ORDINANCE NO. 341
AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN FOOD AND THE INSPECTION THEREOF WITHIN THE CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO:
Section 1. There is hereby created the office of food inspector whose duties shall be as hereinafter prescribed. The food inspector shall be appointed by the City Manager. Before entering upon the duties of his office he shall file in the office of the City Auditor his oath, together with his bond in favor of the City of Grand Junction in the penal sum of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) prescribed by law and the ordinances of the said City.
Section 2. It shall be the duty of the Food Inspector to inspect all meats or meat products kept or offered for sale within the corporate limits of the City of Grand Junction and if, upon inspection, he shall find any such food unsafe for consumption, he shall condemn the same and order the same destroyed or so treat it as to render the same unmarketable for human consumption. He shall keep a record of all condemned meat. He shall further keep a record of all other inspections made by him in the discharge of his duties under this ordinance and for that purpose shall have a record book which shall constitute a permanent record as shall be required of him by the City Manager of the said City or the ordinances thereof. The Food Inspector shall be subject to the direction and control of the Chief of Health & Parks and under the general supervision of the City Manager.
Section 3. A deputy Food Inspector may be appointed by the City Manager. Such deputy Food Inspector shall have all the powers conferred upon the said Food Inspector when in active duty as provided in this ordinance, but shall, at all times, be subject to the direction and control of the Chief of Health & Parks and Food Inspector under the general supervision and control of the City Manager.
Section 4. No person shall sell, keep for sale, or offer for sale, or cause to be sold or kept for sale within the corporate limits of the City of Grand Junction any meat without such meat first having been inspected and approved by the Food Inspector or his deputy unless the same shall bear the meat inspection brand or mark of the United States Department of Agriculture or Municipalities where food inspection is maintained, and of which the food inspector shall have approved.
Section 5. No person shall kill and dress any animal or meat in any market or store, except fowls, nor permit to escape therein or within one hundred feet thereof, any poisonous, noxious, or offensive substances. No blown, tainted, raised, stuffed, diseased, putrid, impure, meagre, unhealthy or unwholesome meat or fish, bird or fowl, shall be kept or sold or offered for sale for human food or held or kept in any market or any place within the corporate limits of the City of Grand Junction.
No calf, pig or lamb nor meat thereof shall be brought, sold or offered for sale for food in said City which being a calf when killed was less than six weeks old and when dressed shall weigh less than eighty pounds; or being a pig was, when killed, less than five weeks old; or being a lamb was, when killed, less than eight weeks old. No meat or dead animals above the size of a rabbit or fowl shall be taken to any market or store until the same shall have been fully cooled nor until the entrails have been removed. Nor shall any unwholesome matter or thing be brought to or near any such market. No meat shall be bought or sold or offered for sale for food when the same has been fed upon carrion, offal or dead animals. It shall be the duty of the Food Inspector or his deputy having knowledge of such facts, forthwith to seize and destroy all such unwholesome meat, and it shall be the duty of every person or persons knowing of such food being offered for sale within the corporate limits of the said City which is not sound or in a healthy condition for food forthwith to report such facts to the City Food Inspector or his deputy.
All meat in meat markets shall be kept in coolers save that which is displayed on the counter and this shall be covered with screens to protect the same from flies and unnecessary handling by prospective buyers, provided that meat on the block while being cut need not be so protected. No dealer in meats shall keep any refrigerators or ice-boxes unless the same shall be lined with lead or some proper substance so as to be water tight, nor unless the same be provided with a pipe of lead, zinc or copper leading therefrom to the proper waste pipe.
Section 6. No slaughtering, tanking or rendering shall be permitted within the corporate limits of the said City without written permit from the Food Inspector or his deputy. No slaughtering in barns, sheds or other buildings not designated and not suitable for slaughtering animals and for the handling, dressing and cooling of meats shall be done, nor shall any slaughtering be done outside of a building. Provided, however, that slaughtering of animals elsewhere than in approved buildings may be permitted when satisfactorily shown to the Food Inspector that such animals are butchered in a sanitary place and under sanitary conditions and that the person owning the animal butchered or causing the same to be butchered is not regularly engaged in the business of slaughtering or causing animals to be slaughtered for sale. All slaughter houses shall have suitable floors and shall be properly drained. All slaughter houses shall have an abundant supply of water from an uncontaminated source and which may be supplied with adequate pressure through a hose to any part of the room or rooms used for the slaughtering or preparing of meats for food. The floors shall be thoroughly washed each day after slaughtering is completed. The walls and exposed surfaces on the inside of the slaughter houses shall be cleaned by washing or scraping as often as once in three months, and if the surfaces are not painted, they shall be calcimined or whitewashed at least once in three months. Cooling and storerooms for meat shall be properly ventilated. All offal and refuse shall be removed from the slaughter house on the day of slaughtering and be disposed of in a sanitary manner. All animals kept in yards attached to slaughter houses shall be treated in a humane manner and if kept there over twelve hours shall be fed and watered and no animal shall be killed while such animal is in an overheated, feverish or diseased condition. All slaughter houses from which meat is brought within the corporate limits of the City of Grand Junction which are not under Government Inspection shall be under the direct supervision of the Food Inspector. No person shall sell, or offer for sale within the corporate limits of the said City any meat which does not bear the meat inspection brand or mark of the Food Inspector of the said City or of the United States Department of Agriculture, or other municipalities approved by the Food Inspector. The Inspector shall have the power to condemn and destroy as provided in this ordinance, all carcasses or parts found to be unfit for food. The Inspector shall have the right to enter all markets, slaughter houses or other places where meat is sold or kept for sale or butchered or prepared for sale, during all hours of the day when such places are open for business, and to inspect the meat kept therein, and also to inspect all refrigerators, coolers and other equipment used in the keeping of meat or the handling and selling thereof. The Inspector or any officer of the Department of Health shall be treated in a courteous manner and any violation of this ordinance or of the rules and regulations of the said Inspector or of the Health Department of such City may be the cause for the withdrawal of inspection from that place. The Inspector shall direct the disposition of the condemned meat or carcasses as he shall deem proper. Every dealer in meat within the corporate limits of the said City shall cause the place where such meat is kept or offered for sale to be cleaned and purified at least once in every twenty-four hours.
Section 7. Meats slaughtered outside the City of Grand Junction and not in approved abattoirs and brought into the City for sale, may be inspected and branded, or otherwise marked for identification by the Food Inspector or his deputy, under the following rules, to-wit: All carcasses must have the head, tongue, heart, liver, and lungs thereof; provided, however, that a producer may have less than a whole carcass inspected if he shall submit for inspection at least one-half of the carcass together with the head and viscera as herein provided. The Inspector may, however, demand the whole carcass if he deems it necessary. The term "Producer" shall mean such person as is described in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Section 12 hereof. All such carcasses shall be brought to such place at such time as may be designated by the Food Inspector, such place to be within the business district of the City of Grand Junction.
Section 8. Every person being the owner, lessee, or occupant of any place other than a private dwelling house, where any meat, fish, poultry or game shall be stored or kept, and every person engaged in the care, custody or sale of any such article of food supply shall put, preserve and keep such articles in a clean and wholesome condition and shall not allow the same or any part thereof to be putrid, decayed, poisoned, infected or in any manner rendered or made unsafe or unwholesome for human food; and it shall be the duty of the Food Inspector and his deputy to enter any and all such premises and to condemn, seize and destroy such putrid, decayed, poisoned or infected food which may be found in such premises.
Section 9. No meat, fish, poultry, or game shall knowingly be bought, sold, held or offered for sale, labelled or any representation made in respect thereto under false name or quality or any false representation whatever made respecting its wholesomeness for food.
Section 10. That all vehicles and containers used by any person, firm or corporation in peddling meat, including fish, within the corporate limits of the City of Grand Junction, shall be kept and maintained in a scrupulously clean and sanitary condition, and said meat including fish, shall be kept and handled in a clean and sanitary manner.
Section 11. The Food Inspector shall regularly inspect all places in Grand Junction where meat is kept for sale either retail or wholesale to see that the meat kept therein is as herein required and that such places are kept in a sanitary condition as required by this ordinance.
Section 12. The following charges shall be made for the inspection as herein required: For the inspection of each beef one dollar; for the inspection of each hog fifty cents; for the inspection of each sheep twenty-five cents; for the inspection of each veal twenty-five cents payable to the Food Inspector at the time of inspection; provided, however, that any of the above inspected in a butcher shop or slaughter house shall not be paid for by the head, but each butcher shop where meat is retailed or wholesaled within the City of Grand Junction shall pay each year for such inspection sixty dollars ($60.00), and each slaughter house or packing plant where meat is inspected by the Food Inspector and from which slaughter house or packing plant meat is brought to the City of Grand Junction for sale, one hundred dollars ($100.00) Annual fees to be paid in advance to the City Treasurer.
This ordinance does not require the inspection of fowls, or rabbits being hereby specifically exempt from the inspection otherwise required of meat in this ordinance.
It is hereby provided that the above inspection fee shall not be paid for the inspection of meat where the same is butchered and sold in the City of Grand Junction either to the consumer or to the retailer under the following conditions:
1. Where the owner of beef can show by bill of sale or otherwise, that he has been the owner of such butchered beef for six months or more preceding the date of inspection.
2. Where the owner of any hog offered for inspection can satisfactorily show that he has owned it for a period during the time when the same was being fattened.
3. Where the owner of any veal or lamb offered for inspection can satisfactorily show that he owns the mother of such veal or lamb.
4. Where the owner of any sheep can satisfactorily show that he has been the owner while such sheep was being fattened.
It is further provided herein that no inspection charge shall be made for inspecting cured meats.
Section 13. Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this ordinance shall, upon conviction be fined a sum not less than five dollars ($5.00) and not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00).
Section 14. This ordinance is passed because of a special emergency for the preservation of the public health and safety, and shall go into effect on its passage.
Passed and adopted this 5th day of December, A. D. 1923.
/s/ W.G. Hirons
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President of the Council
ATTEST:
/s/ Fred A. Peck
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City Clerk
I HEREBY CERTIFY That the foregoing ordinance entitled "AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN FOOD AND THE INSPECTION THEREOF WITHIN THE CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION" was introduced, passed and adopted as an emergency ordinance, numbered 341, and ordered published in full in The Daily Sentinel, the official newspaper of the City of Grand Junction, Colorado., at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Grand Junction, Colorado, held on the 5th day of December, A.D. 1923.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have set my hand and affixed the official seal of said City, this 6th day of December, A.D. 1923.
/s/ Fred A. Peck
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City Clerk