Section 918.25. Rules to administer poultry processing

The director of agriculture shall, in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, adopt and enforce rules as necessary for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of sections 918.21 to 918.31 of the Revised Code. The rules shall meet or exceed the federal standards for meat inspection established in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The rules adopted under this section shall provide for the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare and for maximum coordination and cooperation between state and federal programs for regulation of poultry and poultry products, and may include the following:

(A) Exemption of certain products as "poultry products" under the definition in section 918.21 of the Revised Code;

(B) Provision for the retention, identification, and disposal of condemned poultry and poultry products and for the identification of approved products;

(C) Sanitary requirements for premises, facilities, and equipment, for the operation thereof, and for the storage and handling of poultry and poultry products in establishments licensed under section 918.28 of the Revised Code. The rules pertaining to sanitary conditions shall conform with the sanitation standard operating procedures in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations and shall require that an establishment be evaluated by determining its compliance with those procedures.

(D) Requirements for maintenance of records under section 918.24 of the Revised Code;

(E) Procedures for application and licensing, and the revocation and suspension of licenses;

(F) Requirements for marking and attaching the information required by section 918.31 of the Revised Code, including specific styles, legibility and size of type, method of affixing, variations, and exemptions;

(G) Such other rules as are necessary for the proper administration, implementation, and enforcement of sections 918.21 to 918.31 of the Revised Code, including rules requiring that an inspection of an establishment's slaughter and processing operations be conducted in accordance with the establishment's hazard analysis critical control point plan. In addition, the rules shall require that if an establishment does not have a plan for a particular production process under its hazard analysis critical control point plan as required in rules, the poultry product of the process may be considered to be adulterated and shall be retained pending a production process review and not allowed to be labeled with an official mark.

Effective Date: 03-22-2001; 04-15-2005