Connecticut Administrative Code › Title 21a - Consumer Protection › 115 - Connecticut Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act › Section 21a-115-14 - Definitions and standards and labeling regulations for meat and meat products

Current through July 10, 2024
(a)
Flesh.
Flesh is an edible part of the striated muscle of an
			 animal. The term "animal," as herein used, indicates a mammal, a fowl, a fish,
			 a crustacean, a mollusk or any other animal used as a source of food.
(b)
Meat.
Meat is the properly
			 dressed flesh derived from cattle, from swine, from sheep or from goats
			 sufficiently mature and in good health at the time of slaughter, but restricted
			 to that part of the striated muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in
			 the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart or in the esophagus, and does not
			 include that found in the lips, in the snout or in the ears, with or without
			 the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of bone, skin, sinew, nerve
			 and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh and which may not have
			 been separated from it in the process of dressing it for sale. The term "meat,"
			 when used in a qualified form, as, for example, "horse meat," "reindeer meat,"
			 "crab meat," etc., is then, and then only, properly applied to corresponding
			 portions of animals other than cattle, swine, sheep and goats.
(c)
Fresh meat.
Fresh meat is
			 meat which has undergone no substantial change in character since the time of
			 slaughter.
(d)
Beef.
Beef is meat derived from cattle nearly one year of age or older.
(e)
Veal.
Veal is meat derived
			 from young cattle one year or less in age.
(f)
Mutton.
Mutton is meat
			 derived from sheep nearly one year of age or older.
(g)
Lamb.
Lamb is meat derived
			 from young sheep one year or less in age.
(h)
Pork.
Pork is meat derived
			 from swine.
(i)
Venison.
Venison is flesh derived from deer.
(j)
Hamburg, hamburger.
Hamburg
			 or hamburger is comminuted fresh beef, with or without addition of suet. It
			 contains not more than thirty per cent of fat.
(k)
Meat loaf.
Meat loaf is the
			 product consisting of a mixture of comminuted meat with spice and/or with
			 cereals, with or without milk and/or eggs, pressed into the form of a loaf and
			 cooked.
(l)
Sausage.
The term "sausage" as used herein means the products commercially known as
			 "sausage," including varieties that are fresh, dried, smoked or cooked, whether
			 or not packed in casings. The more familiar varieties of sausage are pork
			 sausage and sausage of Frankfort, Vienna and Bologna styles. Pork sausage and
			 breakfast sausage, whether fresh, smoked or canned, shall not contain more than
			 fifty per cent of fat.
(m)
Optional ingredients.
(1) Cereal,
			 vegetable starch, starchy vegetable flour, soya flour, dried milk or dried skim
			 milk may be added to sausage, provided the presence of such added material
			 shall be declared in the manner hereinafter described and the amount of any one
			 of these substances, or any combination of them, shall not exceed three and
			 one-half per cent.
(2) For the
			 purpose of facilitating grinding, chopping and mixing, not more than three per
			 cent of water or ice may be added to sausage which is not cooked and to
			 luncheon meat; sausage of the type which is cooked, such as Frankfort style,
			 Vienna style and Bologna style, may contain not more than ten per cent of added
			 water or moisture to make the product palatable.
(3) Certified artificial coloring may be used
			 in the preparation of sausage casings, but when so used the fact shall be
			 declared in the manner hereinafter provided.
(4) No preservative may be used in meat or
			 meat products sold, or required by definition to be, fresh meat. Permissible
			 preservative and curing agents for preserved meats and meat products are common
			 salt, sugar (sucrose), corn sugar (dextrose), wood smoke, vinegar, spices,
			 sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate (saltpeter), potassium
			 nitrite, disodium phosphate and benzoate of soda. The sale of meats containing
			 sodium sulphite or other salt of sulphurus acid is prohibited. The use of any
			 of the nitrates or nitrites listed above shall not result in the presence of
			 nitrite nitrogen equivalent to more than two hundred parts per million of
			 sodium nitrite in the finished product. The maximum quantities of sodium
			 nitrite and/or potassium nitrite that may be used are as follows: Two pounds in
			 one hundred gallons of pickle; or one ounce for each one hundred pounds of meat
			 in dry salt, dry cure or box cure; or one-quarter ounce in one hundred pounds
			 of chopped meat and/or meat by-products. With appropriate declaration, the
			 following preservatives may be added, in the amounts indicated, to render
			 animal fat or a combination of such fat and vegetable fat:
(A) Resin guaiac not to exceed
			 1/10 of 1 per cent; or
(B) nordihydroguaiaretic acid not
			 to exceed 1/100 of 1 per
			 cent; or
(C) tocopherols not to
			 exceed 3/100 of 1 per cent;
			 or
(D) lecithin; or
(E) citric acid not to exceed
			 1/100 of 1 per cent; or
(F) citric or phosphoric acid not
			 to exceed 5/1000 of 1 per
			 cent, in combination with not more than
			 1/100 of 1 per cent of
			 nordihydroguaiaretic acid; or
(G)
			 propyl gallate not to exceed
			 1/100 of 1 per cent; or
(H) propyl gallate not to exceed
			 1/100 of 1 per cent in
			 combination with not more than
			 5/1000 of 1 per cent of
			 citric acid; or
(I) thiodipropionic
			 acid, dilauryl thiodipropionate, distearyl thiodipropionate or combinations
			 thereof in quantities not to exceed
			 1/100 of 1 per cent of
			 thiodipropionic acid and
			 9/100 of 1 per cent of either
			 dilauryl thiodipropionate or distearyl thiodipropionate or combinations of the
			 two; or
(J) butylated hydroxyanisole
			 (a mixture of 2-tertiary-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole and 3-tertiary-butyl-4
			 hydroxyanisole) or combinations of butylated hydroxyanisole with
			 nordidydroguaiaretic acid or propyl gallate with or without the addition of
			 citric or phosphoric acid, in quantities not to exceed
			 2/100 of 1 per cent of
			 butylated hydroxyanisole, or
			 1/100 of 1 per cent of
			 nordihydroguaiaretic acid plus
			 2/100 of 1 per cent of
			 butylated hydroxyanisole, or
			 1/100 of 1 per cent propyl
			 gallate plus 2/100 of 1 per
			 cent of butylated hydroxyanisole. Citric or phosphoric acid, not to exceed
			 5/1000 of 1 per cent, may be
			 added with any of these.