Senate: Keep state out of bake sales

HARRISBURG - Bake sales, chicken barbecues, fish fries, and other charitable food sales would be safe from state health inspections under a bill on its way to the state House of Representatives.

The state Senate yesterday passed the bill unanimously. The bill is in response to a cease-and-desist order delivered last spring at St. Cecilia Church in Rochester, near Pittsburgh.

Church officials said volunteers were cutting slices of homemade pies to sell at a fund-raising event when a state food-safety inspector warned them that selling baked goods made in an unlicensed kitchen is illegal.

The Agriculture Department said the inspector was just doing his job from the perspective of public health. - AP