§ 555.1 - Transportation of fish products.

§ 555.1 Transportation of fish products.

(a) No person may sell, transport, offer for sale or transportation, or receive for transportation, in commerce, any fish or fish product that is capable of being used as human food and is adulterated or fails to bear an official inspection legend or is otherwise misbranded at the time of such sale, transportation, offer or receipt, except otherwise provided in this paragraph or in part 557 of this subchapter.

(b) No person, engaged in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, or transporting, in or for commerce, fish products capable of use as human food, or importing such articles, shall transport, offer for transportation, or receive for transportation, in commerce or in any State designated under § 560.3 of this subchapter, any fish product which is capable of use as human food and is not wrapped, packaged, or otherwise enclosed to prevent adulteration by airborne contaminants, unless the railroad car, truck, or other means of conveyance in which the product is contained or transported is completely enclosed with tight fitting doors or other covers for all openings. In all cases, the means of conveyance shall be reasonably free of foreign matter (such as dust, dirt, rust, or other articles or residues), and free of chemical residues, so that product placed therein will not become adulterated.

(c) Any cleaning compound, lye, soda solution, or other chemical used in cleaning the means of conveyance must be thoroughly removed from the means of conveyance prior to its use. Such means of conveyance onto which product is loaded, being loaded, or intended to be loaded, shall be subject to inspection by an inspector at any official establishment.

(d) The decision whether or not to inspect a means of conveyance in a specific case, and the type and extent of such inspection shall be at the Agency's discretion and shall be adequate to determine if fish product in such conveyance is, or when moved could become, adulterated.

(e) Circumstances of transport that can be reasonably anticipated shall be considered in making said determination. These include, but are not limited to, weather conditions, duration and distance of trip, nature of product covering, and effect of restowage at stops en route. Any means of conveyance found upon such inspection to be in such condition that fish product placed therein could become adulterated shall not be used until such condition which could cause adulteration is corrected.

Fish product placed in any means of conveyance that is found by the inspector to be in such condition that the fish product may have become adulterated shall be removed from the means of conveyance and handled in accordance with part 539 or § 540.3 of this subchapter.