MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2004 Regular Session
To: Agriculture
By: Senator(s) Hyde-Smith
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 69-7-605, 69-7-657 AND 69-7-701, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DELETE INCORRECT SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE IN THE DEFINITION OF CATFISH; TO AMEND SECTIONS 69-7-607, 69-7-609 AND 69-7-610, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DELETE REFERENCES TO OCEAN CATFISH; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 69-7-605, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-605. For purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "Capable of use as human food" means and shall apply to any catfish or part or product thereof unless it is denatured or otherwise identified as required by regulations prescribed by the commissioner to deter its use as human food, or unless it is naturally inedible by humans.
(b) "Catfish" means any species within the family Ictaluridae * * *.
(c) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce of the State of Mississippi.
(d) "Direct retail sale" means the sale of catfish products individually or in small quantities directly to the consumer.
(e) "Distributor" means any person offering for sale, exchange or barter any catfish product destined for direct retail sale in the State of Mississippi.
(f) "Label" means a display of written, printed or graphic matter upon or affixed to the container in which a catfish product is offered for direct retail sale.
(g) "Labeling" means all labels and other written, printed or graphic matter upon a catfish product, or any of its containers or wrappers, offered for direct retail sale.
(h) "Pay pond" means a circumscribed body of water owned by a person and operated solely for recreational fishing purposes on a commercial basis for profit.
(i) "Person" includes any individual, partnership, corporation and association or other legal entity.
(j) "Processor" means any person engaged in handling, storing, preparing, manufacturing, packing or holding catfish products.
(k) "Producer" means any person engaged in the business of harvesting catfish, by any method, intended for direct retail sale.
(l) "Product" means any catfish product capable of use as human food which is made wholly or in part from any catfish or portion thereof, except products which contain catfish only in small proportions or historically have not been, in the judgment of the commissioner, considered by consumers as products of the United States commercial catfish industry and which are exempted from definition as a catfish product by the commissioner under such conditions as he may prescribe to assure that the catfish or portions thereof contained therein are not adulterated and that such products are not represented as catfish products.
(m) "Product name" means the name of the catfish item intended for retail sale which identifies it as to kind, class or specific use.
(n) "Restaurant" means any person offering for sale to a consumer prepared food for immediate consumption.
(o) "Retailer" means any person offering for sale catfish products to individual consumers and representing the last sale prior to human consumptionexceptthat restaurants and other eating establishments are hereby excluded.
(p) "State Health Officer" means the State Health Officer of the State Board of Health, or his designated representative.
(q) "Wholesaler" means any person offering for sale any catfish product destined for direct retail sale in the State of Mississippi.
SECTION 2. Section 69-7-607, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-607. (1) No catfish product shall be offered for direct retail sale for human consumption by a processor, distributor, wholesaler or retailer unless the catfish product name is specifically labeled in the following manner:
(a) "FARM-RAISED CATFISH, A PRODUCT OF MISSISSIPPI" if the product has been specifically produced in freshwater according to the usual and customary techniques of commercial aquaculture; except that the appropriate state name or USA or United States of America may be inserted in lieu thereof to accommodate similar catfish products produced in any one of the other states of the United States of America.
(b) "RIVER OR LAKE CATFISH, A PRODUCT OF MISSISSIPPI" if the product has been produced in any freshwater lake, river or stream of the state, but has not been produced according to the usual and customary techniques of commercial aquaculture; except that the appropriate state name or USA or United States of America may be inserted in lieu thereof to accommodate similar catfish products produced in freshwater lakes, rivers or streams of any other state in the United States of America.
(c) "IMPORTED CATFISH" provided the catfish is produced from freshwater, either according to the usual and customary techniques of, aquaculture, or from freshwater lakes, rivers or streams of a country other than the United States of America.
* * *
(2) Any person selling river or lake catfish exclusively and directly to the consumer may have on his premises a sign reasonably visible to the consumer identifying such product as river or lake catfish, rather than labeling each individual container or package of catfish product, as provided in this section.
(3) Any retailer selling catfish products not wrapped or in a container may comply with this article by placing a sign on the display case or refrigeration unit reasonably visible to the consumer, giving notice that such catfish is either "Farm-raised Catfish," "River or Lake Catfish" or "Imported Catfish" * * * as such products are defined in this section.
(4) Any advertising as to any catfish product shall state whether such catfish product is "Farm-raised Catfish," "River or Lake Catfish" or "Imported Catfish" * * * as defined in this section.
(5) The term "catfish" shall not be used as a common name or in the label name of fish product except as provided in this section.
(6) This section shall not apply to catfish products exported out of the United States.
SECTION 3. Section 69-7-609, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-609. All distributors, processors or wholesalers of catfish products, distributing or selling catfish products, shall provide information to each person, firm or corporation to whom they distribute or sell catfish products for resale as to whether such catfish product is "Farm-raised Catfish," "River or Lake Catfish" or "Imported Catfish" * * * as such terms are defined in subsection (1) of Section 69-7-607.
SECTION 4. Section 69-7-610, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-610. All distributors, processors or wholesalers of catfish or other fish products, distributing or selling catfish or other fish products, shall provide information to the commissioner or his representative, upon request, and to each retailer to which such distributor, processor or wholesaler distributes or sells catfish or other fish products as to whether such product is Farm-raised Catfish, River or Lake Catfish, Imported Catfish, or Other Fish a Product of (country of origin) * * *. In addition, any wholesaler or distributor shall provide his sales and purchases records of catfish and other fish upon request by the commissioner. Other fish includes those fish in the taxonomic family of Siluridae, Clariidae and Pangasiidae.
SECTION 5. Section 69-7-657, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-657. For purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "Capable of use as human food" shall mean and shall apply to any catfish or part or product thereof unless it is denatured or otherwise identified as required by regulations prescribed by the commissioner to deter its use as human food, or unless it is naturally inedible by humans.
(b) "Cash sale" shall mean a sale in which the seller does not expressly extend credit to the buyer.
(c) "Catfish" shall mean any species of the scientific order, Siluriformes * * *.
(d) "Commissioner" shall mean the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce of the State of Mississippi.
(e) "Direct retail sale" shall mean the sale of catfish products directly to the consumer.
(f) "Person" shall include any individual, partnership, corporation and association or other legal entity.
(g) "Processor" shall mean any person engaged in handling, storing, preparing, manufacturing, packing or holding catfish products.
(h) "Producer" shall mean any person engaged in the business of producing catfish, by any method.
(i) "Product" shall mean any catfish product capable of use as human food which is made wholly or in part from any catfish or portion thereof.
(j) "Secured party" shall mean a lender who has a perfected security interest pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code in the catfish being sold.
SECTION 6. Section 69-7-701, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
69-7-701. (1) For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "Catfish" means any species of the scientific order Siluriformes * * *.
(b) "Processor" means any person engaged in handling, storing, preparing, manufacturing, packing or holding catfish products.
(2) When making a weight determination of farm-raised catfish, the processor shall weigh the catfish as they are unloaded from the live haul truck and shall drain any water from the weighing baskets before the catfish are weighed. No deductions shall be made thereafter for water in the weighing baskets. The processor shall also use a weighing device that is of a type suitable for the weighing of farm-raised catfish and subject to the provisions of Section 75-27-19, Mississippi Code of 1972.
(3) Such weighing device shall electronically print a ticket which provides an exact duplicate of the weight indicated. A copy of this ticket shall be furnished to the owner of the catfish. Such ticket shall also include, but is not limited to, the following:
(a) The name and address of the processor;
(b) The name of the owner of the catfish being weighed;
(c) The date the catfish is weighed;
(d) The signature of the individual who weighs the farm-raised catfish recorded on the weight ticket;
(e) The device should print zero (0) before each weighing; and
(f) Such additional information as the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce deems necessary for the lawful and accurate recording of the weight of farm-raised catfish.
(4) Deductions for trash fish, turtles and other foreign materials shall be determined by a separate electronic weighing of the same with a printed ticket provided to the producer.
SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.