TITLE XL AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
CHAPTER 427 LIVESTOCK AND MEAT INSPECTION
Meat Inspection
Section 427:2
427:2 Definitions. –
As used in this subdivision, except as otherwise specified, the following terms shall have the following meanings stated below:
I. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of agriculture, markets, and food or his or her delegate.
II. "Firm" means any partnership, association, or other unincorporated business organization.
III. "Intrastate commerce" means commerce within this state.
IV. "Meat food product" means any product capable of use as human food which is made wholly or in part from any meat or other portion of the carcass of any cattle, sheep, swine, or goats, excepting products which contain meat or other portions of such carcasses only in a relatively small portion or historically have not been considered by consumers as products of the meat food industry, and which are exempted from definition as a meat food product by the commissioner under such conditions as the commissioner may prescribe to assure that the meat or other portions of such carcasses contained in such product are not adulterated and that such products are not represented as meat food products. This term as applied to food products of equines shall have a meaning comparable to that provided in this paragraph with respect to cattle, sheep, swine, and goats.
V. "Capable of use as human food" shall apply to any carcass, or part or product of a carcass, of any animal, unless it is denatured or otherwise identified as required by rules adopted by the commissioner to deter its use as human food, or it is naturally inedible by humans.
VI. "Prepared" means slaughtered, canned, salted, rendered, boned, cut up, or otherwise manufactured or processed.
VII. "Adulterated" shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food product under one or more of the following circumstances:
(a) If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health; but in case the substance is not an added substance, such article shall not be considered adulterated under this paragraph if the quality of such substance in or on such article does not ordinarily render it injurious to health;
(b) If it bears or contains by reasons of administration of any substance to the live animal or otherwise any added poisonous or added deleterious substance other than one which is:
(1) A pesticide chemical in or on a raw agricultural commodity;
(2) A food additive; or
(3) A color additive which may not, in the judgment of the commissioner, make such article unfit for human food;
(c) If it is, in whole or in part, a raw agricultural commodity and such commodity bears or contains a pesticide chemical which is unsafe within the meaning of section 408 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act;
(d) If it bears or contains any food additive which is unsafe within the meaning of section 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act;
(e) If it bears or contains any color additive which is unsafe within the meaning of section 706 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; provided that an article which is not adulterated under subparagraph (c), (d), or (e) shall nevertheless be deemed adulterated if use of the pesticide chemical, food additive, or color additive in or on such article is prohibited by rules of the commissioner in establishments at which inspection is maintained under this subdivision;
(f) If it consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or is for any other reason unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human food;
(g) If it has been prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health;
(h) If it is, in whole or in part, the product of an animal which has died otherwise than by slaughter;
(i) If its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health;
(j) If it has been intentionally subjected to radiation, unless the use of the radiation was in conformity with a regulation or exemption in effect pursuant to section 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act;
(k) If any valuable constituent has been in whole or in part omitted or abstracted therefrom; or if any substance has been substituted, wholly or in part therefor; or if damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner; or if any substance has been added thereto or mixed or packed therewith so as to increase its bulk or weight, or reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear better or of greater value than it is; or
(l) If it is margarine containing animal fat and any of the raw material used therein consisted in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance.
VIII. "Misbranded" shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food product under one or more of the following circumstances:
(a) If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular;
(b) If it is offered for sale under the name of another food;
(c) If it is an imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in type of uniform size and prominence, the word "imitation" followed immediately by the name of the food imitated;
(d) If its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading;
(e) If it is in a package or other container unless it bears a label showing:
(1) The name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor; and
(2) An accurate statement of the quantity of the contents in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count; provided that under this subparagraph, reasonable variations may be permitted, and exemptions as to small packages may be established by the commissioner;
(f) If any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of this subdivision to appear on the label or other labeling is not prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness as compared with other words, statements, designs, or devices in the labeling and in such terms as to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use;
(g) If it purports to be or is represented as a food for which a definition and standard of identity or composition has been established by the commissioner unless:
(1) It conforms to such definition and standard, and
(2) Its label bears the name of the food specified in the definition and standard and, insofar as may be required by the commissioner, the common names of optional ingredients, other than spices, flavoring, and coloring, present in such food;
(h) If it purports to be or is represented as a food for which a standard or standards of fill of container have been established by the commissioner, and it falls below the standard of fill of container applicable thereto, unless its label bears, in such manner and form as the commissioner has specified, a statement that it falls below such standard;
(i) If it is not subject to the provisions of subparagraph (g), unless its label bears:
(1) The common or usual name of the food, if there is any, and
(2) In case it is fabricated from 2 or more ingredients, the common or usual name of each such ingredient; except that spices, flavorings, and colorings may be designated as spices, flavorings, and colorings without naming each; provided that, to the extent that compliance with the requirements of this subparagraph is impracticable, or results in deception or unfair competition, exemptions shall be established by the commissioner;
(j) If it purports to be or is represented for special dietary uses, unless its label bears such information concerning its vitamin, mineral, and other dietary properties as the commissioner, after consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, determines to be necessary in order to fully inform purchasers as to its value for such uses;
(k) If it bears or contains any artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, or chemical preservative, unless it bears labeling stating that fact; provided that, to the extent that compliance with the requirements of this subparagraph is impracticable, exemptions shall be established by the commissioner; or
(l) If it fails to bear, directly thereon or on its container, as the commissioner may require, the inspection legend and, unrestricted by any of the foregoing, such other information as the commissioner may require to assure that it will not have false or misleading labeling and that the public will be informed of the manner of handling required to maintain the article in a wholesome condition.
IX. "Label" means a display of written, printed, or graphic matter upon the immediate container, not including package liners, of any article.
X. "Labeling" means all labels and other written, printed, or graphic matter:
(a) Upon any article or any of its containers or wrappers; or
(b) Accompanying such article.
XI. "Federal Meat Inspection Act" means the act so entitled, approved March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1260), as amended by the Wholesome Meat Act (81 Stat. 584).
XII. "Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act" means the act so entitled, approved June 25, 1938 (52 Stat. 1040), and acts amending or supplementing that act.
XIII. "Pesticide chemical," "food additive," "color additive," and "raw agricultural commodity" shall have the same meanings for purposes of this subdivision as under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
XIV. "Official mark" means the official inspection legend or any other symbol adopted by rules of the commissioner to identify the status of any article or animal under this subdivision.
XV. "Official inspection legend" means any symbol adopted by rules of the commissioner showing that an article was inspected and passed in accordance with this subdivision.
XVI. "Official certificate" means any certificate adopted by rules of the commissioner for issuance by an inspector or other person performing official functions under this subdivision.
XVII. "Official device" means any device prescribed or authorized by the commissioner for use in applying any official mark.
XVIII. "Livestock" shall include but not be limited to all beef and dairy cattle, steer, oxen, goats, sheep, swine, horses, mules, or other equidae, as well as domesticated strains of buffalo, bison, llamas, alpacas, emus, ostriches, rabbits, yaks, elk (Cervus canadensis), fallow deer (Dama dama), red deer (Cervus elephus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), and poultry.
XIX. "Meat inspector" means a person who examines and inspects all livestock and all carcasses and parts thereof, and all meat and meat food products thereof, and the sanitary conditions of all establishments in which such meat and meat food products are prepared.
XX. "Certified meat inspector" means a person who is validly and currently certified as a meat inspector in this state.
XXI. "Establishment" means a facility in which livestock or poultry are slaughtered and packed or a facility in which meat food products are processed.
XXII. "Slaughter" means the act of killing livestock for human consumption.
XXIII. "Poultry" means any domesticated bird, whether alive or dead.
XXIV. "Poultry producer" means any person who raises poultry and uses it for meat.
[Paragraph XXV repealed by 2023, 180:10 effective July 1, 2025.]
XXV. "Atypical death" means the death of a livestock animal not resulting from slaughter as defined in RSA 427:2, XXII.
Source. 1985, 72:1. 1995, 130:5, eff. July 23, 1995. 2011, 130:1, eff. Aug. 5, 2011. 2014, 97:3, eff. Aug. 10, 2014. 2023, 180:6, eff. Oct. 3, 2023.