Signed by Governor Pete Ricketts

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends the Nebraska Meat and Poultry Inspection Law.

Highlights:

• Amends the Nebraska Meat and Poultry Inspection Law (Sec. 1, Pg. 1).

• Authorizes the Director of Agriculture to refuse or revoke certification of inspection for meat and poultry processing establishments that do not abide by the above law (Sec. 4, Pg. 4).

• Authorizes the Director to order relabeling and require reorganization of operations at an establishment to separate certain products from each other (Sec. 4, Pg. 4).

• Establishes that the salaries of personnel that enforce the above law shall be comparable to their federal equivalents in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Sec. 4, Pg. 5).

• Authorizes the Director to exempt any part of an establishment’s operations from inspection in accordance with federal law, if the exemption does not threaten public health (Sec. 4, Pg. 5).

• Authorizes the Director to adopt and enforce rules for labeling, storage, and sanitation at meat and poultry processing establishments in accordance with this amended law (Sec. 4, Pg. 5).

• Prohibits any person from slaughtering livestock or poultry or preparing livestock or poultry products without obtaining a license to do so, and without acting in accordance with the above law and regulations adopted by the Director (Sec. 5, Pg. 5).

• Prohibits any person from manufacturing pet feed without obtaining a license from the Director (Sec. 5, Pg. 5).

• Prohibits the sale or transport of the above products in interstate commerce if said product has been adulterated/tainted or misbranded in any way (Sec. 5, Pg. 5).

• Prohibits any person from slaughtering or receiving slaughtered livestock or poultry for the purposes of selling, transporting, or presenting the product without inspection both prior to and after slaughter (Sec. 5, Pg. 5).

• Prohibits any person from adulterating/tainting or misbranding in any way a product that is in transport or prepared for transport in interstate commerce (Sec. 5, Pg. 6).

• Establishes requirements for shipping and branding labels (Sec. 5, Pg. 6).

• Requires products to be denatured or otherwise un-identifiable as their original form (Sec. 5, Pg. 6).

• Authorizes inspectors to seize for no longer than 20 days any product intended for distribution in interstate commerce that is in any unfit for such distribution according to state and federal law (Sec. 6, Pg. 7).

• Requires seized products to be destroyed at the expense of the former owner after receiving their written permission (Sec. 7, Pg. 7).

• Specifies that any inspector who receives a bribe during inspection is guilty of a Class III misdemeanor and subsequently discharged (Sec. 8, Pg. 8).

• Specifies that any person assaulting, threatening, resisting, or in any way impeding an inspector is guilty of a Class II misdemeanor (Sec. 8, Pg. 8).

• Specifies that any establishment in violation of the provisions of this law is guilty of a Class II misdemeanor, with the specification that any person attempting to defraud or distribute adulterated products is guilty of a Class IV felony (Sec. 8, Pg. 8).

• Specifies that the Nebraska Meat and Poultry Inspection Law does not apply to the acquisition of livestock meat from an informed end consumer who is an owner of the animal (Sec. 10, Pg. 8).

Full Bill Text