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AN ORDINANCE TO BE ENTITLED “THE JONESBORO MEAT INSPECTION ORDINANCE,” PROVIDING FOR AN AGENCY FOR THE ENFORCEMENT AND SUPERVISION THEREOF, AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF
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WHEREAS, the sanitary slaughter of animals and the sanitary preparation and processing of the carcasses and parts thereof, and meats, prepared meats, meat food products and edible meat by-products, for market, and the preparation and labeling of such carcasses, parts, meats and products in a non-deceptive manner promote the health, safety and general welfare of the inhabitants of this city.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas:
Section 1: Definitions: As used in this ordinance, the following terms shall have the respective meanings ascribed to them in this section:
a. The term “person” means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, or other organized group of any of the foregoing.
b. The term “meat” means the skeletal part of an animal, intended for human food or without the overlying fat, portions of bones, skin and other normal components of the flesh, and the edible part of the muscle found in the tongue, the heart and the esophagus.
c. The term “prepared meat” means the product intended for human food obtained by subjecting meat to a process of drying, curing, smoking, cooking, comminuting, seasoning, or flavoring, or to any combination of such processes, to which no considerable quantity of such processes, to which no considerable quantity of any substance other than meat or meat by-products has been added.
d. The term “meat food products” means any articles of food or any articles which enter into the composition of food for human consumption, which are derived or prepared, in whole or in substantial and definite part, by a process of manufacture, from any edible portion of an animal.
e. The term “meat by-products” means all edible parts, other than meat, intended for human food, derived from an animal and including such organs and parts as livers, kidneys, sweetbreads, brains, lungs, spleens, stomachs, tripe, lips, snouts and ears.
f. The term “products” means meat, prepared meat, meat food products and meat by-products.
g. The term “carcass” means the commercially prepared or dressed body of an animal.
h. The term “animal” means any cattle, sheep, swine or goat.
Section 2: Application for Inspection: Any person maintaining a slaughter house or other establishment within this city which is not operated under Federal inspection pursuant to the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 USC 71 et seq.) and at which animals are slaughtered or the carcasses or parts thereof or meat, prepared meat, meat food products, or meat by-products are prepared meat, meat food products, or meat by-products are prepared or processed, may apply to the City Council or such person or agency as it may designated for the meat inspection service hereinafter prescribed. The application shall submit with his application a fee of $5.00. There is nothing in this ordinance to be construed as making its provisions mandatory in application to any butcher or slaughter house in or near Jonesboro or doing business in Jonesboro.
Section 3: Certificate of Compliance: Upon the filing of such application, the City Council or its designated agency shall inspect the plant of the applicant for the purpose of determining whether said plant complies with the requirements of this ordinance. Upon approval of the plant, a certificate of compliance shall be issued to the applicant which, shall remain in force until voluntarily surrendered, or suspended or revoked by the city agency as provided in Section 7. The city agency shall issue said certificate to the applicant if it finds that his plant conforms to the requirements of this act and that the applicant has complied with the requirements of this act.
Section 4: Requirements as to Sanitation and Methods of Operations: Each plant for which inspection is to be furnished under the ordinance shall comply with the following requirements:
a. The plant and its facilities shall be well constructed, properly fitted and equipped for the purpose used, and so maintained that products intended for human food prepared therein will be clean, sound, healthful and wholesome. The floors of the plant shall be smooth, and impervious, and so laid as to drain freely and rapidly to sewer connections. Walls and pillars in slaughter and other rooms shall be tight surfaced, smooth and free from crevices and with other parts, shall be kept clean.
b. Rooms used for condemned products, inedible offal, hides, and other materials and supplies likely to contaminate or render products inedible shall be completely partitioned from edible product departments and rooms except for one aperture to the slaughtering department, if there is such a department in the plant. Such aperture shall be equipped with a close-fitting door and shall be of sufficient size to allow ready and free passage of materials designated as unfit for human food and all equipment used herewith.
c. Drainage and sewage disposal shall be adequate to maintain the plant and premises in a sanitary condition.
d. Ventilation shall be sufficient to insure that the atmosphere in rooms where edible product is kept is free from obnoxious odors emanating from inedible tank and offal rooms, catch basins, toilet rooms, hide cellars, refuse heaps, livestock pens, and similar sources. Lighting shall be adequately maintained in all rooms.
e. The plant shall be provided with ample supplies of potable hot and cold water, with outlets conveniently located and equipped with faucets for hose connections, for ready use during slaughtering or other operations and for cleaning. Wash basins equipped with running hot and cold water, soap and towels shall be placed in or near the dressing rooms and at such other places in the establishment as may be prescribed in regulations promulgated by the City Council to insure cleanliness of all persons handling carcasses and parts thereof and products. Water for sterilizing purposes shall be maintained at a temperature of at least 180° F.
f. Toilet rooms shall not communicate directly with any room in which animals are killed or food products thereof are processed, handled, or stored. Dressing room facilities shall be adequate for cleanliness and convenience.
g. All departments in the plant shall have adequate protection against flies, rodents and other vermin. However, the use of poisons for any purpose in rooms or compartments where any unpacked articles intended for human food are stored or handled is forbidden except under such restrictions as the chief veterinary inspector in charge of the plant may require. So-called rat viruses shall not be used in any part of the plant or its premises.
h. Equipment and utensils used in the plant shall be made of such material and be so constructed as to be readily and thoroughly cleaned, and shall be kept clean and in sanitary condition. Facilities shall be provided for the cleaning and sterilizing of tools, utensils, and other equipment. Contaminated equipment shall be properly cleaned and sterilized.
i. Barnyards, stock runs, pens, loading docks and other facilities appurtenant to the plant shall be kept clean. No nuisance shall be allowed on the premises, such as fly breeding places, cockroach infestation, dead stock, rat infestation, rubbish heaps, decomposing animal material, polluted water supply, unsanitary drainage disposal, leaking floors or the like.
j. All of the operations in the plant shall be conducted in a clean and sanitary like manner.
Section 5: Inspection Service:
a. Inspection service will be furnished at each plant for which a certificate of compliance is effective. All inspections shall be conducted by qualified veterinarians or by other inspectors under the supervision of a qualified veterinarian. All such veterinarians and other inspectors shall be employees of this City.
b. Inspection at slaughtering plants shall include ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection.
c. An inspector shall examine each animal immediately prior to slaughter for the purpose of eliminating all unfit animals and segregating, for more thorough examination, all animals suspected of being affected with a condition which might influence their disposition on post-mortem inspection. The unfit animals shall not be permitted to enter the slaughtering department of the plant, and the suspected animals shall not be permitted to enter the slaughtering department of the plant, and the suspected animals shall not be permitted to enter the slaughtering department until they shall have been found by veterinary inspection to be fit for slaughter. The suspected animals that re permitted to be slaughtered shall be handled separate and apart from the regular kill and given a special post-mortem examination. The disposition of all diseased, suspected or condemned animals shall be in accordance with Part 9 - Ante-Mortem Inspection - of the Regulations Governing Meat Inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture.
d. The post-mortem examination shall be made at the time the animals are slaughtered. The inspectors shall examine the cervical lymph glands, the skeletal lymph glands, the viscera and organs with their lymph glands, and all exposed surface of the carcasses of all animals. Such examination shall be conducted in the slaughtering department of the plant during the slaughtering operations.
e. All diseased or otherwise unfit carcasses and parts of carcasses, including the viscera, shall be condemned and removed from the slaughtering department of the plant in equipment designated for that purpose and shall be destroyed for food purposes under the supervision of an inspector. The disposition of all carcasses an parts thereof, including the viscera, shall be under the control of a veterinary inspector. All final decisions as to wholesomeness of carcasses and parts of carcasses shall be made by the veterinary inspector or veterinary supervisor. Disposition of diseased carcasses and parts of carcasses shall be accordance with Part 11 - Disposal of Diseased Carcasses and Parts - of the Regulations Governing Meat Inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture.
f. All slaughtering operations and preparation and processing of products at any plant furnished inspection service under this ordinance shall be conducted in accordance with such further requirements as the City Council shall be regulation prescribe to assure that tall carcasses, and parts thereof, and products produced at the plant for human consumption are clean, sound, healthful and wholesome, and are not prepared or labeled in a false or deceptive manner.
g. All carcasses and parts thereof and products which have been suspected and approved by an inspector under this ordinance shall be marked with the legend “Inspected and passed City of Jonesboro” and an identifying number to be assigned to the plant by the City of Jonesboro.
h. All devices and other materials for use in the marking of carcasses and parts thereof and products under this ordinance shall remain at all times in the custody of an inspector.
Section 6: Assurance of Payment of Costs of Inspection: Before inspection service is instituted under this ordinance at any plant, the applicant shall agree to reimburse the City of Jonesboro for the salary and other incidental expenses of the inspection to be assigned to such plant, plus an amount, not in excess of 10(%) percent of the amount, of salary and expenses, to cover overhead and supervisory costs, which sums shall be used exclusively for the operation of the inspection service provided hereunder. The city agency may provide for advance payments or for the giving of bonds, letters of credit, or other assurance of payment.
Section 7: Suspension or Revocation of Certificates of Compliance: Any certification of compliance may be suspended or revoked by the City Council upon a determination by such agency, after opportunity for informal hearing has been given to the operator of the plant covered by the certificate, that such operator has failed to pay the prescribed fees for inspection under this ordinance, or has failed to maintain his plant in accordance with Section 4, or otherwise has failed to comply with any requirement imposed by this ordinance or by the regulations issued hereunder. Inspection service shall not be furnished at any plant while the certificate of compliance issued for it remains suspended or revoked.
Section 8: Cooperation; Rules and Regulations: Employees: The designated agent of the City Council is hereby authorized to cooperate with the United States Department of Agriculture and to carry out the purposes of this ordinance. The City Council shall employ and assign qualified veterinarians and other inspectors to perform the inspection service prescribed herein; provided, that veterinarians and other inspectors shall not be employed in excess of the number required to furnish such inspection service.
Section 9: Misuse of Marks and Devices: Any person who counterfeits or uses without authority under this ordinance, any mark or device prescribed for marking carcasses or parts thereof or products under this ordinance shall be guilty of an offence against this City and shall be punished by a fine of not less than $5.00 nor more than $100.00 or by imprisonment in the city jail for not less than 10 days nor more than one year, or both.
Section 10: Qualification of Inspectors: The inspection at slaughtering establishments must be conducted by either qualified graduate veterinarians, or by qualified meat inspectors. The veterinary inspectors or veterinary supervisors must review the inspection method of each meat inspector at least one on each day of slaughter and more frequently when the meat inspector is being trained. Supervision of all plant operations to assure conduct in a sanitary manner must be made at least daily, on days of operation, by the veterinary supervisor, veterinary inspector, a or by the meat inspector.
All inspectors must be employees of their respective State, county or city meat inspection or health service, and must be assigned and paid directly by their respective governmental agency. Under no circumstances may an inspector at any time perform work other than his meat inspection duties in any department of the plant, with or without pay.
Section 11: Short Title: This ordinance shall be called the JONESBORO MEAT INSPECTION ORDINANCE.
Section 12: Emergency Clause: The Council finds that there is no packinghouse or other establishment in the City of Jonesboro which is in position to furnish Federal grading for its meat products; that such grading is desirable and the passage and effectiveness of this ordinance is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety. An emergency is therefore declared to exist and this ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 20th day of February, 1961.