42653. (a) The secretary, through the chief of the branch of the department that has jurisdiction over the enforcement of this division, or any deputy, inspector, or agent of the department, may enforce and make inspections of grade, standard of quality, and other provisions of any raw unprocessed fruit, nut, or vegetable marketing, food safety, or enforcement program that is adopted under the authority of the United States or of this state.
(b) (1) All proprietary information obtained for the purposes of the produce safety program, regardless of the source of that information, is confidential and shall not be disclosed except when required by court order in a judicial proceeding.
(2) The information that is contained in individual reports of produce safety program inspections shall not be made public by the secretary in that form, but the information that is contained in those reports may be prepared in combined form for use by the secretary, the agents of the secretary, or other interested persons in the formulation, administration, and enforcement of the produce safety rule, or may be made available pursuant to court order. The information shall not be made available to anyone for private purposes.
(3) All proprietary information obtained pursuant to the produce safety program by the secretary from any source, including, but not limited to, the names and addresses of farmers, growers, producers, handlers, or cooler operators, as well as data collected during inspections or investigations conducted under the produce safety rule, shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except when required by court order in a judicial proceeding. In addition, sales data and noncompliance observations obtained during a produce safety program inspection shall not be disclosed except when required by court order in a judicial proceeding.
(4) Information on crops or any other related information that is required for reports and inventory information, and any other information that gives only totals, but excludes individual information, may be disclosed.
(5) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(A) “Produce safety program” means the unit operating in the department’s inspection services division responsible for implementing the produce safety rule.
(B) “Produce safety rule” means Part 112 (commencing with Section 112.1) of Subchapter B of Chapter I of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 254, Sec. 4. (AB 1959) Effective January 1, 2023.)