§ 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.