S. 2409 — PRIME Act

This section establishes a new exemption from federal meat inspection requirements under the Federal Meat Inspection Act for the slaughter of animals at custom slaughter facilities and the preparation and intrastate transportation in commerce of the resulting carcasses, meat, and meat food products, provided the operations comply with state law and the products are distributed exclusively within that state to (1) household consumers or (2) restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, grocery stores, or other establishments that prepare meals for direct consumption or sell meat directly to consumers. (As background, federal law generally requires USDA inspection of meat and meat food products produced for commerce, with prior exemptions under 21 U.S.C. 623(a) limited to personal slaughter of one's own animals or custom operations exclusively for the animal owner's household, nonpaying guests, and employees.) The section also redesignates subsections (b) through (d) as (c) through (e) and makes a conforming amendment to newly designated subsection (c).

This section provides that no amendment made by section 2 preempts any state law relating to (1) the slaughter of animals or the preparation of carcasses, parts thereof, meat, and meat food products at a custom slaughter facility; or (2) the sale of meat or meat food products.