Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 53 > Chapter 7 - Meat Inspection and Regulations

• Agriculture: means :
  (i) The land, buildings and machinery used in the commercial production of farm products and nursery stock. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Animal: means any member of the animal kingdom whether domesticated or wild, but not including humans. See Tennessee Code 53-7-302
• Animal product: means any product derived from any animal or animals that is or could be suitable for human consumption. See Tennessee Code 53-7-302
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Biological residue: means any substance, including metabolites, remaining in or on any animal prior to or at the time of slaughter, in or on any of its tissues after slaughter, or in or on any animal product as the result of treatment with or exposure of the animal or animal product to any pesticide, organic or inorganic compound, hormone-like substance, growth promoter, antibiotic, anthelmintic, tranquilizer, or other therapeutic or prophylactic agent. See Tennessee Code 53-7-302
• Carcass: means all parts, including viscera of a slaughtered animal, that are capable of being used for human food. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of agriculture, or any person authorized to act in the commissioner's stead. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of agriculture or the commissioner's designated representative. See Tennessee Code 53-7-302
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Custom slaughterer: means a person engaged for profit in this state in the business of slaughtering or dressing animals for human consumption that are not to be sold or offered for sale through a commercial outlet, and may include the boning or cutting up of carcasses of such animals and the grinding, chopping and mixing of the carcasses of animals. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Immediate container: means any consumer package, or any other container in which an article, not consumer packaged, is packed. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Inspector: means an employee or official of this state authorized by the commissioner to inspect the operation and facilities of any custom slaughterhouse or meat or poultry processing establishment. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Intrastate commerce: means commerce within this state. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Label: means any written, printed, or graphic material upon the shipping container, if any, or upon the immediate container, including, but not limited to, an individual consumer package, of an article, or accompanying the article. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Livestock: means cattle, sheep, swine, goats or rabbits. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Meat: means the edible part of the muscle of cattle, deer, sheep, swine or goats that is skeletal or that is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus, with or without the accompanying and overlying fat, and the portions of bone, skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels that normally accompany the muscle tissue and that are not separated from it in the process of dressing. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Meat food product: means any article of food, or any article intended for or capable of use as human food, that is derived or prepared, in whole or in part, from any portion of any livestock or deer, unless exempted by the commissioner upon the commissioner's determination that the article:
  (A) Contains only a minimal amount of meat and is not represented as a meat food product. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Official establishment: means any establishment in this state, as determined by the commissioner, at which inspection of the slaughter of livestock or poultry or the processing of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses or parts of livestock, deer, or poultry carcasses, meat food products, or poultry products, is maintained under the authority of this part. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Official inspection mark: means any symbol, formulated pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner, stating that an article was inspected and passed. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• package: include any box, can, tin, cloth, plastic, or any other receptacle, wrapper or cover. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association or other business unit. See Tennessee Code 53-7-302
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or any other business entity. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Poultry: means any live or slaughtered domesticated bird. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Poultry product: means any poultry that has been slaughtered for human food from which the blood, feathers, feet, head and viscera have been removed in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the commissioner, any edible part of poultry, or any human food product consisting of any edible part of poultry separately or in combination with other ingredients. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Processor: means a person who engages for profit in this state in the business of packing or packaging carcasses, meat, meat food products or meat by-products, or poultry or poultry products, for human consumption, or a person engaged for profit in the business of curing, salting, processing or other preparing of carcasses, meat, meat food products or meat by-products for human consumption. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Shipping container: means any container used or intended for use in packaging the article packed in an immediate container. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Unwholesome: means :
  (A) Unsound, injurious to health, containing any biological residue not permitted by rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner, or otherwise rendered unfit for human food. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Wholesome: means sound, healthful, clean and otherwise fit for human food. See Tennessee Code 53-7-202
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105