21 U.S.C. § 1033 — Definitions

For this chapter—

(a) “Adulterated” applies to an egg or egg product in any of these circumstances: (1) It bears or contains a poisonous or harmful substance that may make it injurious to health. But if the substance was not added, the article is not adulterated under this clause when the amount ordinarily would not make it injurious to health. (2)(A) It bears or contains an added poisonous or added harmful substance, other than one that is: (i) a pesticide chemical in or on a raw agricultural commodity; (ii) a food additive; or (iii) a color additive, and the substance may, in the Secretary’s judgment, make the article unfit for human food. (B) It is wholly or partly a raw agricultural commodity that bears or contains a pesticide chemical unsafe under section 346a of this title. (C) It bears or contains a food additive unsafe under section 348 of this title. (D) It bears or contains a color additive unsafe under section 379e of this title. Even if an article is not otherwise adulterated under (B), (C), or (D), it is adulterated if the Secretary’s regulations prohibit using the pesticide chemical, food additive, or color additive in or on the article in official plants. (3) It consists wholly or partly of filthy, putrid, or decomposed matter, or is otherwise unfit for human food. (4) It was prepared, packaged, or held in insanitary conditions in which it may have become contaminated with filth or may have been made injurious to health. (5) It is an egg that has been incubated, or a product of an incubated egg. (6) Its container is wholly or partly made of a poisonous or harmful substance that may make the contents injurious to health. (7) It was intentionally exposed to radiation, unless the radiation was used consistently with a regulation or exemption under section 348 of this title. (8) A valuable part was wholly or partly left out or taken out; a substance was wholly or partly substituted for it; damage or inferiority was hidden; or a substance was added, mixed, or packed with it to increase its bulk or weight, reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear better or more valuable than it is.

(b) An egg or egg product is “capable of use as human food” unless it is denatured or otherwise identified as regulations require to deter human-food use.

(c) “Commerce” means interstate, foreign, or intrastate commerce.

(d) “Container” or “package” includes a box, can, tin, plastic or other receptacle, wrapper, or cover. (1) “Immediate container” means a consumer package or another container holding egg products that are not consumer-packaged. (2) “Shipping container” means a container used to package a product packed in an immediate container.

(e) “Egg handler” means a person in a commerce business involving buying or selling eggs, processing egg products, or otherwise using eggs to prepare human food.

(f) “Egg product” means dried, frozen, or liquid eggs, with or without added ingredients, except products with only a relatively small egg proportion or not historically regarded by consumers as egg-food-industry products. The Secretary may exempt such products under conditions ensuring the egg ingredients are not adulterated and the products are not represented as egg products.

(g) “Egg” means the shell egg of a domesticated chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or guinea. (1) “Check” means an egg with a broken or cracked shell but intact membranes and no leaking contents. (2) “Clean and sound shell egg” means an egg whose shell has no adhering dirt or foreign material and is not cracked or broken. (3) “Dirty egg” means an unbroken egg shell with adhering dirt or foreign material. (4) “Incubator reject” means an incubated egg removed during hatching as infertile or otherwise unhatchable. (5) “Inedible” means black, yellow, white, or mixed rots (addled eggs), sour eggs, eggs with green whites or stuck yolks, moldy or musty eggs, eggs showing blood rings, and eggs containing embryo chicks at or beyond the blood-ring stage. (6) “Leaker” means an egg whose shell and membranes are cracked or broken so contents are exposed, leaking, or free to leak. (7) “Loss” means an egg unfit for human food because it is smashed or broken and leaking, overheated, frozen, contaminated, an incubator reject, or contains a bloody white, large meat spots, much blood, or other foreign material. (8) “Restricted egg” means a check, dirty egg, incubator reject, inedible egg, leaker, or loss.

(h) “Fair Packaging and Labeling Act” means the Act approved November 3, 1966, and its amendments and supplements. (i) “Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” means the Act approved June 25, 1938, and its amendments and supplements. (j) “Inspection” means inspection methods and techniques the responsible Secretary considers necessary to carry out this chapter. (k) “Inspector” means a U.S. Government employee or official authorized to inspect under this chapter, or a State or local employee or official authorized by the Secretary under an agreement. (l) “Misbranded” applies to egg products not labeled and packaged as the Secretary’s section 1036 regulations require. (m) “Official certificate” means a certificate regulations require an inspector or other official performer to issue. (n) “Official device” means a device the Secretary prescribes or authorizes to apply an official mark. (o) “Official inspection legend” means a regulatory symbol showing egg products were inspected under this chapter. (p) “Official mark” means that legend or another regulatory symbol identifying an article’s status. (q) “Official plant” means a plant where the Secretary determines the Agriculture Department maintains egg-product-processing inspection. (r) “Official standards” means egg quality, grade, and weight-class standards under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, as in effect on this chapter’s effective date or later amended. (s) “Pasteurize” means treating every particle of egg product with heat or another treatment prescribed by regulation to destroy harmful living microorganisms. (t) “Person” means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other business unit. (u) “Pesticide chemical,” “food additive,” “color additive,” and “raw agricultural commodity” have the meanings they have under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (v) “Plant” means a business location where egg products are processed. (w) “Processing” means manufacturing egg products, including breaking, filtering, mixing, blending, pasteurizing, stabilizing, cooling, freezing, drying, or packaging them. (x) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary’s delegate. (y) “State” means a U.S. State, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the District of Columbia. (z) “United States” means the States.