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 53-7-203 - Ante mortem and post mortem inspections - Quarantine, seizure, tagging, and destruction or reprocessing - Procedures

(a)
(1)
For the purpose of preventing the entry into or movement in intrastate commerce of any livestock or poultry carcass, part of any livestock or poultry carcass, meat food product or poultry product that is unwholesome or adulterated and is intended for or capable of use as human food, the commissioner shall, where and to the extent considered by the commissioner necessary, cause to be made by inspectors ante mortem inspection of livestock and poultry in any official establishment where livestock or poultry are slaughtered for intrastate commerce.
(2)
For the purpose stated in subdivision (a)(1), the commissioner, whenever slaughtering or other processing operations are being conducted, shall cause to be made by inspectors post mortem inspection of the carcasses and parts of carcasses of each animal and bird slaughtered in any official establishment, and shall cause to be made by inspectors an inspection of all meat food products and poultry products processed in any official establishment in which meat food products or poultry products are processed for intrastate commerce.
(b)
(1)
The commissioner shall cause, at any time, quarantine, seizure, segregation, and reinspection of livestock and poultry, livestock and poultry carcasses and parts of livestock or poultry carcasses, meat food products and poultry products in official establishments that the commissioner deems necessary to effectuate the purposes of this part.
(2)
Whenever a duly authorized agent of the commissioner finds, or has probable cause to believe, that any livestock or poultry carcasses or part of livestock or poultry carcasses, processed meat food products or poultry products, in an official establishment or in other trade channels where the product is held or offered for sale, is adulterated or misbranded so as to be fraudulent or has been prepared, packed, processed or held under conditions whereby it may have become contaminated within the meaning of this part, the agent shall affix to the article a tag or other appropriate marking, giving notice that the article is, or is suspected of being, adulterated or misbranded and has been detained or quarantined, and warning all persons not to remove or dispose of the article by sale or otherwise until permission for removal or disposal is given by the agent or the court. It is unlawful for any person to remove or dispose of detained or quarantined articles by sale or otherwise without permission.
(3)
All livestock and poultry carcasses and parts of livestock or poultry carcasses, meat food products, and poultry products found by an inspector to be unwholesome or adulterated in any official establishment or other trade channels where the product is held or offered for sale, shall be condemned and shall, if no appeal be taken from the determination of condemnation, be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector; provided, that articles that may, by reprocessing, be made not unwholesome and not adulterated need not be so condemned and destroyed if so reprocessed under the supervision of an inspector and thereafter found to be not unwholesome and not adulterated or not misbranded. If any appeal is taken to the commissioner from the determination, the articles shall be appropriately marked and segregated pending completion of an appeal inspection, which appeal shall be at the cost of the appellant if the commissioner determines that the appeal is frivolous or without merit. If the determination of condemnation is sustained, the articles shall be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector.
(c)
One (1) inspector may be assigned to two (2) or more establishments where few animals are slaughtered or where small quantities of carcasses, meat or poultry or meat food products and poultry products are processed. When inspector assignments are made, the commissioner shall designate the days and hours when slaughtering and processing will be done.
(d)
The licensee shall pay for devices and supplies used for marking and stamping and for carcass and meat containers and labels. The devices and supplies shall be under the control of the inspector.
Acts 1967, ch. 99, § 3; T.C.A., § 52-917.