The following acts or the causing of the following acts within this state is prohibited:

(1) The processing for, or the sale or offering for sale, transportation, or delivery or receiving for transportation, in intrastate commerce, of any livestock carcass or part of any livestock carcass, meat food product, or poultry product, unless the article has been inspected for wholesomeness, and unless the article and its shipping container and immediate container, if any, are marked in accordance with the requirements under this part or the federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.), or the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 451 et seq.);

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 53-7-206

  • Carcass: means all parts, including viscera of a slaughtered animal, that are capable of being used for human food. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of agriculture, or any person authorized to act in the commissioner's stead. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Immediate container: means any consumer package, or any other container in which an article, not consumer packaged, is packed. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Intrastate commerce: means commerce within this state. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Livestock: means cattle, sheep, swine, goats or rabbits. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • 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:
    (A) Contains only a minimal amount of meat and is not represented as a meat food product. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Official inspection mark: means any symbol, formulated pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner, stating that an article was inspected and passed. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or any other business entity. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Poultry: means any live or slaughtered domesticated bird. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Shipping container: means any container used or intended for use in packaging the article packed in an immediate container. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Unwholesome: means :
    (A) 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. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
(2) The sale or other disposition for human food of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product that has been inspected and declared to be unwholesome or adulterated under this part;
(3) Falsely making or issuing, altering, forging, simulating, or counterfeiting, or using without proper authority any official inspection certificate, memorandum, mark, or other identification, or device for making the mark or identification, used in connection with inspection under this part, or causing, procuring, aiding, assisting in, or being a party to, the false making, issuing, altering, forging, simulating, counterfeiting, or unauthorized use, or knowingly processing, without promptly notifying the commissioner or the commissioner’s representative, uttering, publishing, or using as true, or causing to be uttered, published, or used as true, any falsely made or issued, altered, forged, simulated, or counterfeited official inspection certificate, memorandum, mark, or other identification, or device for making the mark or identification, or representing that any article has been officially inspected under the authority of this part when the article has in fact not been so inspected, or knowingly making any false representation in any certificate prescribed by the commissioner in rules or regulations under this part or any form resembling the certificate;
(4) Using in intrastate commerce a false or misleading label on any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product;
(5) Engaging in or abetting another in bait and switch tactics in promoting for sale and selling livestock and poultry carcasses or parts of any livestock or poultry carcass, or meat products or poultry products and using false or misleading advertisements or for any advertising medium to knowingly publish false or misleading advertising;
(6) Using any container bearing an official inspection mark, except for the article in the original form in which it was inspected and covered by the mark, unless the mark is removed, obliterated or otherwise destroyed;
(7) Refusing to permit access by any duly authorized representative of the commissioner, at all reasonable times, to the premises of an establishment in this state at which livestock or poultry are slaughtered or livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses or parts of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses, meat, meat food products, or poultry products are processed for intrastate commerce, upon presentation of appropriate credentials;
(8) Refusing to permit access to and the copying of any record as authorized by § 53-7-208;
(9) Using by any person to the person’s own advantage, or revealing, other than to the authorized representatives of any government agency in their official capacity, or to the courts when relevant in any judicial proceeding, any information acquired under the authority of this part, concerning any matter that is entitled to protection as a trade secret;
(10) Holding, delivering, receiving, transporting, selling, or offering for sale or transportation in intrastate commerce, for human consumption, any uneviscerated slaughtered poultry, or any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product that has been processed in violation of any requirements under this part, except as may be authorized by and pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner;
(11) Holding, delivering, receiving, transporting, selling, or offering for sale or transportation in intrastate commerce any livestock or poultry carcass or part of any livestock or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product exempted under § 53-7-209 that is unwholesome or adulterated, and is intended for human consumption;
(12) Applying to any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product, or any container of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or any part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product, any official inspection mark or label required under this part, except by, or under the supervision of, an inspector;
(13) Refusing to make application for a license and refusing to pay, or operating a plant without payment of all license and inspection fees;
(14) Removing or selling any article detained or embargoed by an inspector;
(15) Violating any rule or regulation as authorized by this part;
(16) Disposing of or selling any dead, dying, diseased or disabled animals or poultry or carcasses or parts of any carcasses, except in a manner as prescribed by regulations of the commissioner; and
(17) The continued operation of any custom or commercial slaughterhouse or meat or poultry processing establishment that is in an unsanitary condition or that fails to comply with the specifications and standards that have been established by regulation by the commissioner.
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