Miscellaneous documents-Continued Letter from Dr. Janet L. MacDonald, chairman, social studies com- mittee, and Mrs. James W. Kideney, chairman, legislative program committee, American Association of University Women... Letter from S. W. Barker, director, poultry department, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, Chicago, Letter from Andrew E. Danish, president, Northeastern Poultry Pro- SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND GENERAL LEGISLATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a. m., in room 324, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C., Senator Earle C. Clements presiding. Present: Senators Clements and Williams. Senator CLEMENTS. The committee will come to order. The subcommittee is assembled this morning for the purpose of hearing witnesses who desire to testify on S. 3588, introduced by Senator Aiken, for himself and a number of other Members of the Senate, and S. 3983, introduced by Senator Murray, for himself, and a number of other Senators. They will be made a part of the record at this point. (S. 3588, S. 3983, and departmental reports are as follows:) [S. 3588, 84th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To provide for the compulsory inspection by the United States Department of Agriculture of poultry and poultry products Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this act may be cited as the "Poultry Products Inspection Act." LEGISLATIVE FINDING SEC. 2. Wholesome poultry products are an important source of the Nation's total supply of food. Such products are consumed throughout the Nation and substantial quantities thereof move in interstate and foreign commerce. Unwholesome poultry products in the channels of interstate or foreign commerce are injurious to the public welfare, adversely affect the marketing of wholesome poultry products, result in sundry losses to producers, and destroy markets for wholesome poultry products. The marketing of wholesome poultry products is affected with the public interest and directly affects the welfare of the people. All poultry and poultry products which have or are required to have inspection under this Act are either in the current of interstate or foreign commerce or directly affect such commerce. That part that enters directly into the current interstate or foreign commerce cannot be effectively inspected and regulated without also inspecting and regulating all poultry and poultry products processed or handled in the same establishment. The great volume of poultry products required as an article of food for the inhabitants of large centers of population directly affects the movement of poultry and poultry products in interstate commerce. To protect interstate commerce in poultry and poultry products inspected for wholesomeness, from being adversely burdened, obstructed, or affected by uninspected poultry or poultry products, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized after public hear 1 · ing to ascertain from time to time and to designate cities or areas where poultry or poultry products are handled or consumed in such volume as to affect the movement of inspected poultry or poultry products in interstate commerce. DECLARATION OF POLICY SEC. 3. It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to provide for the inspection of poultry and poultry products by the inspection service as herein provided to prevent the movement in interstate or foreign commerce or in a designated city or area of poultry products which are unwholesome or otherwise unfit for human food. DESIGNATION SEC. 4. The Secretary is authorized to ascertain from time to time the cities or areas where poultry or poultry products are handled or consumed in such volume as to affect, burden, or obstuct the movement of inspected poultry products in commerce. Whenever, after public hearing, he finds that the designation of such a city or area will tend to effectuate the purposes of this act, he shall by publication in the Federal Register give public notice of such designation and the effective date thereof which shall not be less than six months after such notice. On and after the effective date of such designation, all poultry and poultry products processed, sold, received, or delivered in any such designated city or area shall be subject to the provisions of this Act. INSPECTION All SEC. 5. (a) For the purpose of preventing the entry into or flow or movement in commerce or in a designated city or area of any poultry product which is unwholesome, the Secretary shall, whenever processing operations are being conducted, make such examination, inspection (ante mortem, post mortem, or both) and reinspection as he determines necessary of poultry and of poultry products in any official establishment processing such poultry or poultry products for commerce or in, or for marketing in a designated city or area. carcasses and parts thereof and poultry products found to be unwholesome shall be condemned and shall, if no appeal be taken from such determination of condemnation, be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector. If an appeal be taken from such determination, the product shall be appropriately marked and segregated pending completion of an appeal inspection, which appeal shall be at the cost of the appellant if the Secretary determines that the appeal is frivolous. If the determination of condemnation is sustained the product shall be destroyed for human food purposes under the supervision of an inspector. (b) The Secretary shall refuse to render inspection to any establishment whose premises, facilities, or equipment, or the operation thereof, fail to meet the requirements of section 6 of this Act. SANITATION, FACILITIES AND PRACTICES SEC. 6. Each official establishment slaughtering poultry or processing poultry products for commerce or in or for marketing in a designated city or area shall have such premises, facilities and equipment, and be operated in accordance with such sanitary practices, as are required and approved by the Secretary for the purpose of preventing the entry into or flow or movement in commence or in a designated city or area, of poultry products which are unwholesome. LABELING SEC. 7. (a) Each shipping container of any poultry product inspected under the authority of this Act and found to be wholesome, shall at the time such product leaves the official establishment bear, in distinctly legible form, the official inspection mark, the name of the product, an accurate statement of the quantity of the contents in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count, and the name and address or an approved plant number of the official establishment in which the contents were processed. Each individual consumer package, if any, of any poultry product inspected under the authority of this Act and found to be wholesome shall bear, in addition to the official inspection mark, in distinctly legible form, the name of the product, a statement of ingredients if fabricated from two or more ingredients the net weight or other appropriate measure of the contents, and the name and address or approved plant number of the official establishment in which the contents were processed: Provided, That the name and address of the distributor may be used if the approved plant number is used to identify the official establishment in which the poultry product was prepared and packed. The Secretary may permit reasonable variations and grant exemptions from any labeling requirement in such manner as he may determine practicable. (b) The use of any written, printed, or graphic matter upon or accompanying any poultry product inspected or required to be inspected pursuant to the provisions of this Act or the container thereof which is false or misleading 18 prohibited. If the Secretary has reason to believe that any label in use or prepared for use is false or misleading, he may direct that the use of the label be withheld unless it is modified in such manner as the Secretary may prescribe so that it will not be false or misleading. If the person using or proposing to use the label does not accept the determination of the Secretary, he may request a hearing, but the use of the label shall, if the Secretary so directs, be withheld pending hearing and final determination by the Secretary. Any such determination by the Secretary shall be conclusive unless within thirty days after the receipt of notice of such final determination the person adversely affected thereby appeals to the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which he has his principal place of business or to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The provisions of section 204 of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, as amended, shall be applicable to appeals taken under this section. PROHIBITED ACTS SEC. 8. The following acts or the causing thereof are hereby prohibited: (a) The processing, sale, or offering for sale, in commerce, or the introduction, delivery for introduction, transportation, or receiving for transportation, in coinmerce, of any poultry product, unless such poultry product has been inspected for wholesomeness and unless the shipping container and the individual consumer package, if any, are marked in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (b) The processing, delivery, sale, or offering for sale or transport of any poultry product in a designated city or area, unless such poultry product has been inspected for wholesomeness in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (c) The sale or other disposition for human food of any poultry or poultry product which has been inspected and declared to be unwholesome under this Act. (d) Knowingly and falsely making or issuing, altering, forging, simulating, or counterfeiting any official inspection certificate, mark, or device for making such mark, or knowingly causing, procuring, aiding, assisting in, or being a party to, such false making or issuing, altering, forging, simulating, or counterfeiting, or knowingly possessing, without promptly notifying the Secretary of Agriculture or his representative, uttering, or using as true, or causing to be uttered or used as true, any such falsely made or issued, altered, forged, simulated, or counterfeited official inspection certificate, mark, or device for making such mark, or knowingly representing that any poultry product has been officially inspected under the authority of this Act when such poultry product has in fact not been so inspected. (e) Knowingly using in commerce, or in a designated city or area, a false or misleading label on any poultry product. (f) The use of any container bearing an official inspection mark except for the poultry product in the original form in which it was inspected and covered by said mark unless the mark is removed, obliterated, or otherwise destroyed. (g) The refusal to permit access by any duly authorized representative of the Secretary, at all reasonable times, to the premises of an establishment engaged in processing poultry or poultry products for commerce, or in or for mar keting in a designated city or area, upon presentation of appropriate credentials. (h) The refusal to permit access to and the copying of any record as author. ized by section 10 of this Act. (i) The using by any person to his own advantage, or revealing, other than to the authorized representatives of the Government in their official capacity, or to the courts, when relevant in any judicial proceeding under this Act, any information acquired under the authority of this Act, concerning any matter which as a trade secret is entitled to protection. |