2023 Tennessee Code › Title 53 - FOOD, DRUGS AND COSMETICS (§§ 53-1-101 — 53-15-103) › Chapter 7 - MEAT INSPECTION AND REGULATIONS (§§ 53-7-101 — 53-7-307) › Part 2 - TENNESSEE MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTION ACT (§§ 53-7-201 — 53-7-221) › Section 53-7-206 - Prohibited acts

The following acts or the causing of the following acts within this state is prohibited:
(1)
The processing for, or the sale or offering for sale, transportation, or delivery or receiving for transportation, in intrastate commerce, of any livestock carcass or part of any livestock carcass, meat food product, or poultry product, unless the article has been inspected for wholesomeness, and unless the article and its shipping container and immediate container, if any, are marked in accordance with the requirements under this part or the federal Meat Inspection Act (
21 U.S.C. § 601
et seq.), or the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (
21 U.S.C. § 451
et seq.);
(2)
The sale or other disposition for human food of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product that has been inspected and declared to be unwholesome or adulterated under this part;
(3)
Falsely making or issuing, altering, forging, simulating, or counterfeiting, or using without proper authority any official inspection certificate, memorandum, mark, or other identification, or device for making the mark or identification, used in connection with inspection under this part, or causing, procuring, aiding, assisting in, or being a party to, the false making, issuing, altering, forging, simulating, counterfeiting, or unauthorized use, or knowingly processing, without promptly notifying the commissioner or the commissioner's representative, uttering, publishing, or using as true, or causing to be uttered, published, or used as true, any falsely made or issued, altered, forged, simulated, or counterfeited official inspection certificate, memorandum, mark, or other identification, or device for making the mark or identification, or representing that any article has been officially inspected under the authority of this part when the article has in fact not been so inspected, or knowingly making any false representation in any certificate prescribed by the commissioner in rules or regulations under this part or any form resembling the certificate;
(4)
Using in intrastate commerce a false or misleading label on any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product;
(5)
Engaging in or abetting another in bait and switch tactics in promoting for sale and selling livestock and poultry carcasses or parts of any livestock or poultry carcass, or meat products or poultry products and using false or misleading advertisements or for any advertising medium to knowingly publish false or misleading advertising;
(6)
Using any container bearing an official inspection mark, except for the article in the original form in which it was inspected and covered by the mark, unless the mark is removed, obliterated or otherwise destroyed;
(7)
Refusing to permit access by any duly authorized representative of the commissioner, at all reasonable times, to the premises of an establishment in this state at which livestock or poultry are slaughtered or livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses or parts of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses, meat, meat food products, or poultry products are processed for intrastate commerce, upon presentation of appropriate credentials;
(8)
Refusing to permit access to and the copying of any record as authorized by §
53-7-208
;
(9)
Using by any person to the person's own advantage, or revealing, other than to the authorized representatives of any government agency in their official capacity, or to the courts when relevant in any judicial proceeding, any information acquired under the authority of this part, concerning any matter that is entitled to protection as a trade secret;
(10)
Holding, delivering, receiving, transporting, selling, or offering for sale or transportation in intrastate commerce, for human consumption, any uneviscerated slaughtered poultry, or any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product that has been processed in violation of any requirements under this part, except as may be authorized by and pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner;
(11)
Holding, delivering, receiving, transporting, selling, or offering for sale or transportation in intrastate commerce any livestock or poultry carcass or part of any livestock or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product exempted under §
53-7-209
that is unwholesome or adulterated, and is intended for human consumption;
(12)
Applying to any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product, or poultry product, or any container of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass or any part of any livestock, deer, or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product, any official inspection mark or label required under this part, except by, or under the supervision of, an inspector;
(13)
Refusing to make application for a license and refusing to pay, or operating a plant without payment of all license and inspection fees;
(14)
Removing or selling any article detained or embargoed by an inspector;
(15)
Violating any rule or regulation as authorized by this part;
(16)
Disposing of or selling any dead, dying, diseased or disabled animals or poultry or carcasses or parts of any carcasses, except in a manner as prescribed by regulations of the commissioner; and
(17)
The continued operation of any custom or commercial slaughterhouse or meat or poultry processing establishment that is in an unsanitary condition or that fails to comply with the specifications and standards that have been established by regulation by the commissioner.
Acts 1967, ch. 99, § 6; 1969, ch. 108, § 1; 1974, ch. 626, § 1; T.C.A., § 52-920; Acts 2007 , ch. 421, §§ 9-13.