Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 216 - Department of health › Chapter 50 - Environmental health › Subchapter 10 - Food Protection › Part 6 - Processing and Distribution of Shellfish › Section 216-RICR-50-10-6.2 - Definitions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. For the purpose of these Regulations,
				  these terms shall have the following meaning:
1. "Approved" means approved by the
				  Director.
2. "Buy boat" means a
				  boat that is considered to be an extension of the shellfish business facility.
				  Boats can only operate in open harvest areas.
3. "Certification" or "certify" means the
				  issuance of a numbered certificate to a person for a particular activity or
				  group of activities that indicates:
a.
				  Permission from the Director to conduct the activity; and
b. Compliance with the requirements of this
				  Part.
4. "Certification
				  number" means the unique identification number issued by the Director to each
				  dealer for each location. Each certification number shall consist of a one (1)
				  to five (5) digit Arabic number preceded by the two (2) letter State
				  abbreviation and followed by a two (2) letter abbreviation for the type of
				  activity or activities the dealer is qualified to perform in accordance with
				  this Part using the following terms: shell stock shipper (SS), shucker-packer
				  (SP), repacker (RP), and reshipper (RS).
5. "Commingle or commingling" means the act
				  of combining different lots of shellfish or shucked shellfish.
6. "Compliance schedule" means a written
				  schedule that provides a correction time period to eliminate Key and Other
				  deficiencies.
7. "Critical control
				  point" means a point, step, or procedure in a food process at which control can
				  be applied, and a food safety hazard can as a result be prevented, eliminated,
				  or reduced to acceptable levels.
8.
				  "Critical deficiency" means a condition or practice which:
a. Results in the production of a product
				  that is unwholesome; or
b.
				  Presents a threat to the health or safety of the consumer.
9. "Critical limit" means the maximum or
				  minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical parameter must be
				  controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an
				  acceptable level the occurrence of the identified food safety hazard.
10. "Dealer" means any individual, trust or
				  estate, partnership, corporation (including associations, joint stock
				  companies), or limited liability company engaged in shellfish business as
				  defined in §
											6.2   of this Part.
11. "Department" means the Rhode Island
				  Department of Health.
12.
				  "Director" means the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health or the
				  Director's duly appointed agents.
13. "Dry storage" means the storage of
				  shellstock out of water.
14. "Food
				  contact surface" means an equipment surface or utensil which normally comes
				  into direct or indirect contact with shucked shellfish.
15. "Food safety hazard" means any
				  biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause a food to be unsafe
				  for human consumption.
16. "HACCP"
				  is an acronym that stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, a
				  systematic, science-based approach used in food production as a means to assure
				  food safety. The concept is built upon the seven (7) principles identified by
				  the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods
				  (1992).
17. "HACCP plan" means a
				  written document that delineates the formal procedures that a dealer follows to
				  implement the HACCP requirements set forth in
				   21 C.F.R. §
												123.6  as adopted by the
				  Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference.
18. "Harvest area" means an area that
				  contains commercial quantities of shellstock and may include aquaculture sites
				  and facilities.
19. "Harvest time"
				  means the time when the first shellstock in a lot is taken from the water or,
				  in the case of intertidal harvest, the time of first exposure.
20. "Key deficiency" means a condition or
				  practice which may result in adulterated, decomposed, misbranded or unwholesome
				  product.
21. "License" means the
				  document issued by the Director to a person to harvest or transport shellstock
				  for commercial sale.
22.
				  "Operational plan" means a written description of the design and activities of
				  the facility specific to, but not limited to, the species of shellfish to be
				  processed, the source of the shellfish to be processed, how the shellfish will
				  be processed, and how the required records will be maintained.
23. "Other deficiency" means a condition or
				  practice that is not defined as critical or key and is not in accordance with
				  the requirements of this Part.
24.
				  "Person" means any individual, firm, co-partnership, association, or private or
				  municipal corporation.
25.
				  "Preventive measure" means physical, chemical, or other factors that can be
				  used to control an identified food safety hazard.
26. "Primary dealer" means a dealer who
				  purchases shellfish directly from the harvester.
27. "Processing" means any activity
				  associated with the handling, shucking, freezing, packing, labeling or storing
				  of shellfish in preparation for distribution.
28. "Raw" means shellfish that have not been
				  thermally processed:
a. To an internal
				  temperature of one hundred forty-five degrees Fahrenheit (145° F)
				  (sixty-two and eight tenths degrees Centigrade (62.8° C)) or greater for
				  fifteen (15) seconds (or equivalent); or
b. Altering the organoleptic
				  characteristics.
29.
				  "Repacker" or "RP" means:
a. Any person who
				  repacks shucked shellfish; and
b.
				  Any person who repacks shellstock.
30. "Repacking shellfish" means the practice
				  of removing shellfish from containers and placing it into other
				  containers.
31. "Reshipper" or "RS"
				  means any person who purchases shellfish or shucked shellfish from dealers and
				  sells the product without repacking or relabeling to other dealers, wholesalers
				  or retailers.
32. "Sanitize" means
				  to adequately treat food contact surfaces by a process that is effective in:
a. Destroying vegetative cells of
				  microorganisms of public health significance;
b. Substantially reducing the numbers of
				  other undesirable microorganisms; and
c. Not adversely affecting the product or its
				  safety for the consumer.
33. "Secondary dealer", as used in this Part,
				  means a dealer who does not buy from harvesters.
34. "Shellfish" means and include oysters,
				  mussels, and all varieties of clams and scallops except where the final product
				  will be the adductor muscle only whether:
a.
				  Shucked or in the shell;
b. Raw,
				  including post-harvest processed;
c. Frozen or unfrozen; or
d. Whole or in part.
35. "Shellfish business" means and include
				  one (1) of the following: processing, labeling, storing, or transporting except
				  by common carrier, shellfish which are to be offered for sale or
				  sold.
36. "Shellstock" means raw,
				  in-shell molluscan shellfish.
37.
				  "Shellstock shipper" or "SS" means any person who buys, repacks, sells, ships
				  or receives shellstock.
38.
				  "Shucked shellfish" means molluscan shellfish that have one (1) or both shells
				  removed.
39. "Shucker-packer" or
				  "SP" means any person who shucks shellfish. A shucker-packer may act as a
				  shellstock shipper or reshipper or may repack shellfish originating from other
				  certified dealers.
40. "Tag" means
				  a record of harvesting information attached to a container of shellstock by the
				  harvester, processor or dealer.
41.
				  "Transaction record" means the form or forms used to document each purchase or
				  sale of shellfish at the wholesale level, and includes shellfish harvest and
				  sales records, ledgers, purchase records, invoices and bills of
				  lading.
42. "Wet storage" means the
				  storage, by a dealer, of shellstock from growing areas in the Approved
				  classification or in the open status of the Conditionally Approved
				  classification in containers or floats in natural bodies of water or in tanks
				  containing natural or synthetic seawater at any permitted land-based activity
				  or facility.