---
kind: "section"
citation: "21 U.S.C. § 608"
title: "21"
title_heading: "Food and Drugs"
number: "608"
heading: "Sanitary inspection and regulation of slaughtering and packing establishments; rejection of adulterated meat or meat food products"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/21/608"
units:
  - "Chapter 12 — Meat Inspection"
  - "Subchapter I — Inspection Requirements; Adulteration and Misbranding"
---

# §608. Sanitary inspection and regulation of slaughtering and packing establishments; rejection of adulterated meat or meat food products


The [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a) shall cause to be made, by experts in sanitation or by other competent inspectors, such inspection of all slaughtering, meat canning, salting, packing, rendering, or similar establishments in which [amenable species](/usc/21/601.md?p=w) are slaughtered and the meat and [meat food products](/usc/21/601.md?p=j) thereof are [prepared](/usc/21/601.md?p=l) for [commerce](/usc/21/601.md?p=h) as may be necessary to inform himself concerning the sanitary conditions of the same, and to prescribe the rules and regulations of sanitation under which such establishments shall be maintained; and where the sanitary conditions of any such establishment are such that the meat or [meat food products](/usc/21/601.md?p=j) are rendered [adulterated](/usc/21/601.md?p=m), he shall refuse to allow said meat or [meat food products](/usc/21/601.md?p=j) to be labeled, marked, stamped or tagged as “inspected and passed.”


## Source credit

(Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 8, formerly 6th par., 34 Stat. 1262; renumbered § 8 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 3, 12(a), (f), Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 588, 592; Pub. L. 109–97, title VII, § 798[(a)](1.md), Nov. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 2166.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 76 of this title.

### Amendments

2005—Pub. L. 109–97 substituted “amenable species” for “cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines”.

1967—Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 3, 12(a), (f), struck out “interstate or foreign” before “commerce” and “of Agriculture” after “Secretary”, included horses, mules, and other equines in the list of animals, and substituted “adulterated” for “unclean, unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human food”, respectively.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 2005 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 109–97 effective the day after 120 days after Nov. 10, 2005, see section 798(b) of Pub. L. 109–97, set out as a note under section 601 of this title.

### Effective Date of 1967 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 90–201 effective Dec. 15, 1967, except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after Dec. 15, 1967, see section 20(b) of Pub. L. 90–201, set out as an Effective Date note under section 601 of this title.