---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 2702"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "2702"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/2702"
units:
  - "Chapter 60 — Egg Research and Consumer Information"
---

# §2702. Definitions


As used in this chapter—

- (a) The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture or any other officer or employee of the Department of Agriculture to whom there has heretofore been delegated, or to whom there may hereafter be delegated, the authority to act in his stead.
- (b) The term “person” means any individual, group of individuals, partnership, corporation, association, cooperative, or any other entity.
- (c) The term “commercial eggs” or “eggs” means eggs from domesticated chickens which are sold for human consumption either in shell egg form or for further processing into [egg products](#n).
- (d) The term “hen” or “laying hen” means a domesticated female chicken twenty weeks of age or over, raised primarily for the production of [commercial eggs](#c).
- (e) The term “egg producer” means the [person](#b) owning [laying hens](#d) engaged in the production of [commercial eggs](#c).
- (f) The term “case” means a standard shipping package containing thirty dozen [eggs](#c).
- (g) The term “hatching eggs” means [eggs](#c) intended for use by hatcheries for the production of baby chicks.
- (h) The term “United States” means the forty-eight contiguous [States](/usc/7/198.md?p=5) of the United States of America and the District of Columbia.
- (i) The term “promotion” means any action, including paid advertising, to advance the image or desirability of [eggs](#c), [egg products](#n), [spent fowl](#o), or [products of spent fowl](#p).
- (j) The term “research” means any type of research to advance the image, desirability, marketability, production, or quality of [eggs](#c), [egg products](#n), [spent fowl](#o), or [products of spent fowl](#p).
- (k) The term “consumer education” means any action to advance the image or desirability of [eggs](#c), [egg products](#n), [spent fowl](#o), or [products of spent fowl](#p).
- (l) The term “marketing” means the sale or other disposition of [commercial eggs](#c), [egg products](#n), [spent fowl](#o), or [products of spent fowl](#p), in any channel of [commerce](#m).
- (m) The term “commerce” means interstate, foreign, or intrastate commerce.
- (n) The term “egg products” means products produced, in whole or in part, from [eggs](#c).
- (o) The term “spent fowl” means [hens](#d) which have been in production of [commercial eggs](#c) and have been removed from such production for slaughter.
- (p) The term “products of spent fowl” means commercial products produced from [spent fowl](#o).
- (q) The term “hatchery operator” means any [person](#b) engaged in the production of egg-type baby chicks.
- (r) The term “started pullet” means a [hen](#d) less than twenty weeks of age.
- (s) The term “started pullet dealer” means any [person](#b) engaged in the sale of [started pullets](#r).
- (t) The term “handler” means any [person](#b), specified in the order or the rules and regulations issued thereunder, who receives or otherwise acquires [eggs](#c) from an [egg producer](#e), and processes, prepares for [marketing](#l), or [markets](/usc/7/198.md?p=1), such [eggs](#c), including [eggs](#c) of his own production.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 93–428, § 3, Oct. 1, 1974, 88 Stat. 1172.)