# § 608. Sanitary inspection and regulation of slaughtering and packing establishments; rejection of adulterated meat or meat food products
The Secretary shall cause to be made, by experts in sanitation or by other competent inspectors, such inspection of all slaughtering, meat canning, salting, packing, rendering, or similar establishments in which amenable species are slaughtered and the meat and meat food products thereof are prepared for commerce as may be necessary to inform himself concerning the sanitary conditions of the same, and to prescribe the rules and regulations of sanitation under which such establishments shall be maintained; and where the sanitary conditions of any such establishment are such that the meat or meat food products are rendered adulterated, he shall refuse to allow said meat or meat food products to be labeled, marked, stamped or tagged as “inspected and passed.”
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**Source Credit**: (Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 8, formerly 6th par., 34 Stat. 1262; renumbered § 8 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 3, 12(a), (f), Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 588, 592; Pub. L. 109–97, title VII, § 798[(a)](1), Nov. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 2166.)
## Editorial Notes
### Codification
Section was formerly classified to .
### Amendments
2005— substituted “amenable species” for “cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines”.
1967—, §§ 3, 12(a), (f), struck out “interstate or foreign” before “commerce” and “of Agriculture” after “Secretary”, included horses, mules, and other equines in the list of animals, and substituted “adulterated” for “unclean, unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human food”, respectively.
## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
### Effective Date of 2005 Amendment
Amendment by effective the day after 120 days after , see , set out as a note under .
### Effective Date of 1967 Amendment
Amendment by effective , except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after , see , set out as an Effective Date note under .