Chap. 535.—An ACT to provide for the protection of the public health and to
this end to regulate certain establishments serving food; to require certain
standards to be kept as to sanitary conditions therein, to provide for the
enforcement of the act, the issuance and revocation of certain permits and
appeals therefrom; and to prohibit certain acts and provide penalties. [S 141]

Approved April 6, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. Section 1. For the purpose of this act the following terms
shall have the meaning respectively indicated unless another meaning
is clearly intended or required by the context:

(1)—“Restaurant” includes restaurant, coffee shop, cafeteria, short
order cafe, luncheonette, hotel dining room, tavern, sandwich shop,
soda fountain, and all other public eating and drinking establishments
by whatever name called, including the dining accommodations of
clubs, all State institutions, and schools and colleges both public and pri-
vate; provided, however, this act shall not bé construed to include facil-
ities of public service corporations under the jurisdiction of the State
Corporation Commission ;

(2)—“Employee”’ includes any person who handles food or drink
during preparation or serving, or who comes in contact with any eating
or cooking utensils, or who is employed at any time in a room in which
food or drink is stored, prepared or served ;

(3)—“Eating, drinking and cooking utensils” or “utensils” includes
any kitchenware, tableware, cutlery, containers, or other equipment
with which food or drink comes in contact during storage, preparation
or serving ;

(4)—“Commissioner” includes the chief executive officer of the
State Board of Health and his duly authorized agents ;

(5)—“Unwholesome food” includes any food or drink not fit for
human consumption ;

(6)—‘‘Board” means the State Board of Health.

Section 2. On and after January one, nineteen hundred forty-nine
it shall be unlawful for any person to operate a restaurant in this State
without an unrevoked permit from the Commissioner which permit shall
be prominently displayed in the restaurant operated. State institutions,
however, shall not be required to secure a permit or post such a permit.

Section 3. Samples of food and drink may be taken and examined
by the Commissioner as often as he deems necessary for the detection
of unwholesomeness. The Commissioner may condemn, remove and
destroy any food or drink which he deems unsafe for human consump-
tion.

Section 4. The Board shall enforce the provisions of this act. In
order to protect the public health, the Board is authorized to make all
necessary rules and regulations governing sanitary conditions in and
about, and food in, restaurants subject to this act and to provide for the
inspection thereof and the issuance and revocation of permits. The
Commissioner is authorized to provide for the posting of sanitary ratings
and grades of such restaurants. The Commissioner shall designate such
assistants and restaurant inspectors as may be required, and inspections
shall be made as frequently as deemed necessary by him. One copy of
the inspection report shall be retained by the establishment and another
copy shall be filed with the records of the State Health Department.
The Commissioner may accept the certificate of inspection of any city as
to any restaurant therein and issue a permit thereon without requirement
of inspection under this act.

Nothing contained in this act, however, shall in any way limit the
power of any city to prescribe by ordinance for the regulation of sanitary
conditions in restaurants located therein.

Section 5. The Commissioner and his assistants shall have police
power to enter any restaurant at reasonable hours to determine whether
the provisions of this act and the rules and regulations promulgated
hereunder are being complied with.

Section 6. The Commissioner and any of his agents, acting under
his direction, may close any restaurant if the owner, manager, or operator
thereof has been guilty of flagrant or continued violation of this act
or of rules and regulations of the Board governing the operations of
restaurants; in event of such violation, it shall be his duty to take such
action. The sheriff or sergeant of such county or city shall enforce such
closure until the closing order is revoked in writing.

Section 7. Every restaurant, including all facilities, furnishings and
equipment, shall be maintained in a clean and orderly manner; shall
be provided with an approved method of sewage disposal and an ade-
quate number of handwashing facilities and toilets for the accommoda-
tions of patrons and employees; shall be provided with an adequate, pro-
perly located, constructed and operated water supply of a safe, sanitary
quality ; the premises shall be maintained in a clean and orderly manner,
and effective rodent, insect and vermin control shall be maintained. Pro-
vided that establishments serving only beverages, ice cream and short
orders shall not be required to provide handwashing and toilet facilities
for their patrons, but this exception shall not apply to places serving beer
for on-premises consumption.
Section 8. Adequate facilities, including hot and cold running water,
shall be provided for cleansing and for etficient washing and rinsing
of all eating and drinking utensils. All eating and drinking utensils shall
be immersed in water heated to and maintained at one hundred seventy
degrees Fahrenheit for at least two minutes, or any other method
approved by the State Health Commissioner for effective bactericidal
treatment. Washing, rinsing and sterilization of dishes and other eating
and drinking utensils shall be construed to be three separate and distinct
operations, requiring for the manual process a minimum of a stationary
three-compartment standard sink with adequate approved drain boards
and adequate standard dish baskets. All foods shall be effectively pro-
tected from contamination. Adequate refrigeration shall be provided for
all perishable foods, and all such establishments shall be adequately
lighted and ventilated.

Section 9. This act shall not apply to boarding houses that do not
accomodate transient guests or to cafeterias operated by industrial plants
for employees only.

Section 10. Notice shall be sent to the Commissioner, or to his
nearest agent, immediately by the owner or manager of the restaurant,
or by the employee concerned, if the manager or any employee or any
member of his or her respective household contracts any infectious, con-
tagious or communicable disease, or has a fever, a skin lesion or erup-
tion, a cough lasting more than three weeks, or any other suspicious
symptom. It shall be the duty of any such employee to notify the owner
or manager of the restaurant immediately when any of such conditions
exist, and if neither the manager nor the employee concerned notifies
the Commissioner immediately when any of such conditions occur, they
shall be held jointly and severally to have violated this act.

Section 11. When the Commissioner has reason to believe the
possibility of transmission of infection from restaurant employee to the
public exists the Commissioner is authorized to require any or all of
the following measures: (1) the immediate exclusion of the employee
from all restaurants; (2) the immediate closing of the restaurant con-
cerned until no further danger of disease outbreak exists, in the opinion
of the Commissioner; (3) adequate medical examinations of the em-
ployee and of his associates, with such laboratory examinations as may
be indicated.

Section 12. Any person who violates any provision of this act
or rule or regulation promulgated hereunder shall be fined not less than
ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. Each and every day's
continued violation of any provision of this act shall constitute a separate
offense.

Section 13. Any person aggrieved by the refusal to grant, or
revocation of, a permit, or by any rule or regulation of the Board or
Commissioner shall have the right of appeal therefrom to the judge of the
circuit court of the county or corporation court of the city wherein the
restaurant affected is located.
Section 14. Should any section, paragraph, clause or phrase of
this act be declared unconstitutional or invalid for any reason, the
remainder of the act shall not be affected thereby.