Title 21 — Food and DrugsRelease 119-73not60
§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
Summary
The Secretary may create rules on how carcasses and meat from cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, and mules must be stored and handled when they are in commerce or imported, to prevent contamination or mislabeling. Breaking those rules is illegal. The rules don’t apply to retail stores if their State or Territory already regulates storage and handling in a way the Secretary, after consulting the advisory committee under section 661, finds 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
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60