CHAP. 50.--An ACT providing for the sanitation of slaughter houses, abattoirs, packing houses, sausage factories, rendering plants and other places where animals are slaughtered for sale for human food or where animal carcasses, or parts thereof are pr...

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the following rules and regulations and standards are hereby established for the sanitation of slaughter houses, abattoirs, packing houses, sausage factories, rendering plants or other places where animals are slaughtered for sale for human food or where animal carcasses, or parts thereof, are prepared for human food.

First. Every building or room used as a slaughter house, abattoir, packing house, sausage factory, rendering plant, or similar establishment shall be properly lighted, drained, plumbed and ventilated and conducted with due regard for the purity and wholesomeness of the meat food products therein produced and with strict regard to the influences of such conditions upon the health of the operatives, employees and clerks.

Second. The floors, side walls, ceilings, receptacles, implements, machinery, and the clothing of the operatives, shall at all times be kept in a clean, healthful and sanitary condition. The doors, windows and other openings, during the fly season, shall be fitted with self-closing screen doors and wire window screens of not coarser than fourteen mesh wire gauze, and the meat food products in the process of preparation, packing, storing or distribution, shall be securely protected from flies, dust, dirt and from all other foreign or injurious contamination.

Third. The sleeping places for persons employed in such establishments shall be separate and apart from the room in which meat food products are manufactured, packed, stored or distributed. No person shall be permitted to work in any such establishment who is known to be afflicted with any contagious or infectious disease, or any skin disease. Every such establishment shall be provided with a convenient wash room and toilet of sanitary construction, but such toilet shall be entirely separate and apart from any room used for the preparation, manufacture or storage of meat food products. Every room or compartment in which meat or meat food products are prepared, cured, rendered, stored, packed, or otherwise handled, shall be free from odors from toilets, catch-basins, tank rooms, casing departments, or from hides, or other injurious contamination. All water and ice used in the preparation of carcasses, meats or meat food products shall be pure, clean and wholesome.

Fourth. No swine shall be maintained at or near any slaughter house, and the offal from the slaughter of animals shall not be fed, unless it be first subjected to proper tankage; and every slaughter house or abattoir shall be equipped with adequate facilities for the tankage of the offal incident to the slaughter of animals, and all the gross offal except the casings resulting from the slaughter of animals shall be tanked.

2. The dairy and food commissioner, by and with the approval of the board of agriculture and immigration of Virginia is hereby empowered to fix and establish such rules and regulations in accordance with the provisions of this act as may be necessary for its enforcement.

3. No person, firm or corporation shall operate or conduct any slaughter house, abattoir, packing house, sausage factory, rendering plant or place where animals are slaughtered for sale for human food or where animal carcasses or parts thereof are prepared for human food, unless a license, for which no charge shall be made, has first been issued by the dairy and food commissioner to the owner, operator or manager of such establishment, authorizing said person, firm or corporation to operate and conduct a slaughter house, abattoir, packing house, sausage factory, rendering plant or other similar business, and no person shall conduct or operate any such establishment or business after the revocation of such license, and the said dairy and food commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered to cause inspections to be made of every building, premises, or place in or upon which animals are slaughtered for human food, or animal carcasses, or parts thereof, are prepared for human food, and to grant licenses for the operation of the same whenever, in the judgment of the said commissioner, the business conducted in or upon said building, premises or place, is managed in a sanitary manner and in accordance with the requirements of the law and of the rules and regulations provided in section one of this act, and of such rules and regulations as may be adopted as provided in section two of this act, and whenever, in his judgment, such building, premises or place, and the surroundings, are suitable for the proper sanitary operation of a slaughter house, abattoir, or other similar business; provided that nothing in this act shall apply to established slaughter houses, abattoirs, packing houses, sausage factories, rendering plants or other similar establishments when such establishments are licensed and conducted under the rules and regulations of the United States department of agriculture; and provided, further, that the provisions of this act shall not apply to the preparation or occasional sale of meat or meat food products from animals raised by the farmer offering said products for sale, provided the said products are sound and wholesome.

4. Every license issued under the provisions of this act may be revoked by the dairy and food commissioner if the provisions of this act have been violated and the holder of such license has been convicted thereof, and every person, firm or corporation who shall violate any of the provisions of this act, or who shall conduct or operate a slaughter house, abattoir, packing house, sausage factory, rendering plant or other place where animals are slaughtered for sale for human food, or where animal carcasses or parts thereof, are prepared for human food in violation of the provisions of this act; or who shall conduct or operate any such establishment without holding a license as herein specified; or who shall slaughter animals for sale for human food without holding a license, as herein specified, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than three hundred dollars and costs of prosecution.