Part Definitions

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Food, Drugs and Cosmetics
  4. Meat Inspection and Regulations
  5. Tennessee Meat and Poultry Inspection Act
  6. Part Definitions

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As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

  1. “Adulterated” applies to any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product under one (1) or more of the following circumstances:
    1. If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to health. In cases where the substance is not an added substance, the article shall not be considered adulterated under this subdivision (1) if the quantity of the substance does not ordinarily render it injurious to health;
    2. If it bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance, unless the substance is permitted in its production or unavoidable under good manufacturing practices as may be determined by rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner; provided, that any quantity of the added substances exceeding the limit so fixed shall also be deemed to constitute adulteration;
    3. If any substance has been substituted, wholly or in part, for the livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat product or poultry product;
    4. If damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner;
    5. If any valuable constituent has been, in whole or in part, omitted or abstracted from the livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat product or poultry product; or
    6. If any substance has been added, mixed or packed with the livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat product or poultry product, so as to increase its bulk or weight, to reduce its quality or strength, or to make it appear better or of greater value than it is;
  2. “Bait” or “bait and switch” advertising is an alluring or fantastic offer or false and misleading offer that is not a bona fide offer to sell, but that is a means of attracting the prospective customer, the purpose being to sell or switch to some other product;
  3. “Carcass” means all parts, including viscera of a slaughtered animal, that are capable of being used for human food;
  4. “Commissioner” means the commissioner of agriculture, or any person authorized to act in the commissioner's stead;
  5. “Container” and “package” include any box, can, tin, cloth, plastic, or any other receptacle, wrapper or cover;
  6. “Custom slaughterer” means a person engaged for profit in this state in the business of slaughtering or dressing animals for human consumption that are not to be sold or offered for sale through a commercial outlet, and may include the boning or cutting up of carcasses of such animals and the grinding, chopping and mixing of the carcasses of animals;
  7. “Federal Meat Inspection Act” means the act of congress approved March 4, 1907, as amended and extended, compiled in 21 U.S.C. § 601 et seq., and the imported meat provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930, § 306(b) and (c), as amended (19 U.S.C. § 1306(c) [repealed] and 21 U.S.C. § 620);
  8. “Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act” means the act of congress approved August 28, 1957, as amended, compiled in 21 U.S.C. § 451 et seq.;
  9. “Immediate container” means any consumer package, or any other container in which an article, not consumer packaged, is packed;
  10. “Inspection service” means the official government service within the department of agriculture of this state designated by the commissioner as having the responsibility for carrying out this part;
  11. “Inspector” means an employee or official of this state authorized by the commissioner to inspect the operation and facilities of any custom slaughterhouse or meat or poultry processing establishment;
  12. “Intrastate commerce” means commerce within this state;
  13. “Label” means any written, printed, or graphic material upon the shipping container, if any, or upon the immediate container, including, but not limited to, an individual consumer package, of an article, or accompanying the article;
  14. “Livestock” means cattle, sheep, swine, goats or rabbits;
  15. “Meat” means the edible part of the muscle of cattle, deer, sheep, swine or goats that is skeletal or that is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus, with or without the accompanying and overlying fat, and the portions of bone, skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels that normally accompany the muscle tissue and that are not separated from it in the process of dressing. It does not include the muscle found in the lips, snout or ears;
  16. “Meat by-product” means any edible part other than meat that has been derived from one (1) or more cattle, deer, sheep, swine, goats or rabbits;
  17. “Meat food product” means any article of food, or any article intended for or capable of use as human food, that is derived or prepared, in whole or in part, from any portion of any livestock or deer, unless exempted by the commissioner upon the commissioner's determination that the article:
    1. Contains only a minimal amount of meat and is not represented as a meat food product; or
    2. Is for medicinal purposes and is advertised only to the medical profession;
  18. “Official establishment” means any establishment in this state, as determined by the commissioner, at which inspection of the slaughter of livestock or poultry or the processing of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses or parts of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses, meat food products, or poultry products, is maintained under the authority of this part;
  19. “Official inspection mark” means any symbol, formulated pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner, stating that an article was inspected and passed;
  20. “Person” means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or any other business entity;
  21. “Poultry” means any live or slaughtered domesticated bird;
  22. “Poultry product” means any poultry that has been slaughtered for human food from which the blood, feathers, feet, head and viscera have been removed in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the commissioner, any edible part of poultry, or any human food product consisting of any edible part of poultry separately or in combination with other ingredients. However, any human food product may be exempted from this subdivision (22) by the commissioner upon the commissioner's determination that the product:
    1. Contains only a minimal amount of poultry and is not represented as a poultry product; or
    2. Is used for medicinal purposes and is advertised only to the medical profession;
  23. “Processor” means a person who engages for profit in this state in the business of packing or packaging carcasses, meat, meat food products or meat by-products, or poultry or poultry products, for human consumption, or a person engaged for profit in the business of curing, salting, processing or other preparing of carcasses, meat, meat food products or meat by-products for human consumption;
  24. “Shipping container” means any container used or intended for use in packaging the article packed in an immediate container;
  25. “Unwholesome” means:
    1. Unsound, injurious to health, containing any biological residue not permitted by rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner, or otherwise rendered unfit for human food;
    2. Consisting, in whole or in part, of any filthy, putrid or decomposed substance;
    3. Processed, prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or any meat food product or poultry product may have become contaminated with filth or may have been rendered injurious to health;
    4. Produced, in whole or in part, from livestock or poultry that is diseased, dead, dying or disabled and that has died otherwise than by slaughter;
    5. Produced, in whole or in part, from deer that is diseased, dying, or disabled and that has died otherwise than by lawful harvest; or
    6. Packaged in a container composed of any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render the contents injurious to health; and
  26. “Wholesome” means sound, healthful, clean and otherwise fit for human food.


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