Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 40-7-18-.02 - Definitions
The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this Chapter.
(1)
"Acid Foods" or "Acidified Foods" means foods that
have a natural pH of 4.6 or below or low acid-foods to which acid(s) or acid
food(s) are added: these foods include, but are not limited to, beans,
cucumbers, cabbage, artichokes, cauliflower, puddings, peppers, tropical
fruits, and fish, singly or in any combination. They have a water activity (aw)
greater than 0.85 and have a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below.
(2)
"Act" means The Georgia Food
Act.
(3)
"Adequate"
means that which is needed to accomplish the intended purpose in keeping with
good public health practice.
(4)
"Adulterated" as defined in Georgia Food Act Section
26-2-26.
(5)
"Balut" means an embryo
inside a fertile egg that has been incubated for a period sufficient for the
embryo to reach a specific stage of development after which it is removed from
incubation before hatching.
(6)
"Code of Federal Regulations" means the compilation of the general
and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive
departments and agencies of the federal government.
(7)
"Commissioner" means
Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia.
(8)
"Consumer" means a person
who is a member of the public, takes possession of food, is not functioning in
the capacity of an operator of a food establishment or food processing plant,
and does not offer the food for resale.
(9)
"Critical Control Point"
means a point, step, or procedure in a food process at which control can be
applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce
such hazard to an acceptable level.
(10)
"Critical limit" means the
maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical parameter
must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce
to an acceptable level the occurrence of the identified food hazard.
(11)
"Department" means the
Georgia Department of Agriculture.
(12)
"Department Representative"
means any officer, inspector, agent or employee of the Georgia Department of
Agriculture who is authorized by the Commissioner with the duty of enforcing
these regulations.
(13)
"Egg" means the shell egg of avian species such as chicken, duck,
goose, guinea, quail, ratites or turkey. Egg does not include:
(a) Balut,
(b) the egg of reptile species such as
alligator; or
(c) an egg
product.
(14)
"Egg
Product" means all, or a portion of, the contents found inside eggs
separated from the shell and pasteurized in a food processing plant, with or
without added ingredients, intended for human consumption, such as dried,
frozen or liquid eggs. Egg product does not include food which contains eggs
only in a relatively small proportion such as cake mixes.
(15)
"Employee" means the
License Holder, person in charge, food employee, person having supervisory or
management duties, person on the payroll, family member, volunteer, person
performing work under contractual agreement, or other person working in a food
processing plant.
(16)
"Exemption" means a written document issued by the regulatory
authority that authorizes a modification or waiver of one or more requirements
of this Code if, in the opinion of the regulatory authority, a health hazard or
nuisance will not result from the modification or waiver.
(17)
"Finished Product" means:
(a) The output of manufacturing or processing
operations which is suitable for human consumption, and
(b) An ingredient or other constituent of a
food that will not be further treated or otherwise processed to control the
most resistant microorganism of public health significance.
(18)
"Fish" means
fresh or saltwater finfish, crustaceans, other forms of aquatic animal life
(including, but not limited to, alligator, frog, aquatic turtle, jellyfish, sea
cucumber, and sea urchin and the roe of such animals) other than birds or
mammals, and all mollusks, where such animal life is intended for human
consumption.
(19)
"Food" means a raw, cooked, or processed edible substance, ice,
beverage, or ingredient used or intended for use or for sale in whole or in
part for human consumption, or chewing gum.
(20)
"Food employee" means an
individual working with unpackaged food, food equipment or utensils, or
food-contact surfaces.
(21)
"Food Processing Plant" means an establishment that sells food
products to other business entities as its primary function; and is used
synonymously in this chapter with "establishment," "firm," "facility," and
"plant." The term "food processing plant" includes those facilities that
manufacture, process, pack, and/or hold food. There can be a retail component
on the premise providing food directly to consumers from that establishment. A
food processing plant's primary function is to sell food directly to other
business entities if the annual monetary value of sales of food products
directly to other business entities exceeds the annual monetary value of sales
of food products to consumers.
(22)
"HACCP Plan" means a written document that delineates the formal
procedures for following the Hazard Analysis and critical control point (HACCP)
principals developed by the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological
Criteria for foods.
(23)
"Hazard" means a biological, chemical, or physical property that
is likely to cause an unacceptable consumer health risk.
(24)
"Hermetically Sealed
Container" means a container which is designed and intended to secure
against entry of microorganisms and, in the case of low acid canned foods, to
maintain the commercial sterility of its contents after processing.
(25)
"High Risk Classification"
means a facility which produces a high risk product or a lower-risk product
distributed to highly susceptible populations or in such volume that a
violative product poses a significant threat to public health.
(26)
"High Risk Product" means a
product that has been classified to carry a high potential for contamination or
foodborne illness.
(27)
"Highly Susceptible Population" means persons who are more likely
than other people in the general population to experience foodborne disease
because they are:
(a) Immunocompromised;
preschool age children, or older adults; and
(b) Obtaining food at a facility that
provides services such as custodial care, health care, or assisted living, such
as a child or adult day care center, kidney dialysis center, hospital or
nursing home, or nutritional or socialization services such as a senior
center.
(28)
"Imminent Health Hazard" means a significant threat or danger to
health that is considered to exist when there is evidence sufficient to show
that a product, practice, circumstance, or event creates a situation that
requires immediate correction or cessation of operation to prevent injury based
on:
(a) The number of potential injuries,
and
(b) The nature, severity, and
duration of the anticipated injury.
(29)
"License" means the
document issued by the Department, which authorizes a person to operate a food
processing plant.
(30)
"Low
Risk Classification" means a firm which produces or stores a low-risk
product and whose target population or distribution does not increase the
potential public health threat of a violative product.
(31)
"Low Risk Product" means a
product that has been classified as having a low potential for contamination or
foodborne illness.
(32)
"Manufacturing/Processing"
(a)
Means making food from one or more ingredients, or synthesizing, preparing,
treating, modifying or manipulating food, including food crops or
ingredients.
(b)
Manufacturing/processing includes all of the physical and/or chemical
alterations applied to a food; as it is taken from its original state; or any
food which has been partially or fully processed previously; and either
prepared further by cooking or made into another form before being
marketed.
(c) Examples of
manufacturing/processing activities include: Baking, boiling, bottling,
canning, cooking, cooling, cutting, distilling, drying/dehydrating raw
agricultural commodities to create a distinct commodity (such as
drying/dehydrating grapes to produce raisins), evaporating, eviscerating,
extracting juice, formulating, freezing, grinding, homogenizing, irradiating,
labeling, milling, mixing, packaging (including modified atmosphere packaging),
pasteurizing, peeling, rendering, storing/holding, treating to manipulate
ripening, trimming, washing, or waxing.
(33)
"Moderate Risk
Classification" means a firm which produces a moderate risk product or
which produces a lower-risk product distributed to highly susceptible
populations or in such volume that a violative product poses a moderate threat
to public health.
(34)
"Moderate Risk Product" means a product that has been classified
as carrying a moderate potential for contamination or foodborne
illness.
(35)
"Molluscan
Shellfish" means any edible species of fresh or frozen oysters, clams,
mussels, or scallops, or edible portions of such species, except when the
product consists entirely of the shucked adductor muscle.
(36)
"Packing" means placing
food into a container other than packaging the food and also includes
re-packing and activities performed incidental to packing or re-packing a food
(e.g., activities performed for the safe or effective packing or re-packing of
that food (such as sorting, culling, grading, and weighing or conveying
incidental to packing or re-packing)), but does not include activities that
transform a raw agricultural commodity into a processed food as defined in
section 201(gg) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
(37)
"Person" means an
association, a corporation, individual, partnership, other legal entity,
government, or governmental subdivision or agency.
(38)
"Person In Charge" means
the individual present at a food processing plant who is responsible for the
operation at the time of inspection.
(39)
"pH" means the symbol for
the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration, which is a measure of
the degree of acidity or alkalinity of a solution.
(40)
"Poisonous or Deleterious
Substances" means substances that are not intended for
ingestion.
(41)
"Ratite" means a flightless bird such as an emu, ostrich, or
rhea.
(42)
"Raw Agricultural
Product" or "Raw Agricultural Commodity" means any
agricultural commodity in its raw or natural state that has undergone little or
no processing. This product would require further processing before
consumption.
(43)
"Ready-to-Eat Food" means food that is in a form that is edible
without washing, cooking, or additional preparation by the food establishment
or consumer and that is reasonably expected to be consumed in that
form.
(44)
"Regulatory
Authority" means an agency that is charged with the duty of enforcing
specific regulations. The regulatory authority in this Chapter refers to the
Georgia Department of Agriculture and the duly authorized agents.
(45)
"Retail Food Establishment"
means an establishment that sells food products directly to consumers as its
primary function. The term "retail food establishment" includes those
facilities that manufacture, process, pack, and/or hold food. There can be a
wholesale/distribution component on the premise providing food to other
business entities from that establishment. A retail food establishment's
primary function is to sell food directly to consumers if the annual monetary
value of sales of food products directly to consumers exceeds the annual
monetary value of sales of food products to all other buyers. The term
"consumers" does not include businesses.
(46)
"Risk" means the likelihood
that an adverse health effect will occur within a population as a result of a
hazard in a food.
(47)
"Risk
Classification" means the designation or category assigned to a food
processing plant, and is based on the following criteria:
(a) the inherent risk of the food produced
based on that commodity's history of foodborne illness outbreaks, pathogens of
concern, and predicted mortality;
(b) the food processing plant's history of
compliance with Department rules and regulations;
(c) distribution, whether intrastate,
interstate, or export;
(d)
population served;
(e) volume of
products produced, including co-packing for another business or entity;
and
(f) inspectional effort
required of the Department, based on size and complexity of the food processing
plant's operations.
(48)
"U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act" (abbreviated as FFDCA,
FDCA, or FD&C) gives authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics.
(49)
"Water Activity" means a
measure of the free moisture in a food, is the quotient of the water vapor
pressure of the substance divided by the vapor pressure of pure water at the
same temperature, and is indicated by the symbol
"aw".
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
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