Revised
April 13, 2021 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 18, 2021 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bauer-Kahan, Cooper, Cristina Garcia, Grayson, and Villapudua) (Coauthors: Senators Dodd, Eggman, Hurtado, Jones, and Wiener) |
February 10, 2021 |
This bill would make it unlawful and subject to imprisonment, fine, or both, as specified, to make any false representation in a brand name, label, advertising matter, packaging material, letterhead, invoice, tag, sign, business card, or other oral, written, or printed matter that an olive oil is produced entirely from olives grown within California, including using the terms “California olive oil,” “California olives,” or substantially similar representations. The bill would apply a similar prohibition on representations that an olive oil was produced from
olives from a specific region of California unless at least 85% of the olive oil, by weight, was produced from olives grown in that specific region. The bill would authorize the Department of Food and Agriculture to seize olive oil labeled in violation of these prohibitions and to dispose of the olive oil.
(a)It is unlawful to make any representation that an olive oil is produced entirely from olives grown within California unless the representation is true.
(b)It is unlawful to label any olive oil with a representation that all the olives used to produce the olive oil were grown in California, including the terms “California olive oil,” “California olives,” or something substantially similar, unless all the olives used to produce the olive oil were grown in California.
(c)It is unlawful to label any olive oil with a label indicating or representing that the olives used to produce the olive oil were grown in a specific region of California, or to make a representation to that
effect, unless at least 85 percent of the olive oil, by weight, was produced from olives grown in that specific region.
(d)This section applies to representations made in a brand name, label, advertising matter, packaging material, letterhead, invoice, tag, sign, business card, and other oral, written, or printed representation of any kind.
(e)The department may seize olive oil labeled in violation of this section, regardless of where found, and may dispose of the olive oil.
(f)This section does not prohibit an olive oil producer or processor from using a truthful, nonmisleading statement or representation regarding the geographic origin of the olives used in the production of the olive oil in any label, packaging material, or advertising if the label, packaging material, or advertising contains no representation
that is prohibited by this section.
(g)Any person violating any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by both.
(c)If any olive oil is produced, processed, sold, offered for sale, given away, or possessed in California, that indicates on its label “California Olive Oil,” or uses words of similar import that indicate that California is the source of the oil, 100
percent of that oil shall be derived from olives grown in California.
(d)Olive oil produced, processed, sold, offered for sale, given away, or possessed in California, that indicates on its label that it is from a specific region of California shall be made of oil at least 85 percent of which, by weight, is derived from olives grown in the specified region.