a poultry producer or otherwise), or processing any egg products, or otherwise using any eggs in the preparation of human food. (f) The term "egg product" means any dried, frozen, or liquid eggs, with or without added ingredients, excepting products which contain eggs only in a relatively small proportion or historically have not been, in the judgment of the Secretary, considered by consumers as products of the egg food industry, and which may be exempted by the Secretary under such conditions as he may prescribe to assure that the egg ingredients are not adulterated and such products are not represented as egg products. (g) The term "egg" means the shell egg of the domesticated chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or guinea. (1) The term "check" means an egg that has a broken shell or crack in the shell but has its shell membranes intact and contents not leaking. (2) The term "clean and sound shell egg" means any egg whose shell is free of adhering dirt or foreign material and is not cracked or broken. (3) The term "dirty egg" means an egg that has a shell that is unbroken and has adhering dirt or foreign material. 84 STAT. 1622 (4) The term "incubator reject" means an egg that has been subjected to incubation and has been removed from incubation during the hatching operations as infertile or otherwise unhatchable, (5) The term "inedible" means eggs of the following descriptions: 84 STAT. 1623 black rots, yellow rots, white rots, mixed rots (addled eggs), sour eggs, eggs with green whites, eggs with stuck yolks, moldy eggs, musty eggs, eggs showing blood rings, and eggs containing embryo chicks (at or beyond the blood ring stage). (6) The term "leaker" means an egg that has a crack or break in the shell and shell membranes to the extent that the egg contents are exposed or are exuding or free to exude through the shell. (7) The term "loss" means an egg that is unfit for human food because it is smashed or broken so that its contents are leaking; or overheated, frozen, or contaminated; or an incubator reject; or because it contains a bloody white, large meat spots, a large quantity of blood, or other foreign material. (8) The term "restricted egg" means any check, dirty egg, incubator reject, inedible, leaker, or loss. (h) The term "Fair Packaging and Labeling Act" means the Act so entitled, approved November 3, 1966 (80 Stat. 1296), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. (i) The term "Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act" means the Act so entitled, approved June 25, 1938 (52 Stat. 1040), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. (j) The term "inspection" means the application of such inspection methods and techniques as are deemed necessary by the responsible Secretary to carry out the provisions of this Act. (k) The term "inspector" means: (1) any employee or official of the United States Government authorized to inspect eggs or egg products under the authority of this Act; or (2) Any employee or official of the government of any State or local jurisdiction authorized by the Secretary to inspect eggs or egg products under the authority of this Act, under an agreement entered into between the Secretary and the appropriate State or other agency. (1) The term "misbranded" shall apply to egg products which are not labeled and packaged in accordance with the requirements pre 15 USC 1451 note. 21 USC 301. scribed by regulations of the Secretary under section 7 of this Act. Post, p. 1625. 84 STAT. 1623 84 STAT. 1624 52 Stat. 1040. 21 USC 301. (m) The term "official certificate" means any certificate prescribed by regulations of the Secretary for issuance by an inspector or other person performing official functions under this Act. (n) The term "official device" means any device prescribed or authorized by the Secretary for use in applying any official mark. (o) The term "official inspection legend" means any symbol prescribed by regulations of the Secretary showing that egg products were inspected in accordance with this Åct. (p) The term "official mark" means the official inspection legend or any other symbol prescribed by regulations of the Secretary to identify the status of any article under this Act. (q) The term "official plant" means any plant, as determined by the Secretary, at which inspection of the processing of egg products is maintained by the Department of Agriculture under the authority of this Act. (r) The term "official standards" means the standards of quality, grades, and weight classes for eggs, in effect upon the effective date of this Act, or as thereafter amended, under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 1087, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 1621 et seq.). (s) The term "pasteurize" means the subjecting of each particle of egg products to heat or other treatments to destroy harmful viable micro-organisms by such processes as may be prescribed by regulations of the Secretary. (t) The term "person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other business unit. (u) The terms "pesticide chemical," "food additive,” “color additive," and "raw agricultural commodity" shall have the same meaning for purposes of this Act as under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (v) The term "plant" means any place of business where egg products are processed. (w) The term "processing" means manufacturing egg products, including breaking eggs or filtering, mixing, blending, pasteurizing, stabilizing, cooling, freezing, drying, or packaging egg products. (x) The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Agriculture or his delegate. (y) The term "State" means any State of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and the District of Columbia. (z) The term "United States" means the States. INSPECTION, REINSPECTION, CONDEMNATION SEC. 5. (a) For the purpose of preventing the entry into or flow or movement in commerce of, or the burdening of commerce by, any egg product which is capable of use as human food and is misbranded or adulterated, the Secretary shall, whenever processing operations are being conducted, cause continuous inspection to be made, in accordance with the regulations promulgated under this Act, of the processing of egg products, in each plant processing egg products for commerce, unless exempted under section 15 of this Act. Without restricting the application of the preceding sentence to other kinds of establishments within its provisions, any food manufacturing establishment, institution, or restaurant which uses any eggs that do not meet the requirements of paragraph (a)(1) of section 15 of this Act in the preparation of any articles for human food shall be deemed to be a plant processing egg products, with respect to such operations. (b) The Secretary, at any time, shall cause such retention, segregation, and reinspection as he deems necessary of eggs and egg products capable of use as human food in each official plant. (c) Eggs and egg products found to be adulterated at official plants shall be condemned and, if no appeal be taken from such determination of condemnation, such articles shall be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector: Provided, That articles which may by reprocessing be made not adulterated need not be condemned and destroyed if so reprocessed under the supervision of an inspector and thereafter found to be not adulterated. If an appeal be taken from such determination, the eggs or egg products shall be appropriately marked and segregated pending completion of an appeal inspection, which appeal shall be at the cost of the appellant if the Secretary determines that the appeal is frivolous. If the determination of condemnation is sustained, the eggs or egg products shall be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector. (d) The Secretary shall cause such other inspections to be made of the business premises, facilities, inventory, operations, and records of egg handlers, and the records and inventory of other persons required to keep records under section 11 of this Act, as he deems appropriate (and in the case of shell egg packers, packing eggs for the ultimate consumer, at least once each calendar quarter) to assure that only eggs fit for human food are used for such purpose, and otherwise to assure compliance by egg handlers and other persons with the requirements of section 8 of this Act, except that the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare shall cause such inspections to be made as he deems appropriate to assure compliance with such requirements at food manufacturing establishments, institutions, and restaurants, other than plants processing egg products. Representatives of said Secretaries shall be afforded access to all such places of business for purposes of making the inspections provided for in this Act. SANITATION, FACILITIES, AND PRACTICES SEC. 6. (a) Each official plant shall be operated in accordance with such sanitary practices and shall have such premises, facilities, and equipment as are required by regulations promulgated by the Secretary to effectuate the purposes of this Act, including requirements for segregation and disposition of restricted eggs. (b) The Secretary shall refuse to render inspection to any plant whose premises, facilities, or equipment, or the operation thereof, fail to meet the requirements of this section. PASTEURIZATION AND LABELING OF EGG PRODUCTS AT OFFICIAL PLANTS SEC. 7. (a) Egg products inspected at any official plant under the authority of this Act and found to be not adulterated shall be pasteurized before they leave the official plant, except as otherwise permitted by regulations of the Secretary, and shall at the time they leave the official plant, bear in distinctly legible form on their shipping containers or immediate containers, or both, when required by regulations of the Secretary, the official inspection legend and official plant number, of the plant where the products were processed, and such other information as the Secretary may require by regulations to describe the products adequately and to assure that they will not have false or misleading labeling. (b) No labeling or container shall be used for egg products at official plants if it is false or misleading or has not been approved as required by the regulations of the Secretary. If the Secretary has reason to believe that any labeling or the size or form of any container in use or proposed for use with respect to egg products at any official 84 STAT. 1625 84 STAT. 1626 72 Stat. 944. plant is false or misleading in any particular, he may direct that such use be withheld unless the labeling or container is modified in such manner as he may prescribe so that it will not be false or misleading. If the person using or proposing to use the labeling or container does not accept the determination of the Secretary, such person may request a hearing, but the use of the labeling or container shall, if the Secretary so directs, be withheld pending hearing and final determination by the Secretary. Any such determination by the Secretary shall be conclusive unless, within thirty days after receipt of notice of such final determination, the person adversely affected thereby appeals to the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which such person has its principal place of business or to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The provisions of section 204 of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (42 Stat. 162, as amended; 7 U.S.C. 194), shall be applicable to appeals taken under this section. PROHIBITED ACTS SEC. 8. (a) (1) No person shall buy, sell, or transport, or offer to buy or sell, or offer or receive for transportation, in any business in commerce any restricted eggs, capable of use as human food, except as authorized by regulations of the Secretary under such conditions as he may prescribe to assure that only eggs fit for human food are used for such purpose. (2) No egg handler shall possess with intent to use, or use, any restricted eggs in the preparation of human food for commerce except that such eggs may be so possessed and used when authorized by regulations of the Secretary under such conditions as he may prescribe to assure that only eggs fit for human food are used for such purpose. (b)(1) No person shall process any egg products for commerce at any plant except in compliance with the requirements of this Act. (2) No person shall buy, sell, or transport, or offer to buy or sell, or offer or receive for transportation, in commerce any egg products required to be inspected under this Act unless they have been so inspected and are labeled and packaged in accordance with the requirements of section 7 of this Act. (3) No operator of any official plant shall fail to comply with any requirements of paragraph (a) of section 6 of this Act or the regulations thereunder. (4) No operator of any official plant shall allow any egg products to be moved from such plant if they are adulterated or misbranded and capable of use as human food. (c) No person shall violate any provision of section 10, 11, or 17 of this Act. (d) No person shall (1) manufacture, cast, print, lithograph, or otherwise make any device containing any official mark or simulation thereof, or any label bearing any such mark or simulation, or any form of official certificate or simulation thereof, except as authorized by the Secretary; (2) forge or alter any official device, mark, or certificate; (3) without authorization from the Secretary, use any official device, mark, or certificate, or simulation thereof, or detach, deface, or destroy any official device or mark; or use any labeling or container ordered to be withheld from use under section 7 of this Act after final judicial affirmance of such order or expiration of the time for appeal if no appeal is taken under said section; (4) contrary to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary, fail to use, or to detach, deface, or destroy any official device, mark, or certificate; (5) knowingly possess, without promptly notifying the Secretary or his representative, any official device or any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered official certificate or any device or label, or any eggs or egg products bearing any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered official mark; (6) knowingly make any false statement in any shipper's certificate or other nonofficial or official certificate provided for in the regulations prescribed by the Secretary; (7) knowingly represent that any article has been inspected or exempted, under this Act, when, in fact, it has, respectively, not been so inspected or exempted; and (8) refuse access, at any reasonable time, to any representative of the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, to any plant or other place of business, subject to inspection under any provisions of this Act. (e) No person, while an official or employee of the United States Government or any State or local governmental agency, or thereafter, shall use to his own advantage, or reveal other than to the authorized representatives of the United States Government or any State or other government in their official capacity, or as ordered by a court in a judicial proceeding, any information acquired under the authority of this Act concerning any matter which is entitled to protection as a trade secret. FEDERAL AND STATE COOPERATION SEC. 9. The Secretary shall, whenever he determines that it would effectuate the purposes of this Act, cooperate with appropriate State and other governmental agencies, in carrying out any provisions of this Act. In carrying out the provisions of this Act, the Secretary may conduct such examinations, investigations, and inspections as he determines practicable through any officer or employee of any such agency commissioned by him for such purpose. The Secretary shall reimburse the States and other agencies for the costs incurred by them in such cooperative programs. EGGS AND EGG PRODUCTS NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD SEC. 10. Inspection shall not be provided under this Act at any plant for the processing of any egg products which are not intended for use as human food, but such articles, prior to their offer for sale or transportation in commerce, shall be denatured or otherwise identified as prescribed by regulations of the Secretary to deter their use for human food. No person shall buy, sell, or transport or offer to buy or sell, or offer or receive for transportation, in commerce, any restricted eggs or egg products which are not intended for use as human food unless they are denatured or otherwise identified as required by the regulations of the Secretary. RECORD AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS FOR PROCESSORS OF EGGS AND EGG SEC. 11. For the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder, all persons engaged in the business of transporting, shipping, or receiving any eggs or egg products in commerce or holding such articles so received, and all egg handlers, shall maintain such records showing, for such time and in 84 STAT. 1627 |