Wyoming group contests raw food rules change
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The debate over proposed Wyoming food safety rules centers on opinions about what constitutes food safety.
“People in Wyoming are concerned with food safety,” state Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse said. “Many want to buy locally.”
The problem, according to Wyoming Department of Agriculture spokesman Derek Grant, is that unregulated processing of locally produced products, such as chopped lettuce or cantaloupe, increases the chances of contamination.
One proposed rule allows farmers to sell leafy greens at a farmer’s market, for example, as long as they are not in a bag. If the greens are cut and placed in a bag, they are considered cut leafy greens and producers must meet sanitation requirements and obtain a license to sell them.
Wallis said farmers in Jackson Hole have been selling bagged greens to local restaurants at the restaurants’ request.
If the rule change is adopted, farmers will have to invest in a certified kitchen, with equipment to meet department requirements for cleaning the greens.
Grant said the proposal is intended to clarify rules already on the books.
He said the wording on the cut-leafy-greens rule comes from the federal Food and Drug Administration’s food code.
“What we’re trying to do is make it easier to sell products in the state of Wyoming,” Grant said. “I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there about what’s being changed in the rules.”
Wallis claims that the proposed rules represent major change.
She said about 700 people have signed a petition urging the department to hold a public hearing on the rule changes.
A major sore point involves raw milk.
What’s getting people upset, Grant said, is the word “solely” in the new rule to clarify that only the sole owner of a cow can serve raw milk to people in the household, employees and guests.
Grant said the practice of cow sharing, or multiple people paying to get raw milk from a single cow, has been illegal in Wyoming for decades.
“The sale of raw milk is still not legal in the state of Wyoming,” Grant said.
Wallis said there is no law or regulation that even mentions cow shares.
The department, she said, is trying to perpetuate a rule that would allow only the sole owner of a cow to use the raw milk.
Wallis said she is a cow share owner because she wants fresh milk and she can’t have a cow in her town.
If the state adopts the sole owner rule, it will be taking away her property right, Wallis said.
Wallis also took issue with a proposed rule banning the sale of local, ungraded eggs.
Grant said the rule is designed to open opportunities for people who raise chickens so they can obtain a license to sell their eggs to restaurants.
Wallis said someone who owns a flock of 50 chickens couldn’t afford to invest money in the equipment needed to clean, candle and grade eggs for sale.
Grant said people can still sign and date eggs and sell them at a farmer’s market if the rule change is adopted.
Wallis said so-called food freedom supporters are independent-minded and don’t want the government “to decide what we can eat or who we can buy it from.”
Kari Gray is Gov. Matt Mead’s chief of staff. Gray said she told Wallis she is interested in the Department of Agriculture having a public hearing on the proposed rules.
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