The food code that took effect Sept. 10 reaches far beyond sesame. It changed rules for hand sinks, thawing, manufacturer cooking instructions, shellfish records, patio animals, sous vide and other daily operations at roughly 31,000 VDH-permitted establishments.
A Richmond commission wants the city to seek a lower blood-alcohol threshold in the 2027 General Assembly session. It is not yet an official city position, but it could change the legal line for any Virginian who drives after drinking.
The session is usually summarized as the food-to-beverage rewrite plus a list of defeats. Against the legislature's own bill file, several of those defeats are attached to the wrong bill numbers, and one subject widely reported as dead became law on a different bill.