Title 21 — Food and DrugsRelease 119-73
§617 Clearance prohibited to vessel carrying meat for export without inspector’s certificate
Title 21 › Chapter CHAPTER 12— - MEAT INSPECTION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS; ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING › § 617
Summary
A vessel cannot get clearance at any U.S. port to export beef, mutton, pork, goat, or horse meat (fresh, salted, canned, corned, or packed) unless the owner or shipper has a certificate from an inspector appointed under this law saying the animals were healthy when checked and the meat was safe to eat. The Secretary can waive the certificate requirement for meat sent to certain countries.
Full Legal Text
Title 21, §617
Food and Drugs — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
No clearance shall be given to any vessel having on board any fresh, salted, canned, corned, or packed beef, mutton, pork, goat or equine meat for export to and sale in a foreign country from any port in the United States, until the owner or shipper thereof shall obtain from an inspector appointed under the provisions of this chapter a certificate that the said amenable species were sound and healthy at the time of inspection, and that their meat is sound and wholesome, unless the Secretary shall have waived the requirements of such certificate for the country to which said amenable species or meats are to be exported.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification Section was formerly classified to section 85 of this title.
Amendments
2005—Pub. L. 109–97 substituted “amenable species” for “cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines” in two places. 1967—Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 3(b), 12(a), (g), struck out “of Agriculture” after “Secretary”, included horses, mules, and other equines in the list of animals, and substituted “goat or equine meat” for “or goat meat, being the meat of animals killed after March 4, 1907, or except as hereinbefore provided”, respectively.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
of 2005 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 109–97 effective the day after 120 days after Nov. 10, 2005, see section 798(b) of Pub. L. 109–97, set out as a note under section 601 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1967 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 90–201 effective Dec. 15, 1967, except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after Dec. 15, 1967, see section 20(b) of Pub. L. 90–201, set out as an
Effective Date
note under section 601 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
21 U.S.C. § 617
Title 21 — Food and Drugs
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73