21 U.S.C. § 1039 — Eggs and egg products not intended for use as human food; inspection; denaturing or otherwise identifying

Egg processing plants that make egg products not meant for human food do not get inspected under this chapter. That inspection requirement simply does not apply to such a plant. Before these products may be offered for sale, or shipped in commerce, they must be denatured, or otherwise identified, under regulations set by the Secretary. This step must be done specifically to deter people from using the eggs or egg products as human food. No one may buy or sell these restricted eggs or egg products. No one may transport them, and no one may offer to buy, sell, or ship them in commerce. All of this is barred unless the eggs or egg products have already been denatured or otherwise identified, exactly as the Secretary's regulations require.

The record. According to the source credit, this section was enacted as § 10 of Public Law 91-597, approved December 29, 1970, and published at 84 Stat. 1627. The source credit reflects one amendment to the section since its original enactment, though the details of that amendment are not given here and cannot be characterized further from the citation alone. Historical context. Public Law 91-597 is generally understood to be the Egg Products Inspection Act, a statute enacted in 1970 as part of a broader federal effort to strengthen food-safety oversight of egg products moving in interstate commerce. Legislation of this era commonly responded to concerns that eggs and egg products unfit or not intended for human consumption could nonetheless enter the food supply, and that inspection and labeling requirements were needed to protect public health and to give federal and state authorities consistent tools for enforcement. Within that general framework, this particular section addresses eggs and egg products not intended for human food, requiring that such items be denatured or otherwise marked to prevent their diversion into the human food supply. This purpose is consistent with the commonly cited goals of the Act as a whole. However, the record does not establish the specific legislative reasoning, debate, or committee deliberation behind this particular provision, and no such detail should be inferred beyond what is stated here.