Photo by Art Petrosemolo Packaging meat at Stoltzfus Meats.

Photo by Art Petrosemolo Packaging meat at Stoltzfus Meats.

Ignoring regulations or licensure requirements on meat sales will not cut it.

Penn State Extension hosted a webinar in early March called “Rules and Regulations When Selling Freezer Beef.” Jonathan Campbell, Penn State Extension meat specialist, outlined these regulations and their exemptions for participants in the webinar session and answered questions.

Campbell has worked with producers across Pennsylvania and said regulations for selling cuts are “a lot simpler than we make it out to be.”

The two biggest concerns addressed were whether an inspection is needed or if the processed meat is under exemption.

“If you’re not inspected, you may be operating under other exemptions,” he said.

Campbell started the webinar with a brief history lesson, explaining the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906.

In the early 1900s, an opinion columnist named Upton Sinclair wrote a series of articles titled “The Jungle” in a Chicago newspaper, and it was later made into a book by the same title. The columns cited harsh conditions in meat packing plants. The end result of his writing was a small piece of legislation, the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which had a “lengthy list of how you are exempt” from inspections, Campbell said.

Part of the act included a custom slaughter exemption that must only be for the personal use of the owner of the animal.

“It cannot be donated or given away,” Campbell said about the meat, meaning it cannot be given to a neighbor or even the local food bank.

The resulting product from the animal slaughtered and processed under this exemption is exclusively for the private use of the owner of the livestock, members of the owner’s household, nonpaying guests or household employees. This exemption does not include grocery stores, restaurants, or sales directly to consumers.

Campbell said one animal can be cut in halves for two people or in quarters, for four people.

A webinar attendee questioned whether the meat could be cut into eighths, something Campbell confirmed. The owner must prove the number of people sharing the carcass and provide good records of bills of sale, Campbell added.

This must comply with the sanitation clause in the act. Campbell said the animal owner must also check with local and county regulations that prohibit exemption.

He gave an example in which the livestock owner would not want a slaughter date for one specified time, but then have a bill of sale for another date after that.

“That’s a big red flag,” he said.

Instead, the livestock owner has a choice, Campbell explained. They choose either a custom, exempt facility or a USDA-inspected facility.

He later answered a question from a webinar participant who wondered whether a bill of sale for an animal must be dated before the butcher date. Campbell said that it must be dated before the butcher date and noted it could be the same day. However, he said a lot of people try to sell the animal after its been slaughtered.

“That’s technically selling meat and not a live animal,” he said.

He noted he often hears the terms “USDA certified.”

“Inspection is not certification,” Campbell said, adding, “There are inspected facilities and custom exempt facilities. There are only two things.”

To sell meat cuts on one’s own farm, a licensure is required from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA). This is the case whether it is a brick-and-mortar processing site on the farm, or if meat is being sold from the farm’s freezer on the property. If someone sells from a farmers market, a license from PDA is required as well.

Campbell pointed out that the cost for the licensure at the farmers market is higher initially than for the renewal cost.

Campbell further added that if using any of these three venues to sell meat cuts, the animal must be slaughtered under USDA and Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS, inspection.

This brought up the Retail Exemption. In a butcher shop, the owner can process and sell fresh cuts and ground meat, and processed, cooked and smoked meat. This requires a state retail license and compliance with the sanitation requirements of the USDA. The meat and meat food products must come from USDA-inspected livestock and carcasses.

A participant in the webinar said his closest USDA inspection facility was across the Pennsylvania border in Maryland. He was concerned about whether he could have the animal slaughtered in Maryland, and transport it back to Pennsylvania to sell.

Campbell told him that this is fine, and in fact, the meat can be sold anywhere in the United States as long as the USDA label is on the packaging, which proves inspection.

Campbell also reminded viewers that Pennsylvania does not have a state meat/poultry inspection. These inspections are performed by the USDA only. He said only 27 states in the U.S. have their own state inspections.

To sell your meat to a regional restaurant or store, your meat must have come from USDA/FSIS inspected livestock or carcass. It must also be processed in a USDA/FSIS official establishment.

Now there is a new way to find a USDA official establishment, Campbell said, if livestock owners want to download an app to their phone. They can use their phone’s Google Play or Apple Store to search the apps for “meat and poultry inspection.” The app has a blue logo, Campbell said. Once downloaded, it is possible to search on the app by state or ZIP code.

Campbell then mentioned the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act of 2017. It amends the Federal Meat Inspection Act to expand the exemption of custom slaughtering of animals from federal inspection requirements.

“It provides greater access for producers to slaughter livestock,” Campbell said.

This act, if it had passed the U.S. House and Senate, would have allowed farmers to sell their locally raised, custom exempt-processed meat directly to consumers. It did not receive a vote. It was later reintroduced in 2019.

The Strengthening Local Processing Act of 2020 is currently in the Senate, Campbell said. This act was written by one of the authors of the PRIME Act and expands the federal share of the cost of state meat inspection from 50% to 65%.

Currently the federal government matches 50% of dollars put forth by the state.

“The problem with a state as large as ours,” Campbell said, “is that we are looking at a multimillion dollar infrastructure in the state.”

The positive side of this, he said, is a grant program for small meat plant processing infrastructure of 90% of costs or at least a 75% level.

For now, Campbell said it’s important to understand that both animals and the meat produced by these livestock must be inspected. When selling only the animal, there is always the choice of custom inspection.

An online link for licensure information was provided to webinar viewers at: https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Animals/AHDServices/licenses-certificates/Meat%20Establishment%20(Slaughterhouses)%20License/Pages/default.aspx

For questions about Pennsylvania licensure, Allie Steck, at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, may be reached by email at asteck@pa.gov or by phone at 717-836-3235.

For other questions, Jonathan Campbell may be reached at jac69@psu.edu or 814-867-2880.

Tabitha Goodling is a freelance writer in central Pennsylvania.

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