§ 251-z-3. Licenses; fees. No person shall maintain or operate a food
processing establishment unless licensed biennially by the commissioner.
Application for a license to operate a food processing establishment
shall be made, upon a form prescribed by the commissioner. A renewal
application shall be submitted to the commissioner at least thirty days
prior to the commencement of the next license period.

The applicant shall furnish evidence of his or her good character,
experience and competency, that the establishment has adequate
facilities and equipment for the business to be conducted, that the
establishment is such that the cleanliness of the premises can be
maintained, that the product produced therein will not become
adulterated and, if the applicant is a retail food store, that the
applicant has an individual in a position of management or control who
has completed an approved food safety education program pursuant to
section two hundred fifty-one-z-twelve of this article. The
commissioner, if so satisfied, shall issue to the applicant, upon
payment of the license fee of four hundred dollars, a license to operate
the food processing establishment described in the application. The
commissioner shall waive the license fee for two years for a first time
applicant that processes food in a kitchen incubator food processing
facility, which for the purposes of this section is a food processing
facility used by multiple small and emerging food processing businesses,
including both full-time facility tenants and businesses that rent space
on a temporary basis. The commissioner shall prorate the license fee
paid by an applicant, if the applicant's food processing establishment
has as its only full time employees the owner or the parent, spouse, or
child of the owner, and/or not more than two full time employees, and if
that applicant vacates a food processing establishment six months or
more prior to the expiration of the license period, and, within one year
of vacating such establishment, applies for a new license associated
with another food processing establishment, provided the applicant's
license has not been suspended or revoked pursuant to section two
hundred fifty-one-z-five of this article. The commissioner may establish
rules and regulations governing the prorating of such fees and/or the
application of such fees from a prior license to a new one.
Notwithstanding the preceding, an applicant that is a chain store shall
pay a license fee of one hundred dollars if its license expires six
months or less from the date its license period began, two hundred
dollars if its license expires between six months and one year from the
date its license period began, three hundred dollars if its license
expires between one year and eighteen months from the date its license
period began, or four hundred dollars if its license expires between
eighteen months and two years from the date its license period began.
However, the license fee shall be nine hundred dollars for a food
processing establishment determined by the commissioner, pursuant to
duly promulgated regulations, to require more intensive regulatory
oversight due to the volume of the products produced, the potentially
hazardous nature of the product produced or the multiple number of
processing operations conducted in the establishment. The license
application for retail food stores shall be accompanied by documentation
in a form approved by the commissioner which demonstrates that the food
safety education program requirement has been met. The license shall
take effect on the date of issuance and continue for two years from such
date. Notwithstanding the preceding, a license issued to an applicant
that is a chain store shall expire on the date set forth on the
application form prescribed by the commissioner for such applicant.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, an applicant that
is a "small-scale processor" shall pay a license fee of one hundred
seventy-five dollars per facility. For the purposes of this section, a
"small-scale processor" shall be defined as a processor which operates a
food processing establishment that is not exempt from licensing pursuant
to section two hundred fifty-one-z-four of this article, is not a chain
store, and employs no more than ten full time employees.