Section 126 Duties of commissioner - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 126. (a) The commissioner shall:—

(1) remove inspectors from any establishment that fails to destroy condemned products as required;

(2) refuse to provide inspection service under this chapter with respect to any official establishment for causes specified in section four hundred and one of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, as amended, or section eighteen of the Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, as amended;

(3) refuse to provide inspection service under sections one hundred and eighteen to one hundred and twenty-eight, inclusive, with respect to any establishment for violation of provisions as set forth in said sections;

(4) order labeling and containers to be withheld from use if he determines that the labeling is false or misleading or the containers are of a misleading size or form;

(5) require that equines be slaughtered and prepared in establishments separate from establishments where other livestock are slaughtered or their products are prepared;

(6) require that persons subject to the provisions of sections one hundred and eighteen to one hundred and thirty, inclusive, furnish the department, on such form as the commissioner may prescribe, annual or special reports, or both such annual or special reports, or answers in writing to specific questions asked by the commissioner, or such other information as the commissioner may require to enforce the provisions of said sections;

(7) cooperate with the Secretary of Agriculture in the administration of the provisions of this chapter in order to effectuate the purposes thereof, and to accept federal assistance for that purpose.

(b) The department shall:—

(1) by regulations prescribe the sizes and style of type to be used for labeling information required under this chapter, and definitions and standards of identity or composition or standards of bill of container, consistent with federal standards, when it deems such action appropriate for the protection of the public and after consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture;

(2) by regulations prescribe conditions of storage and handling of livestock products and poultry products by persons engaged in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, or transporting such articles to assure that such articles will not be adulterated or misbranded when delivered to the consumer;

(3) by regulations require that every person engaged in business in or for intrastate commerce as a broker, renderer, animal food manufacturer, or wholesaler or public warehouseman of livestock products or poultry products, or engaged in the business of buying, selling, or transporting in intrastate commerce, any dead, dying, disabled or diseased livestock or poultry or parts of the carcasses of any such animals including poultry that died otherwise than by slaughter shall register with the department his name and the address of each place of business at which and all trade names under which he conducts such business.