The following definitions apply in this chapter.
- (1) "Carcass" means all or any parts, including viscera, of a slaughtered animal capable of being used for human food.
- (2) "Equipment" means all machinery, fixtures, containers, vessels, tools, implements, and apparatus used in and around a custom slaughtering or meat handling establishment, and vehicles used to transport meat.
- (3) "Meat" means the carcass, parts of carcass, meat and meat food products derived in whole or in part from meat food animals.
- (4) "Meat by-product" means any edible part other than meat that has been derived from one or more meat food animals.
- (5) "Meat food bird" for the purposes of processing the carcass shall mean a ratite weighing over one hundred pounds live weight. Ratites weighing less than one hundred pounds live weight may be processed either as poultry or as a "meat food bird."
- (6) "Meat handling establishment" means any place of business where uninspected meat is stored, frozen, cut, wrapped, or otherwise prepared.
- (7) "Identifying" means marking, stamping or tagging each half, quarter, and edible part of slaughtered food animal carcasses in a manner approved by the director, for the purpose of tracing such part to the person doing the slaughtering.
- (8) "Operator" includes any owner, lessee, or manager of a custom slaughtering or meat handling establishment.
- (9) "Prepared" means canned, salted, rendered, boned, cut up or otherwise manufactured, or processed.
- (10) "Prepackaged inspected meat" means any inspected meat or meat food product prepared from inspected meat processed or prepared by establishments subject to inspection under a federal meat inspection act and packaged and sealed in a container or wrapping bearing the mark of federal inspection.
- (11) "Unwholesome" includes meat products that may be diseased, contaminated, putrid, unsound, unhealthful, or otherwise unfit for slaughter for any reason that would make them unfit for human food.
- (12) "Sanitize" means use of an effective bactericidal treatment process that provides enough accumulated heat or concentration of chemicals for a period of time sufficient to reduce the bacterial count, including pathogens, to a safe level.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 16.49.680. WSR 99-12-021, § 16-19-015, filed 5/24/99, effective 6/24/99.]