By:  Brown                                            S.B. No. 1304
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the control of aflatoxin; providing a criminal penalty.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 141, Agriculture Code, is
 1-4     amended by adding Section 141.007 to read as follows:
 1-5           Sec. 141.007.  AFLATOXIN CONTROL.  The service may establish
 1-6     rules requiring the use of processes, including ammoniation, for
 1-7     commercial fee, whole seed, and whole grain with aflatoxin
 1-8     contamination levels considered unsafe by the service.
 1-9           SECTION 2.  Section 141.102, Agriculture Code, is amended to
1-10     read as follows:
1-11           Sec. 141.102.  PROCEDURE FOR SAMPLING AND ANALYSIS.  The
1-12     service by rule shall prescribe the procedures for sampling and
1-13     analysis of commercial feed, including procedures designed to
1-14     determine levels of aflatoxin in whole grain, and whole seed. The
1-15     procedures must, to the extent practicable, be in accordance with
1-16     the official methods of the Association of Official Analytical
1-17     Chemists or other methods that the service determines authentic by
1-18     research and investigation.
1-19           SECTION 3.  Section 141.148(b), Agriculture Code, is amended
1-20     to read as follows:
1-21           (b)  A person commits an offense if the person offers for
1-22     retail sale whole seed or whole grain that has not been ammoniated,
 2-1     undergone another process recognized by the service to minimize
 2-2     aflatoxin, or contains aflatoxin concentrations determined by the
 2-3     service to be unsafe, for the purposes of feeding wildlife unless
 2-4     the whole seed or whole grain is labeled as containing aflatoxin
 2-5     concentrations determined by the service to be safe.
 2-6           (c)  An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor
 2-7     unless it is shown that the person has previously been convicted of
 2-8     an offense under this subchapter, in which event it is a Class B
 2-9     misdemeanor.
2-10           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-11           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.