58596.3. (a) A public institution that receives federal meal reimbursement funding to provide prepared meals and that solicits bids for the purchase of an agricultural food product shall include in their solicitation for bids and contracts that only the purchase of agricultural food products grown, packed, or processed domestically is authorized, unless any of the following applies:
(1) The bid or price of the nondomestic agricultural food product is more than 25 percent lower than the bid or price of the domestic agricultural food product.
(2) The quality of the domestic agricultural food product is inferior to the quality of the agricultural food product grown, packed, or produced nondomestically.
(3) The agricultural food product is not produced or manufactured domestically in sufficient and reasonably available quantities of a satisfactory quality to meet the needs of the public institution.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to any of the following:
(1) The Child and Adult Care Food Program.
(2) The Summer Food Service Program.
(3) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
(c) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to agricultural food products purchased by or provided to a public institution through the United States Department of Agriculture.
(d) (1) A public institution subject to this section shall retain documentation relating to bids or contracts for, and for the purchase of, agricultural food products for three years from the date of purchase.
(2) The documentation required to be retained pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be made available to the public upon request during the applicable three-year period. The requirement of this paragraph may be satisfied by providing documentation that may include, but is not limited to, vendor invoices or contract specifications requiring that vendors meet the requirements of this section.
(e) If a vendor substitutes an agricultural food product without notice or because a product is not available, the public institution shall not be in violation of this section.
(f) This section shall neither limit nor expand California’s obligations under the Agreement on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organization.
(g) Local educational agencies with an annual federal meal reimbursement of less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) are exempt from this section.
(h) (1) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2024.
(2) If an existing contract is in place between a public institution and a food supplier on January 1, 2024, this section shall apply to that public institution upon the next successive contract.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 602, Sec. 2. (SB 490) Effective January 1, 2023. Operative January 1, 2024, by its own provisions. Repealed as of January 1, 2029, pursuant to Section 58596.5.)