Title 21, Food and DrugsRelease 119-102

§624 Storage and Handling Regulations; Violations; Exemption of Establishments Subject to Non-federal Jurisdiction

Title 21 › CHAPTER 12 — MEAT INSPECTION › SUBCHAPTER I — INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS; ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING › § 624

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary can make rules about how carcasses and meat from cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, mules, or other equines must be stored or handled by businesses that buy, sell, freeze, store, ship, or import them for commerce. The rules must keep the food from being contaminated or mislabeled. Breaking the rules is illegal. Retail stores or similar places in a State or organized Territory are exempt if the State or Territory has storage and handling laws that the Secretary, after consulting the advisory committee in section 661, finds are adequate.

Full Legal Text

Title 21, §624

Food and Drugs, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary may by regulations prescribe conditions under which carcasses, parts of carcasses, meat, and meat food products of cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equines, capable of use as human food, shall be stored or otherwise handled by any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, or transporting, in or for commerce, or importing, such articles, whenever the Secretary deems such action necessary to assure that such articles will not be adulterated or misbranded when delivered to the consumer. Violation of any such regulation is prohibited. However, such regulations shall not apply to the storage or handling of such articles at any retail store or other establishment in any State or organized Territory that would be subject to this section only because of purchases in commerce, if the storage and handling of such articles at such establishment is regulated under the laws of the State or Territory in which such establishment is located, in a manner which the Secretary, after consultation with the appropriate advisory committee provided for in section 661 of this title, determines is adequate to effectuate the purposes of this section.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

21 U.S.C. § 624

Title 21, Food and Drugs

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102