Arizona Administrative Code
Title 3 - AGRICULTURE
Chapter 2 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - ANIMAL SERVICES DIVISION
Article 11 - VOLUNTARY EGG GRADING PROGRAM
Section R3-2-1101 - Definitions
For the purpose of this Article, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms in this section shall have the following meaning:
"Acceptable" means suitable for the purpose intended.
"Administrator" means the supervisor as defined in A.R.S. § 3-701.
"Ambient temperature" means the air temperature maintained in an egg storage facility or transport vehicle.
"AMS" means Agricultural Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
"Applicant" means any person or entity who requests any grading service.
"Appeal grading" means a re-grading requested by a recipient who is dissatisfied with an initial grading decision.
"Associate Director" means the associate director of the animal service division.
"Auditing services" means the act of providing independent verification of written quality assurance and value added standards for production, processing and distribution of eggs. Auditing services are performed by graders authorized by the Administrator to perform such audits and the service provided will be in accordance with the provisions of this Article for grading services, as appropriate.
"Cage mark" means any stain-type mark caused by an egg coming in contact with a material that imparts a rusty or blackish appearance to the shell.
"Case" means, when referring to containers, an egg case, as used in commercial practice in the United States, holding 30 dozens of eggs.
"Class" means any subdivision of a product based on essential physical characteristics that differentiate between major groups of the same size, kind, species, or method of processing.
"Chick papers" means the papers in which chicks are delivered.
"Condition" means any condition (including, but not being limited to, the state of preservation, cleanliness, soundness, whole-someness, or fitness for human food) of any product which affects its merchantability.
"Consumer grades" means U.S. Grade AA, A, and B.
"Controlling person" means a person at least 21 years of age legally accountable for operations and management of the egg production plant.
"Department" or "AZDA" means the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
"Director" means the Director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
"Egg grading service" means the personnel who are actively engaged in the administration, application, and direction of egg grading programs and services pursuant to this Article.
"Eggs" means eggs of domesticated chickens.
"Eggs of current production" means eggs that are no more than 21 days old.
"Grademark" means the official identification symbol used to identify eggs officially graded by AZDA in accordance with this article.
"Grader" means any employee assigned by AZDA to investigate and certify in accordance with this Article, the class, quality, quantity, or condition of products.
"Grading or grading service" means the determination by a grader that a product meets the standards of this Article regarding the class, quality, quantity, or condition of the product for the purpose of issuing a grade or grading certificate. Such determination may be performed by examining all product units or representative samples drawn by the grader; may be performed as a temporary, resident or non-resident grading service; and includes regrading performed in response to an appeal of a previous grading decision.
"Grading certificate" means a statement, either written or printed, issued by a grader pursuant to this Article, relative to the class, quantity, quality, or condition of products.
"Holiday or legal holiday" means the legal public holidays specified by State of Arizona Accounting Manual (SAAM).
"Identify" means to apply a grademark to products or the containers thereof.
"Interested party" means any person financially interested in a transaction involving any grading, appeal grading, or regrading of any product.
"Office of grading" means the office of any resident grader at the plant.
"Official AZDA certificate" means any form of certification, either written or printed, used under this Article to certify with respect to the sampling, class, grade, quality, size, quantity, or condition of products (including the compliance of products with applicable specifications).
"Official AZDA memorandum" means any initial record of findings made by an authorized person in the process of grading or sampling pursuant to this Article, any processing or plant-operation report made by an authorized person in connection with grading or sampling under this Article, and any report made by an authorized person of services performed pursuant to this Article.
"Official AZDA mark" means the grademark and any other mark, or any variations in such marks approved by the Administrator and authorized to be affixed to any product, or affixed to or printed on the packaging material of any product, stating that the product was graded, or indicating the appropriate U.S. grade or condition of the product, or for the purpose of maintaining the identity of products graded under this Article, including but not limited to, those set forth in R3-2-1111.
"Official identification" means any AZDA standard designation of class, grade, quality, size, quantity, or condition specified in this Article or any symbol, stamp, label, logo, or seal indicating that the product has been officially AZDA graded and/or indicating the class, grade, quality, size, quantity, or condition of the product approved by the Supervisor and authorized to be affixed to any product, or affixed to or printed on the packaging material of any product.
"Official plant" means the facilities used for a shell egg operation that has been approved by AZDA for grading purposes.
"Origin grading" means a grading made on a lot of eggs at a plant where the eggs are graded and packed.
"Packaging" means the primary or immediate container in which eggs are packaged and which serves to protect, preserve, and maintain the condition of the eggs.
"Packing" means the secondary container in which the primary or immediate container is placed to protect, preserve, and maintain the condition of the eggs during transit or storage.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, association, business trust, corporation, or any organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not.
"Plant" means the facilities used for a shell egg operation.
"Potable water" means water that has been approved by the State health authority or agency or laboratory acceptable to the Administrator as safe for drinking and suitable for food processing.
"Product or products" means eggs of the domesticated chicken.
"Quality" means the inherent properties of any product which determine its relative degree of excellence.
"Quality assurance inspector" means any designated company employee other than the plant owner, manager, foreman, or supervisor, authorized by the State supervisor to examine product and to supervise the labeling, dating, and lotting of officially graded eggs and to assure that such product is packaged under sanitary conditions, graded by authorized personnel, and maintained under proper inventory control until released by an employee of the Department.
"Recipient" means the individual or entity whose application for grading services has been approved by the Department.
"Resident grading service" means continuous supervision, in an official plant, of the handling or packaging of any product.
"Sampling" means the act of taking samples of any product for grading or certification.
"SE" means Salmonella Enteritidis.
"Shell protected" means eggs which have had a protective covering such as oil applied to the shell surface. The product used shall be acceptable to the Food and Drug Administration.
"Shipped for retail sale" means eggs that are forwarded from the processing facility for distribution to the ultimate consumer.
"State supervisor" means the immediate supervisor of a Grader.
"Washed ungraded eggs" means eggs which have been washed and that are either sized or unsized, but not segregated for quality.
