Chapter 8.14 — MEAT

It is unlawful for any person to sell, have in possession, keep or expose for sale for human food, the flesh of any cattle, hogs, sheep, swine, goats, rabbits, or any other animal, poultry, fish, or meat food products, unless the same shall have been slaughtered or passed under the supervision of the United States Government Inspector, in accordance with the regulations relating to the inspection thereof as prescribed by the Department of Agriculture of the United States, or under the supervision of the state of California, Department of Agriculture Inspector, in accordance with the regulations relating to the inspection thereof as prescribed by the Department of Agriculture of the state of California, or under the supervision of the Health Officer of the city of Oakland, in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.

(Prior code § 4-3.01)

It is unlawful for any person to sell, have in possession, keep or expose for sale, the flesh of cattle, calves, hogs, sheep or goats, or any meat food products, unless there has been placed on each primal part thereof, or on such food products, a brand of approval of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States, California Department of Agriculture, of the city of Oakland, or of an authorized inspector whose brand or mark of identification is acceptable to the Health Department of the city; or for any person to manufacture into sausage or other meat food products the flesh or meat of any animal designated in this Chapter except such flesh or meat shall bear the brand of approval as provided herein.

(Prior code § 4-3.02)

No person shall manufacture, slaughter or sell any of the animals, fish or poultry, or parts thereof, or other meat products mentioned in Section 8.14.010 for use for food purposes in the city, or engage in such business, without first making application in writing to the Health Department of the city, and obtaining a permit so to do, which application shall be signed by the person making the same, and shall specify the location of the house or place where it is proposed to slaughter, handle, manufacture or sell such animals or parts thereof, fish or poultry, and state the nature of the business proposed to be carried on.

Upon the filing of such application with the said Health Department of the city, a duly authorized Meat Inspector of the city shall inspect said premises, and, if the same shall be found to comply with the provisions of this Chapter relative to the construction and equipment, etc., he or she shall make a written report thereof to the Health Officer, whereupon the Health Department shall issue the permit applied for in writing and cause a record thereof to be kept in said department.

(Prior code § 4-3.03)

No permit as required in Section 8.14.030 shall be issued except when the regulations in this Chapter set forth, so far as they are applicable, have been strictly complied with.

(Prior code § 4-3.04)

The floor or floors and walls of the slaughterhouse, market or factory where meat, or meat food products, fish or poultry are handled, manufactured or offered for sale shall be constructed of impervious material with smooth surface and semicircular corners, and maintained sufficiently tight to prevent the surroundings under or about the same becoming contaminated by filth or offensive matters, and all such floors shall be constructed on an incline and shall be sloped in such a manner as to provide adequate drainage therefrom.

(Prior code § 4-3.05)

The slaughterhouse or killing room shall be separate from any room where stock or poultry are fed. A cooling room shall be provided apart from the killing room, and shall be separated from the killing room by a tight partition in the side or sides next or nearest to the killing room. The cooling room shall be thoroughly ventilated and well screened so as to exclude flies and other insects therefrom.

(Prior code § 4-3.06)

All premises where meat or meat food products, fish or dressed poultry are kept, stored, handled, manufactured or offered for sale shall be constructed of impervious material and painted with at least three coats of flat white and one coat of white gloss enamel. Said premises must be flyproof with adequate light and ventilation and be provided with a porcelain sink of adequate size with hot and cold running water.

(Prior code § 4-3.07)

It is unlawful to peddle by hand or from any vehicle, or sell from any other than a fixed place of business as herein provided, any meat, meat food products or dressed poultry.

(Prior code § 4-3.08)

All meat markets must be equipped with a fresh meat cooler of a size not less than six by eight by nine feet high. Coolers, refrigerators and ice boxes must have a white gloss enamel finish and maintain a temperature below forty-five (45) degrees Fahrenheit with sufficient circulation, and be connected indirectly with the sewer to comply with the plumbing laws of the city.

(Prior code § 4-3.09)

All markets shall be provided with glass front and double acting glass door or doors. A four-blade fast traveling fan or fans of sufficient size to prevent the entrance of flies or other insects, must be installed inside of door or doors when it is desired to keep said door or doors open; provided, however, that where a meat market is installed in a general open market, that all meat and meat products shall be enclosed in sanitary refrigerated glass cases approved by the Chief Meat Inspector.

(Prior code § 4-3.10)

All counters must be at least three feet high, and be provided with marble top and glass front, at least fourteen (14) inches high and twelve (12) inches over the top so as to prevent all exposed foodstuffs from being handled by patrons or prospective buyers.

(Prior code § 4-3.11)

Any lard room must be finished with smooth surface Portland cement plaster and sufficient in size for the completion and manufacture of the lard, with vent pipe at least fifteen (15) inches in diameter extending above apex of roof to remove all odors.

(Prior code § 4-3.12)

Corn beef trays shall be of marble, concaved and drained without joints or additional slabs of any kind.

(Prior code § 4-3.13)

All meat racks, rails, hooks, or brackets must be of metal. Metal cans for scraps and trimmings and other refuse and garbage must be provided with tight metal covers and sufficient in number and size to care for all refuse.

(Prior code § 4-3.14)

It is unlawful for any person, firm, association, co-partnership or corporation to conduct or maintain a fish, dressed poultry or meat market in the basement of any building, or in any space below the level of the street, without strict compliance with the following regulations:

A.

The ceiling thereof must be not less than ten feet above the floor.

B.

All floors therein must be of concrete, or tile set in concrete.

C.

Such fish, dressed poultry or meat markets in basements or spaces below the street level must be equipped with proper air ducts and suction fans sufficient to provide a complete change of air in not to exceed ten minutes in each room.

D.

Such fish, dressed poultry or meat markets in basements or spaces below the street level must have sufficient evenly distributed artificial illumination to provide an average intensity of illumination of at least five footcandles measured three feet above the floor level over the entire area.

E.

Such fish, dressed poultry or markets in basements or below the street level must be equipped with electric ceiling fans behind fish, dressed poultry and meat cases, said electric ceiling fans to be located on not more than fourteen-foot centers, and must have at least one electric ceiling fan in each breaking or cutting room; each of said electric ceiling fans shall have a sweep of not less than fifty (50) inches.

F.

Each meat, dressed poultry or fish department in such fish, dressed poultry or meat market in basements or spaces below the street level shall contain a separate locker room, the same to be properly ventilated, for employees to change clothes, and which shall not open directly into any room or place where meat, dressed poultry or fish are sold or kept.

G.

All plans and specifications must be approved by the Health Department, Building Department and the Electrical Department of the city before any meat, dressed poultry or fish market in any basement or below the level of the street is installed.

H.

Except as in this section otherwise specified, all said meat, dressed poultry or fish markets in basements or below the street level must strictly comply with all of the provisions of this Chapter regulating the construction, operation, maintenance and conduct of markets where meat or meat products, fish or dressed poultry, are kept or stored or handled or manufactured or offered for sale.

(Prior code § 4-3.15)

Sufficient lavatories, toilets and clothes closets for all employees, and, where women are employed, separate lavatories, toilets and clothes closets, with adequate light and ventilation, must be provided, together with an ample supply of soap, towels and toilet paper. No lavatory, toilet room or living room shall open directly into any room where any article of food mentioned in this Chapter is kept, stored or handled.

(Prior code § 4-3.16)

The written permit in Section 8.14.030 required, when issued, shall be kept, at all times, posted in a conspicuous place on the premises. Said permit is not transferable. The holder thereof must strictly conform to all the regulations in this Chapter set forth, and in addition to the other penalties in this Chapter provided, such permit may be revoked by the Health Officer for any violation of such regulations. After such revocation, such place of business shall be closed until such time as all regulations have been complied with and a new permit granted.

(Prior code § 4-3.17)

All persons handling any of the foods mentioned in this Chapter shall at all times keep their person and wearing apparel in a cleanly condition. All aprons, gowns, smocks and other outer wearing apparel which is worn must be of a white material which can be easily washed and cleansed. No person shall use any portion of any such apparel as a handkerchief, or to wipe the hands or face.

(Prior code § 4-3.18)

No meats or meat food products intended for purpose of sale shall be hauled in any pleasure car. All vehicles used for delivery shall be lettered with name and address of business, with letters at least three inches high on small vehicles, and six inches high on large trucks and drays. No such sign shall be covered at any time and must at all times be plainly visible. Pleasure cars shall not be used for delivery.

(Prior code § 4-3.19)

All parts of slaughtering establishments, including the slaughterhouses, storage rooms for meats, markets, factories, trucks, carts, wagons or other receptacles, stables or corrals used for livestock, shall be kept in a cleanly, wholesome condition. All trucks, wagons, carts and other receptacles or conveyances, must be provided with at least one freshly clean canvas cover, and at least two freshly clean lots of burlap, each week, sufficient in size to cover the load in its entirety.

(Prior code § 4-3.20)

All inspection and slaughtering shall take place between the hours of seven a.m. and four p.m. of any one day, unless in emergency cases a special permit in writing authorizing slaughtering at another time is granted by the Health Officer. No slaughtering shall be done or inspection made on any Sunday, unless a special permit in writing is granted therefor by the Health Officer.

(Prior code § 4-3.21)

All blood and offal shall be handled and disposed of in such a manner as not to permit decay or offensive effluvia to emanate therefrom.

All poultry feeding stations must be provided with sanitary batteries with metal removal pans which must be thoroughly cleaned and refuse removed daily. Said batteries must be cleaned and disinfected at least once each week.

(Prior code § 4-3.22)

Cattle must stand for a period of at least twenty-four (24) hours and calves, poultry and small animals twelve (12) hours at the place of slaughter before killing.

(Prior code § 4-3.23)

It is unlawful for any person to keep live chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, or other live fowl or animals in any cellar or basement underneath any grocery store, market or other place where foodstuffs are kept for sale.

It is unlawful for any person to keep any live chickens, turkey, ducks, geese or other live fowl or animals where foodstuffs are prepared for sale, or sold.

(Prior code § 4-3.24)

In addition to the permits in this Chapter provided for, application in writing shall be made to the Health Officer for inspection of livestock, live poultry and slaughtering, as provided in this Chapter.

(Prior code § 4-3.25)

The days and parts of days during which the work of slaughtering any animal or manufacturing any meat food products mentioned in this Chapter may be done shall be fixed by agreement between the holder of the permit and the Health Officer or Meat Inspector delegated by said Health Officer for such purpose. In case an agreement cannot be had, the Health Officer is empowered to designate the time at which such slaughtering shall be done.

In case of daily inspection and where no time has been fixed by agreement or otherwise, the person in charge of the slaughtering or such manufacturing shall notify the Inspector at the close of each day the work of slaughtering or manufacturing will be commenced. If no slaughtering or manufacturing is to be done on the following day, then he or she shall notify the Inspector at which time and what succeeding day such work will next be commenced.

Where such slaughtering or manufacturing does not take place daily, but at uncertain or infrequent times, at least twenty-four (24) hours' notice must be given the Health Department as to when the service of an Inspector will be required.

(Prior code § 4-3.26)

All interstate shipments of live poultry must be inspected by an authorized Meat Inspector of the city at time of arrival of said shipment. The Health Department shall be notified by any person receiving the same before the same is unloaded, offered for sale, or sold. No poultry found to be diseased or unfit for human consumption shall be passed for sale.

(Prior code § 4-3.27)

If inspection is granted by the Health Department, as provided in this Chapter, the said Health Department shall designate by number each slaughterhouse or sausage factory to be inspected, which number shall be used on the mark, stamp or brand adopted by the city for all meats inspected as in this Chapter provided.

(Prior code § 4-3.28)

The mark, stamp or brand of the city in this Chapter provided for shall be placed upon primal parts of the animals only after ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection has been performed and the same found to be fit for human consumption, and at the time of slaughter and evisceration.

(Prior code § 4-3.29)

All smoked hams or bacon must bear a trade name, trademark or the name of the person producing such product. The said trade name, trademark, or name of the person producing such product must be stamped on each ham or bacon in letters not less than one inch in height, and must be stamped in such manner as to be perfectly legible. Each side of bacon must bear not less than two of said trade names, trademarks, or names of the person producing said product, each of which shall be placed not less than two inches from each end of said side of bacon in such a manner that at least one stamp will appear on each half of a side of bacon. The hams shall bear at least one such trade name, trademark, or the name of the person producing said product. All stamps for meat or meat product tradenames, trademarks or names of producers, must be approved by the Health Department. No person shall substitute the trade name or trademark of any other person on smoked or fresh meats.

(Prior code § 4-3.30)

It is unlawful for any person, except the Inspector in this Chapter provided for or a person designated by the Health Officer for such duties, and while working under the immediate supervision of an Inspector, to have in possession, keep or use any mark, stamp or brand provided or used for making, stamping, or branding anything in this Chapter required to be marked, stamped or branded; or for any person to have in possession, keep, make, or use any mark, stamp, brand or other device having thereon insignia or words similar in character or import to the marks, stamps or brands provided or used for marking, stamping or branding such articles, or to in any manner counterfeit such marks, stamps or brands.

(Prior code § 4-3.31)

Partly dressed hogs, sheep, calves, and goats may be brought into the city for food purposes, provided that the same shall be immediately brought to the attention of the Health Department for inspection, at a fee of twenty cents ($.20) a head. No such animal, however, shall be accepted unless at time of such inspection the head, heart, liver, lungs, glands and umbilicus remain attached by their natural attachments. Minimum age of calves shall be three weeks, and maximum weight shall be two hundred (200) pounds dressed.

(Prior code § 4-3.32)

No beef, or dressed hogs, sheep, calves or goats may be brought into the city for human consumption, unless the same shall have been officially inspected and marked under the supervision of an authorized meat inspector of a public agency at the time of slaughter and evisceration. Bovine animals which dress over two hundred (200) pounds shall be considered beef.

(Prior code § 4-3.33)

No person shall sell, keep, use for purpose of manufacture, have in their possession, or offer for sale for human food, any meats, fish or poultry that is deemed adulterated within the meaning of this Chapter.

The standard of purity of food shall be that proclaimed by the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, or the California State Department of Agriculture, where standards are not fixed by this code or other ordinance of the city.

Food shall be deemed adulterated within the meaning of this Chapter in any of the following cases:

A.

If any substance has been mixed or packed, or mixed and packed, with the food so as to produce or lower or injuriously affect its quality, purity, strength or food values;

B.

If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article of food;

C.

If any essential or any valuable constituent or ingredient of the article of food has been wholly or in part abstracted;

D.

If the package containing it or its label shall bear in any manner any statement, design or device whereby damage or inferiority is concealed;

E.

If it contains any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient;

F.

If it is in any manner, mechanically or otherwise, blown up or inflated;

G.

If it consists in whole or in part of a spoiled, filthy, decomposed or putrid animal, poultry or fish or any portion thereof, unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if it is the product of a diseased animal, poultry or fish, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter.

(Prior code § 4-3.34)

It shall be the duty of the Health Officer or Meat Inspectors, and they are empowered, to enter any place where meat or flesh of any animal (fish or poultry) or the products thereof may be stored, held, kept, exposed or offered for sale for human food, and every establishment where such meat or flesh is manufactured into articles of food, or preserved, cured, canned or otherwise prepared for food, and they shall inspect the same.

Whenever such meat or flesh shall, upon inspection and examination, be found not marked, stamped or branded as in this Chapter required, or if said meat or meat food products, fish or poultry are found to be otherwise unfit for human consumption as in this Chapter provided, the said Health Officer or Meat Inspectors shall condemn the same as unfit for human food, and shall mark and mutilate the same, and make the fact of such condemnation apparent, and shall immediately order the same, by notice in writing, to be removed within four hours and destroyed.

(Prior code § 4-3.35)

The use of scraps or trimmings from retail markets in the manufacture of sausage or other meat food products is unlawful.

(Prior code § 4-3.36)

It shall be the duty of the Health Officer or Meat Inspectors in determining what constitutes diseased meat, fish or poultry, or meat, fish or poultry unwholesome or otherwise unfit for human consumption to be guided by the rules and regulations of the city, and by the specifications contained in the regulations of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture or the California State Department of Agriculture, governing the inspection of meats, meat food products, and the factories where same are handled or manufactured.

(Prior code § 4-3.37)

When meat or meat food products, fish or poultry shall be held for final inspection by any Meat Inspector of the city, a quarantine tag of such character as shall be approved by the Health Officer shall be placed upon the same and it is unlawful for any person to remove the same without the authority of said Health Officer.

(Prior code § 4-3.38)

The fees for special inspection service rendered pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter shall be as follows:

A.

If inspection is furnished by a Veterinary Meat Inspector, said fee shall be upon the basis of three hundred dollars ($300.00) for a full month's services.

B.

If inspection is furnished by a District Meat Inspector and the full time of such inspector is required for a full month, said fee shall be three hundred dollars ($300.00) for said month.

C.

If both a Veterinary Meat Inspector and a District Meat Inspector are required for a full month in a single establishment, the said fee for such inspection for a month shall be six hundred dollars ($600.00).

D.

If inspection is furnished by a District Meat Inspector for less than a full month, the said fee shall be upon the basis of two dollars fifty cents ($2.50) per hour, and the time occupied by such inspector in traveling to and from the place where such inspection services are rendered shall be computed as time for which such fee is charged.

E.

All inspection fees shall be payable on the first day of the month following the month during which the inspection services are rendered.

(Prior code § 4-3.39)

Markets selling at retail, meat, fish or poultry, or meat products, shall pay such license fee as may be required by other provisions of this code or ordinance of the city.

(Prior code § 4-3.40)

If the fees in this Chapter provided for are not paid promptly upon the day the same become due under the terms of this Chapter, no inspection of slaughtering, or manufacturing, or of live stock or live poultry as provided in this Chapter shall be furnished to the person, firm or corporation so in default until the whole amount due is paid to the city.

(Prior code § 4-3.41)

Any person, firm or corporation located outside of the city desiring to secure a permit or arrange for the inspection in this Chapter provided for, may do so by paying the fees and complying with all the other provisions of this Chapter.

(Prior code § 4-3.42)

It is unlawful for any person, at any place of business in the city, to advertise, offer for sale or sell, or to cause or knowingly permit the advertising, offering for sale or selling of, any smoked, fresh or pickled meats, poultry, rabbits or fish, except shanks, offal, heads, plucks, and wild game, other than by weight, determined on a scale by weight or a beam, properly scaled by the Department of Weights and Measures.

(Prior code § 4-3.44)