2.1.1 Authority

These Regulations are promulgated under the authority conferred by R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 2-1-9 and 2-1-10, and are established to implement and enforce the Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (Produce Safety Rule) under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, Pub. Laws 111-353, as it pertains to commercial growers of fruits and vegetables.

2.1.2 Purpose

The purpose of These Regulations is to adopt minimum safety standards for the growing, harvesting, packing and holding of produce for human consumption with those established by the FDA pursuant to 21 C.F.R. § 112 (2016), incorporated below at § 2.2 of this Part.

2.1.3 Applicability

The terms and provisions of These Regulations shall permit the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) to effectuate the purposes of federal and state law, goals, and policies.

2.1.4 Scope

These Regulations, in accordance with R.I. Gen. Laws § 2-1-10, apply to every person who grows, harvests, packages and/or holds produce for human consumption on-farm, whether or not for profit. Inspections apply to any field, building, storehouse, warehouse, cold-storage plant, packing house, stockyard, or any other building or place on-farm where farm products are produced, kept, stored or offered for sale.

These Regulations hereby adopt and incorporate the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act Final Rule on Produce Safety 21 C.F.R. § 112 (2016) by reference, not including any further editions or amendments thereof and only to the extent that the provisions therein are not inconsistent with These Regulations.

A. For the purposes of These Regulations, the following terms shall have the following meaning:

1. "C.F.R." means the Code of Federal Regulations.

2. "DEM" means the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

3. "FDA" means the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

4. "Law" means any applicable federal, state or local statute, ordinances and regulations.

5. "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association or other legal entity.

6. “Produce" means any fruit or vegetable (including mixes of intact fruits and vegetables) and includes mushrooms, sprouts (irrespective of seed source), peanuts, tree nuts, and herbs. A fruit is the edible reproductive body of a seed plant or tree nut (such as apple, orange, and almond) such that fruit means the harvestable or harvested part of a plant developed from a flower. A vegetable is the edible part of an herbaceous plant (such as cabbage or potato) or fleshy fruiting body of a fungus (such as white button or shiitake) grown for an edible part such that vegetable means the harvestable or harvested part of any plant or fungus whose fruit, fleshy fruiting bodies, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food and includes mushrooms, sprouts, and herbs (such as basil or cilantro). Produce does not include food grains meaning the small, hard fruits or seeds of arable crops, or the crops bearing these fruits or seeds, that are primarily grown and processed for use as meal, flour, baked goods, cereals and oils rather than for direct consumption as small, hard fruits or seeds (including cereal grains, pseudo cereals, oilseeds and other plants used in the same fashion). Examples of food grains include barley, dent- or flint-corn, sorghum, oats, rice, rye, wheat, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, and oilseeds (e.g., cotton seed, flax seed, rapeseed, soybean, and sunflower seed).

7. "R.I. Gen. Laws" means the General Laws of Rhode Island, as amended.

8. "These Regulations" means all parts of the Produce Safety Rule codified as 250-RICR-40-00-2.

If any provision of These Regulations or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the provisions or application of These Regulations which can be given effect, and to this end the provisions of These Regulations are declared to be severable.