Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 481 - Inspections and Appeals Department › Inspections Division › Chapter 34 - Home Food Processing Establishments › Rule 481-34.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise
				  requires:
"Acidified foods"
means low-acid foods to
				  which an acid or high-acid food is added. Acidified foods have a water activity
				  (aw) greater than 0.85 and have a finished equilibrium
				  pH of 4.60 or below. These foods may be called or may purport to be "pickles"
				  or "pickled."
"Active water"
or
"water
				  activity"
or
"(aw)"
means the
				  measured free moisture in a food. The quotient of the water vapor pressure of
				  the food divided by the vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature
				  provides the measured free moisture in the food.
"Adulterated"
means the same as stated
				  21 U.S.C. Section
				  342 as amended to January 3, 2022.
"Allergen cross contact"
means the
				  unintentional incorporation of a food allergen into a food.
"Contractor"
means a municipal corporation,
				  county, or other political subdivision that contracts with the department to
				  license and inspect under Iowa Code chapter 137D.
"Cross contamination"
means the inadvertent
				  transfer of bacteria or other contaminants from one surface, substance, etc.,
				  to another, especially because of unsanitary handling procedures.
"Demonstrate control"
means the ability to
				  provide clear and convincing evidence that a home food processing establishment
				  has implemented written standard processes and practices that are intended to
				  control food safety hazards including but not limited to standardized recipes,
				  standard operating procedures, personal hygiene standards, temperature
				  monitoring records, equipment calibration records, production or batch records,
				  sanitation records, predefined corrective actions, training documents,
				  distribution records, and receiving records.
"Department"
means the same as defined in
				  Iowa Code section 137D.1.
"Equilibrium pH"
means the final pH measured
				  in a food after all the components of the food have achieved the same
				  acidity.
"Fermentation"
means a metabolic process in
				  which an organism converts a carbohydrate, such as starch or a sugar, into an
				  alcohol or an acid. For example, yeast performs fermentation by converting
				  sugar into alcohol. Bacteria perform fermentation by converting carbohydrates
				  into lactic acid.
"Fish"
means fresh or saltwater finfish,
				  crustaceans, and other forms of aquatic life (including alligator, frog,
				  aquatic turtle, jellyfish, sea cucumber, and sea urchin and the roe of such
				  animals) other than birds or mammals, and all mollusks, if such animal life is
				  intended for human consumption.
"Food"
means the same as defined in Iowa
				  Code section 137D.1.
"Food contact surface"
means a surface of
				  equipment or utensil with which food normally comes into contact; or a surface
				  of equipment or utensil from which food may drip, drain, or splash into a food
				  or onto a surface normally in contact with food.
"Game animal"
means an animal, the products
				  of which are food, that is not classified as livestock, sheep, swine, goat,
				  horse, mule, or other equine in
				  9 CFR
				  301.2 or as poultry or fish.
1. "Game animal" includes mammals, such as
				reindeer, elk, deer, antelope, water buffalo, bison, rabbit, squirrel, opossum,
				raccoon, nutria, or muskrat, and nonaquatic reptiles, such as land
				snakes.
2. "Game animal" does not
				include ratites.
"HACCP plan"
means a written document that
				  delineates the formal procedures for following the hazard analysis and critical
				  control point principles developed by the National Advisory Committee on
				  Microbiological Criteria for Foods.
"High-acid food"
means a food that has an
				  equilibrium pH of 4.60 or lower without the addition of an acid.
"Home food processing establishment"
or
"establishment"
means the same as "home food processing
				  establishment" as defined in Iowa Code section
				  137D.1.
"Homemade food item"
means the same as
				  defined in Iowa Code section
				  137D.1. Homemade food items do
				  not include the following:
1.
				Unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice;
2. Raw sprout seeds;
3. Foods containing game animals;
4. Fish or shellfish;
5. Alcoholic beverages;
6. Bottled water;
7. Packaged ice;
8. Consumable hemp products;
9. Food that will be further processed by a
				food processing plant or another home food processing establishment;
10. Time/temperature control for safety food
				packaged using a reduced oxygen packaging method;
11. Milk or milk products regulated under
				Iowa Code chapters 192 and 194;
12.
				Meat or meat food products, and poultry or poultry products regulated under
				Iowa Code chapter 189A, except for any of the following products when sold
				directly to the end consumer:
* Poultry, poultry byproduct, or poultry food product if the
				  producer raised the poultry pursuant to the exemption set forth in
				  9 CFR
				  381.10(c)(1) limiting the
				  producer to slaughtering not more than one thousand poultry during the calendar
				  year;
* Poultry, poultry byproduct, or poultry food product if the
				  poultry is from an inspected source exempted pursuant to
				  9 CFR
				  381.10(d); or
* Meat, meat byproduct, or meat food product if the meat is
				  from an inspected source exempted pursuant to
				  9 CFR
				  303.1(d); or
13. A raw agricultural commodity.
				Other than raw bean or seed sprouts, raw agricultural commodities do not
				require a license issued by the department to sell and may be sold by home food
				processing establishments, although they are not homemade food items.
"Low-acid canned food"
means a thermally
				  processed low-acid food packaged in a hermetically sealed container.
"Low-acid food"
means any food, other than
				  alcoholic beverages, with a pH greater than 4.60 and
				  (aw) greater than 0.85.
"Major food allergen"
means milk, egg, fish,
				  crustacean shellfish (such as crab, lobster, or shrimp), tree nuts (such as
				  almonds, pecans, or walnuts), wheat, peanuts, soybeans, and sesame; or a food
				  ingredient that contains protein derived from these foods.
"Packaged"
means bottled, canned, cartoned,
				  bagged, or wrapped. "Packaged" does not include wrapped or placed in a
				  carry-out container to protect the food during service or delivery to the
				  consumer, by a food employee, upon consumer request.
"pH"
means the symbol for the negative
				  logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration, which is a measure of the degree
				  of acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Values between 0 and 7 indicate
				  acidity, and values between 7 and 14 indicate alkalinity. The value for pure
				  distilled water is 7, which is considered neutral.
"Produce"
means the same as defined in Iowa
				  Code section 137D.1.
"Raw agricultural commodity"
means the same
				  as defined in 21 U.S.C.
				  Section 321 as amended to April 1,
				  2023.
"Ready-to-eat food"
means any food that is
				  normally eaten in its raw state or any other food, including a processed food,
				  for which it is reasonably foreseeable that the food will be eaten without
				  further processing that would significantly minimize biological hazards.
"Recall"
means an action taken when a food
				  producer takes a product off the market because there is reason to believe the
				  product may cause consumers to become ill.
"Reduced oxygen packaging"
means reducing
				  the amount of oxygen in a package by removing oxygen, displacing oxygen and
				  replacing it with another gas or combination of gases, or otherwise controlling
				  the oxygen content to a level below that normally found in the atmosphere
				  (approximately 21 percent at sea level). Reduced oxygen packaging includes
				  vacuum packaging, modified atmosphere packaging, controlled atmosphere
				  packaging, cook chill packaging, and sous vide packaging.
"Shellfish"
1. "Crustacean shellfish" means crab, lobster
				and shrimp.
2. "Molluscan
				shellfish" means any edible species of oysters, clams, mussels, or
				scallops.
"Special dietary use food"
includes a food
				  that contains an artificial sweetener, except when specifically and solely used
				  for achieving a physical characteristic in the food that cannot be achieved
				  with sugar or other nutritive sweetener or a food that is used for the
				  following:
1. Supplying particular
				dietary needs that exist by reason of a physical, physiological, pathological,
				or other condition including but not limited to the conditions of diseases,
				convalescence, pregnancy, lactation, allergic hypersensitivity to food,
				underweight, and overweight;
2.
				Supplying particular dietary needs that exist by reason of age including but
				not limited to infancy and childhood; or
3. Supplementing or fortifying the ordinary
				or usual diet with any vitamin, mineral, or other dietary property. Any such
				particular use of a food is a special dietary use, regardless of whether such
				food also purports to be or is represented for general use.
"Sprouts"
means seeds or beans used to grow
				  sprouts that are harvested with their seed or root intact.
"Standardized recipe"
means a recipe that
				  has been tried, adapted, and retried several times for use by a given food
				  service operation and has been found to produce the same good results and yield
				  every time when the exact procedures are followed with the same type of
				  equipment and same quantity and quality of ingredients. At a minimum, a
				  standardized recipe includes the recipe name, listing of each ingredient, a
				  measurement of each ingredient, equipment and utensils used, preparation
				  instructions, and procedures to ensure the safety of the food.
"Time/temperature control for safety"
or
"TCS"
means a food that requires time and temperature control
				  for safety to limit pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation. TCS
				  food does not include foods that have an equilibrium pH less than 4.60 or
				  (aw) content below 0.85. Examples of TCS foods
				  include:
1. Animal food that is raw or
				heat-treated.
2. Plant food that is
				heat-treated or consists of raw seed sprouts, cut melons, cut leafy greens, cut
				tomatoes, or garlic-in-oil mixtures.
"Traceback"
means to determine and document
				  the distribution and production chain and the source(s) of a product that has
				  been implicated in a foodborne illness investigation.