Legal News

OK, Granny, Put the Pie Down Very Slowly and Nobody Will Get Hurt

By Jennifer Forsyth

Is this the picture of a criminal gang? The apple dumpling gang, perhaps?

We apologize in advance for the cliche, but church socials are about as American as, well, apple pie. But in Pennsylvania, the tradition of bringing home-baked pies to be sold by the slice to raise money for the church is technically a no-no. According to this page-one story in today’s WSJ, the state’s food-safety code requires facilities that provide food at four or more events a year to have a license and the food must be prepared in a state-inspected kitchen.Thus, a state inspector ruled that 69-year-old Josie Reed’s famous pumpkin pies were illegal and ineligible for this year’s Lenten fish fries in Rochester, Pa.

Reed and her fellow pie-preparing parishioners at St. Cecilia Catholic Church weren’t fined and were told that the state would allow them to bake pies for sale in their own kitchens if they paid $35 to have them inspected, but “well, that’s just ridiculous,” says 73-year-old Louise Humbert, who specializes in raisin pie.

(Here’s a link to the Pennsylvania food code, the law governing food safety. Section 46.212 (page 31) deals specifically with food prepared in private homes.)

After a local paper decried the heavy hand of government, dubbing it “piegate,” lawmakers jumped in. State Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. has drafted legislation aimed at allowing non-profits, including churches, to serve food prepared at home.

Here at the LB, we pride ourselves on our thoughtfulness and wit, but we decided we can’t top the quips of WSJ readers who responded to the story on the website. Here are some of their comments:

• Where can I apply for the job of telling little old ladies they can’t sell their pies at church functions? Oh, also I’d like to moonlight as the guy who revokes wheelchairs from those who lose their medical insurance.
• When pies are outlawed only outlaws will have pies.

Some comments, however, took a more serious tone:

• While we can laugh at the silliness of the rule, it was probably brought about by an incident in which people became sick after eating homemade food at a church or school function.
• Several years ago nearly a hundred people were made ill by food at a large pot-luck supper in Iowa. I believe salmonella was blamed.

LB Readers: Anything else you’d like to contribute to the discussion?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 10, 2009 (boomark / email).