---
type: "Bill"
title: "Adulteration and Misbranding of Food; Commissioner of Agriculture to issue a variance to certain rules and regulations; authorize"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 2 of Title 26, relating to the adulteration and misbranding of food, so as to authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture to issue a variance or waiver to certain rules and regulations of the department; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "SB 78"
citation: "Georgia SB 78 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Dean Burke", "Ellis Black", "Greg Kirk", "John Wilkinson", "Lee Anderson", "Tyler Harper"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-01-26"
last_action: "2017-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6a71c536-ec1d-4f9d-b621-f94b8ade9383"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "12a9892737b239411893bf62db420ccdaa867e4196bed7663e3dbb7d44e4cac5"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 78 (2017_18) — Adulteration and Misbranding of Food; Commissioner of Agriculture to issue a variance to certain rules and regulations; authorize

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 2 of Title 26, relating to the adulteration and misbranding of food, so as to authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture to issue a variance or waiver to certain rules and regulations of the department; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **53–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Ellis Black — primary (person)
- Greg Kirk — primary (person)
- John Wilkinson — primary (person)
- Lee Anderson — primary (person)
- Tyler Harper — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-26** Senate Hopper
- **2017-01-30** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-02** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-07** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-08** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-02-08** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2017-02-09** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-10** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-09** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-09** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2017-04-03** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-09** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-09** Act 233 `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6a71c536-ec1d-4f9d-b621-f94b8ade9383`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).