---
kind: "section"
citation: "21 U.S.C. § 624"
title: "21"
title_heading: "Food and Drugs"
number: "624"
heading: "Storage and handling regulations; violations; exemption of establishments subject to non-Federal jurisdiction"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/21/624"
units:
  - "Chapter 12 — Meat Inspection"
  - "Subchapter I — Inspection Requirements; Adulteration and Misbranding"
---

# §624. Storage and handling regulations; violations; exemption of establishments subject to non-Federal jurisdiction


The [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a) may by regulations prescribe conditions under which carcasses, parts of carcasses, meat, and [meat food products](/usc/21/601.md?p=j) of cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equines, [capable of use as human food](/usc/21/601.md?p=k), shall be stored or otherwise handled by any person, [firm](/usc/21/601.md?p=b), or corporation engaged in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, or transporting, in or for [commerce](/usc/21/601.md?p=h), or importing, such articles, whenever the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a) deems such action necessary to assure that such articles will not be [adulterated](/usc/21/601.md?p=m) or [misbranded](/usc/21/601.md?p=n) when delivered to the consumer. Violation of any such regulation is prohibited. However, such regulations shall not apply to the storage or handling of such articles at any retail store or other establishment in any [State](/usc/21/601.md?p=f) or organized [Territory](/usc/21/601.md?p=g) that would be subject to this section only because of purchases in [commerce](/usc/21/601.md?p=h), if the storage and handling of such articles at such establishment is regulated under the laws of the [State](/usc/21/601.md?p=f) or [Territory](/usc/21/601.md?p=g) in which such establishment is located, in a manner which the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a), after consultation with the appropriate advisory committee provided for in [section 661 of this title](/usc/21/661.md), determines is adequate to effectuate the purposes of this section.


## Source credit

(Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 24, as added Pub. L. 90–201, § 13, Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 593.)