDUCED OXYGEN PACKAGING

Plain English Breakdown

The bill text lists several prohibited items (meat, seafood, game meat) alongside the new restriction on reduced oxygen packaging; it is unclear if 'potentially hazardous homemade food' includes these other categories or stands alone.

SB226: Rules on Selling Homemade Food and Reduced Oxygen Packaging

This bill updates Alaska law to ban selling potentially hazardous homemade food in reduced oxygen packaging while listing where other homemade foods can be sold.

What This Bill Does

• Adds a rule that bans the sale of potentially hazardous homemade food packaged with reduced oxygen.
• Defines 'reduced oxygen packaging' as removing oxygen from containers to maintain product quality or promote a vacuum seal.
• Lists specific places where producers may sell homemade food, such as farmers' markets, agricultural fairs, farms, ranches, the producer's home or office, third-party retail locations, or agreed-upon spots between buyer and seller.
• Confirms that sales must happen within Alaska and cannot involve interstate commerce.

Who It Names or Affects

• Producers who make and sell homemade food in Alaska
• Buyers purchasing homemade items at local events or from producers

Terms To Know

Reduced oxygen packaging

Packaging where oxygen is removed to maintain product quality or promote a vacuum seal.

Potentially hazardous homemade food in reduced oxygen packaging

Homemade foods that are considered potentially hazardous and packaged with reduced oxygen, which the bill prohibits from being sold.

Limits and Unknowns

• The text does not define what specific items count as 'potentially hazardous homemade food' other than listing meat, seafood, game meat, rendered animal fat oil, and controlled substances separately.
• The official material provided does not state when this law will officially take effect.

Official Summary Text

HOMEMADE FOOD; REDUCED OXYGEN PACKAGING
An Act relating to the sale of homemade food.

Current Bill Text

SB0226A -1- SB 226
New Text Underlined [DELETED TEXT BRACKETED]

34-LS1338\A

SENATE BILL NO. 226

IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA

THIRTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE - SECOND SESSION

BY SENATOR GIESSEL

Introduced: 1/26/26
Referred: Labor and Commerce, Resources

A BILL

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED

"An Act relating to the sale of homemade food." 1
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 2
* Section 1. AS 17.20.332(b) is amended to read: 3
(b) The sale of a homemade food under this section 4
(1) is only for personal consumption; 5
(2) must occur in the state at a farmers' market, an agricultural fair, a 6
farm, a ranch, the producer's home or office, the retail location of a third-party seller, 7
or a location agreed on between the producer and the buyer; and 8
(3) may not involve 9
(A) interstate commerce; or 10
(B) the purchase or sale of 11
(i) meat or meat products, except as provided in (h) of 12
this section; 13
(ii) seafood; 14
(iii) a controlled substance; 15
34-LS1338\A
SB 226 -2- SB0226A
New Text Underlined [DELETED TEXT BRACKETED]

(iv) oil rendered from animal fat; [OR] 1
(v) game meat; or 2
(vi) potentially hazardous homemade food in 3
reduced oxygen packaging. 4
* Sec. 2. AS 17.20.338 is amended by adding a new paragraph to read: 5
(13) "reduced oxygen packaging" means packaging for a homemade 6
food product from which oxygen has been removed to maintain product quality or to 7
promote a vacuum seal. 8