Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55401. Section 55401.
Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions in this article govern the construction of this chapter.
ARTICLE 1. Definitions [55401. - 55409.]
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC 1.
in effectCal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55402. Section 55402.
“Agent” means any person that on behalf of any processor contracts for or solicits any farm product from a producer of the farm product, or that negotiates the purchase of any farm product on behalf of any processor.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55402.3. Section 55402.3.
“Cash” means coin or currency of the United States, and does not include a check or money order.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55402.5. Section 55402.5.
“Cash buying processor” means any person who is engaged in the business of processing or manufacturing any farm product; who obtains from the producer of any farm product, title to, or possession or control of the farm product; and who buys or agrees to buy any farm product, by cash payment of the full agreed price of such product to the producer at the time of obtaining possession or control or at the time of contracting for title to, or possession or control of any farm product.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55403. Section 55403.
“Farm product” includes every agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, or vegetable product of the soil, honey and beeswax, oilseeds, poultry, poultry product, livestock product, and livestock for immediate slaughter. It does not include timber or any timber product, milk or any milk product, any aquacultural product, or cattle sold to any person who is bonded under the federal Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. Sec. 181, et seq.).
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55404. Section 55404.
“Lender” includes any person that advances new value to a processor.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55404.5. Section 55404.5.
“Licensee” means any person licensed under the provisions of this chapter as a processor or cash buying processor.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55405. Section 55405.
“New value” includes any new advance or loan, whether in money or other property, which is made by a lender to a processor. It does not, however, include any extension or renewal of any existing obligation of the processor, nor any obligation which is substituted for such existing obligation.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55406. Section 55406.
“Packout basis” means that payment for the farm product is based on the grade or quality of the finished product, as determined at the completion of the processing.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55407. Section 55407.
“Processor” means any person that is engaged in the business of processing or manufacturing any farm product, that solicits, buys, contracts to buy, or otherwise takes title to, or possession or control of, any farm product from the producer of the farm product for the purpose of processing or manufacturing it and selling, reselling, or redelivering it in any dried, canned, extracted, fermented, distilled, frozen, eviscerated, or other preserved or processed form. It does not, however, include any retail merchant that has a fixed or established place of business in this state and does not sell at wholesale any farm product which is processed or manufactured by him.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55408. Section 55408.
“Producer” means any person that is engaged in the business of growing or producing any farm product.
Cal. Food and Agricultural Code - FAC § 55409. Section 55409.
Juice or must used for wine which, as a condition of sale, is required to be pressed or crushed from grapes in the field or at a facility not owned by the purchasing vintner, is a farm product for purposes of this chapter. Juice or must which was not required to be pressed or crushed from grapes as a condition of a sale, and which is stored for the account of the producer who grew the grapes, is not a farm product when it is sold.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026