21 U.S.C. § 605 — Examination of carcasses brought into slaughtering or packing establishments, and of meat food products issued from and returned thereto; conditions for entry

These inspection rules apply to all carcasses, or parts of carcasses, of covered animal species, and to meat or meat products from them. This applies whenever these items are brought into a slaughtering, meat-canning, salting, packing, rendering, or similar facility. The carcasses or parts must be inspected before entering the part of the facility where they will be made into meat food products. The same rules apply to meat food products that already left such a facility. This applies when they are brought back to that facility, or to a similar one, where this inspection is done. The Secretary may limit which carcasses, parts, meat, meat food products, and other materials can enter an inspected facility. The Secretary sets whatever conditions are needed to make sure entry of these items fits the purposes of this law.

The record shows this section originated as an unnumbered paragraph within the Act of March 4, 1907, chapter 2907, title I, section 5, 34 Stat. 1261. The source credit indicates it was later formally renumbered as section 5 and amended by Public Law 90–201, sections 1, 5, and 12(a), enacted December 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 588, 592. A further amendment came from Public Law 109–97, title VII, section 798(a)(1), enacted November 10, 2005, 81 Stat. 2166. Beyond these two amendment events, the credit does not detail the substantive changes made at each stage. The 1907 act is commonly understood to be part of the federal government's early twentieth-century response to public concern over unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry, a concern heightened by contemporaneous journalistic exposés and public health worries. The broader statute of which this section was part is generally described as establishing a federal meat inspection system intended to ensure that meat entering commerce met basic sanitary standards. The record does not establish the specific legislative purpose behind this particular provision governing examination of carcasses and reentry of meat products into establishments, nor does it document the reasoning behind the 1967 or 2005 amendments. Any more specific account of Congressional intent for this section would be speculative and is not supported by the materials provided.