Arizona Administrative Code › Title 3 - AGRICULTURE › Chapter 2 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - ANIMAL SERVICES DIVISION › Article 11 - VOLUNTARY EGG GRADING PROGRAM › Section R3-2-1101 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 28, July 12, 2024
For the purpose of this Article, unless the context otherwise
				  requires, the terms in this section shall have the following meaning:
"Acceptable" means suitable for the purpose intended.
"Administrator" means the supervisor as defined in A.R.S.
				  §
									3-701.
"Ambient temperature" means the air temperature maintained
				  in an egg storage facility or transport vehicle.
"AMS" means Agricultural Marketing Service, United States
				  Department of Agriculture.
"Applicant" means any person or entity who requests any
				  grading service.
"Appeal grading" means a re-grading requested by a recipient
				  who is dissatisfied with an initial grading decision.
"Associate Director" means the associate director of the
				  animal service division.
"Auditing services" means the act of providing independent
				  verification of written quality assurance and value added standards for
				  production, processing and distribution of eggs. Auditing services are
				  performed by graders authorized by the Administrator to perform such audits and
				  the service provided will be in accordance with the provisions of this Article
				  for grading services, as appropriate.
"Cage mark" means any stain-type mark caused by an egg coming
				  in contact with a material that imparts a rusty or blackish appearance to the
				  shell.
"Case" means, when referring to containers, an egg case, as
				  used in commercial practice in the United States, holding 30 dozens of
				  eggs.
"Class" means any subdivision of a product based on essential
				  physical characteristics that differentiate between major groups of the same
				  size, kind, species, or method of processing.
"Chick papers" means the papers in which chicks are
				  delivered.
"Condition" means any condition (including, but not being
				  limited to, the state of preservation, cleanliness, soundness, whole-someness,
				  or fitness for human food) of any product which affects its merchantability.
"Consumer grades" means U.S. Grade AA, A, and B.
"Controlling person" means a person at least 21 years of age
				  legally accountable for operations and management of the egg production
				  plant.
"Department" or "AZDA" means the Arizona Department of
				  Agriculture.
"Director" means the Director of the Arizona Department of
				  Agriculture.
"Egg grading service" means the personnel who are actively
				  engaged in the administration, application, and direction of egg grading
				  programs and services pursuant to this Article.
"Eggs" means eggs of domesticated chickens.
"Eggs of current production" means eggs that are no more
				  than 21 days old.
"Grademark" means the official identification symbol used to
				  identify eggs officially graded by AZDA in accordance with this article.
"Grader" means any employee assigned by AZDA to investigate
				  and certify in accordance with this Article, the class, quality, quantity, or
				  condition of products.
"Grading or grading service" means the determination by a
				  grader that a product meets the standards of this Article regarding the class,
				  quality, quantity, or condition of the product for the purpose of issuing a
				  grade or grading certificate. Such determination may be performed by examining
				  all product units or representative samples drawn by the grader; may be
				  performed as a temporary, resident or non-resident grading service; and
				  includes regrading performed in response to an appeal of a previous grading
				  decision.
"Grading certificate" means a statement, either written or
				  printed, issued by a grader pursuant to this Article, relative to the class,
				  quantity, quality, or condition of products.
"Holiday or legal holiday" means the legal public holidays
				  specified by State of Arizona Accounting Manual (SAAM).
"Identify" means to apply a grademark to products or the
				  containers thereof.
"Interested party" means any person financially interested in
				  a transaction involving any grading, appeal grading, or regrading of any
				  product.
"Office of grading" means the office of any resident grader
				  at the plant.
"Official AZDA certificate" means any form of certification,
				  either written or printed, used under this Article to certify with respect to
				  the sampling, class, grade, quality, size, quantity, or condition of products
				  (including the compliance of products with applicable specifications).
"Official AZDA memorandum" means any initial record of
				  findings made by an authorized person in the process of grading or sampling
				  pursuant to this Article, any processing or plant-operation report made by an
				  authorized person in connection with grading or sampling under this Article,
				  and any report made by an authorized person of services performed pursuant to
				  this Article.
"Official AZDA mark" means the grademark and any other mark,
				  or any variations in such marks approved by the Administrator and authorized to
				  be affixed to any product, or affixed to or printed on the packaging material
				  of any product, stating that the product was graded, or indicating the
				  appropriate U.S. grade or condition of the product, or for the purpose of
				  maintaining the identity of products graded under this Article, including but
				  not limited to, those set forth in R3-2-1111.
"Official identification" means any AZDA standard
				  designation of class, grade, quality, size, quantity, or condition specified in
				  this Article or any symbol, stamp, label, logo, or seal indicating that the
				  product has been officially AZDA graded and/or indicating the class, grade,
				  quality, size, quantity, or condition of the product approved by the Supervisor
				  and authorized to be affixed to any product, or affixed to or printed on the
				  packaging material of any product.
"Official plant" means the facilities used for a shell egg
				  operation that has been approved by AZDA for grading purposes.
"Origin grading" means a grading made on a lot of eggs at a
				  plant where the eggs are graded and packed.
"Packaging" means the primary or immediate container in
				  which eggs are packaged and which serves to protect, preserve, and maintain the
				  condition of the eggs.
"Packing" means the secondary container in which the primary
				  or immediate container is placed to protect, preserve, and maintain the
				  condition of the eggs during transit or storage.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, association,
				  business trust, corporation, or any organized group of persons, whether
				  incorporated or not.
"Plant" means the facilities used for a shell egg
				  operation.
"Potable water" means water that has been approved by the
				  State health authority or agency or laboratory acceptable to the Administrator
				  as safe for drinking and suitable for food processing.
"Product or products" means eggs of the domesticated
				  chicken.
"Quality" means the inherent properties of any product which
				  determine its relative degree of excellence.
"Quality assurance inspector" means any designated company
				  employee other than the plant owner, manager, foreman, or supervisor,
				  authorized by the State supervisor to examine product and to supervise the
				  labeling, dating, and lotting of officially graded eggs and to assure that such
				  product is packaged under sanitary conditions, graded by authorized personnel,
				  and maintained under proper inventory control until released by an employee of
				  the Department.
"Recipient" means the individual or entity whose application
				  for grading services has been approved by the Department.
"Resident grading service" means continuous supervision, in
				  an official plant, of the handling or packaging of any product.
"Sampling" means the act of taking samples of any product
				  for grading or certification.
"SE" means
Salmonella
Enteritidis.
"Shell protected" means eggs which have had a protective
				  covering such as oil applied to the shell surface. The product used shall be
				  acceptable to the Food and Drug Administration.
"Shipped for retail sale" means eggs that are forwarded from
				  the processing facility for distribution to the ultimate consumer.
"State supervisor" means the immediate supervisor of a
				  Grader.
"Washed ungraded eggs" means eggs which have been washed and
				  that are either sized or unsized, but not segregated for
				  quality.