Rhode Island Code of Regulations
Title 216 - Department of health
Chapter 50 - Environmental health
Subchapter 10 - Food Protection
Part 1 - Rhode Island Food Code
Section 216-RICR-50-10-1.3 - Definitions

1. "Approved" means approved by the Director or his or her duly appointed agents.

2. "Approved source" means that the food is purchased from commercial supplies, including cottage food manufacturers, under regulatory control that has been deemed acceptable by RIDOH based on a determination of conformity with principles, practice and generally recognized standards that protect public health.

3. "Bed and breakfast" means an owner-occupied residence providing accommodations for a charge to the public in operation for more than ten (10) nights in a twelve (12) month period. Breakfast may be only provided to guests. The total number of visitors shall not exceed twelve (12), including the owner and any other individuals living or eating on the premises. Bed and breakfast establishments shall not include motels, hotels or boarding houses.

4. "Center" means the Center for Food Protection, RIDOH.

5. "Code" means the FDA Food Code (2017).

6. "Commissary" means an operating base location to which a mobile food establishment or transportation vehicle returns regularly for such things as food preparation, food storage, vehicle and equipment cleaning, discharging liquid or solid wastes, refilling water tanks and ice bins.

7. "Cottage food manufacture" means the production in accordance with the requirements of R.I. Gen. Laws § 21-27-6.2 of allowable foods for retail sale directly to the consumer in a residential kitchen or a rented commercial kitchen licensed by RIDOH.

8. "Director" refers to the Director of RIDOH or the Director's duly appointed agents.

9. "Employee" means any person who works with or without pay in a food establishment.

10. "Farm home food manufacture" means the production in accordance with the requirements of R.I. Gen. Laws § 21-27-6.1 of food for retail sale in a residential kitchen on a farm which produces agricultural products for human consumption and the operator of which is eligible for exemptions from the sales and use tax in accordance with R.I. Gen. Laws §44-1830(32).

11. "Farmer's market" means a market where two (2) or more farmers are selling produce exclusively grown on their own farms on a retail basis to consumers. Excluded from this term is any market where farmers or others are selling produce at wholesale and/or any market in which any individual is selling produce not grown on his or her own farm.

12. "Food" means:

13. "Food business" means and includes any establishment or place, whether fixed or mobile, where food or ice is held, processed, manufactured, packaged, prepared, displayed, served, transported or sold.

14. "Food service establishment" means any fixed or mobile restaurant, coffee shop, cafeteria, short-order caf & Atilde; ,luncheonette, grill, tearoom, sandwich shop, soda fountain, tavern, bar, cocktail lounge, nightclub, roadside stand, industrial feeding establishment, cultural heritage education facility, private, public or non-profit organization or institution routinely serving food, catering kitchen, commissary or similar place in which food or drink is prepared for sale or for service on the premise or elsewhere, and any other eating or drinking establishment or operation where food is served or provided for the public with or without charge.

15. "Full-time equivalent" means forty (40) hours a week.

16. "Good hygiene practices" means proper handwashing and personal cleanliness as specified under §§2-3 and 2-4 of the Code.

17. "Hazard analysis critical control point" or "HACCP" means a written document that delineates the formal procedures for following HACCP principles developed by the National Advisory Committee on microbiological criteria for foods.

18. "Highly susceptible population" means persons who are more likely than other people in the general population to experience foodborne disease because they are:

19. "Itinerant vendor" means a food vending business serving food or drink from any establishment or conveyance without food locations and without connection to water supply and sewage disposal systems.

20. "Manager certified in food safety" means a person certified in this State in accordance with the requirements in R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 21-27.

21. "Mobile food establishment" or "MFE" means a food service operation that is operated from a movable motor driven or propelled vehicle, portable structure, or watercraft that can change location.

22. "Mobile food service unit" means a unit that prepares and/or sells food products for direct consumption.

23. "Operator" in relation to food vending machines means any person who by contract, agreement, lease, rental or ownership sells food from vending machines.

24. "Person" means any individual, firm, co-partnership, association, or private or municipal corporation.

25. "Person in charge" means the individual present at a food establishment who is responsible for the operation at the time of inspection.

26. "Permanent food establishment" or "PFE" means a licensed food establishment operating in a permanently constructed structure. This does not include a temporarily food establishment or mobile food establishment.

27. "Processor" means one who combines, handles, manufactures or prepares, packages and stores food products.

28. "Retail peddler" means a food business which sells meat, seafood, and dairy products directly to the consumer, house to house or in a neighborhood.

29. "RIDOH" means the Rhode Island Department of Health.

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

31. "Roadside farm stand" means a stand or location adjacent to a farm where produce grown only on that farm is sold at the time of harvest.

32. "Special event" means a temporary event, or transitory public gathering that takes place at a given location for a specific purpose, including, but not limited to, a fair, festival, exposition, show, concert or other similar activity that does not recur on a regularly scheduled basis within a year and is conducted wholly on public property or partly on public property. The event has a defined start and stop date, with the given event not exceeding fourteen (14) consecutive days.

33. "Special event sponsor" means the person, group, association, organization, corporation or governmental agency sponsoring or promoting and coordinating a special event.

34. "Temporary food establishment" means a food establishment that operates for a period of no more than fourteen (14) consecutive days in conjunction with a single event or celebration.

35. "Time temperature control for safety food" or "TCS" means any food or food ingredient, natural or synthetic, in a form capable of supporting pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation.

36. "Vending machine site or location" means the room, enclosure, space or area where one (1) or more vending machines are installed and/or operated.

37. "Warehouse" means a place for the storage of dried, fresh or frozen food or food products, not including those areas associated within or directly part of a food establishment or retail market.