Meat and Poultry Businesses

• Meat and/or Poultry Wholesale License

  "Wholesaler" means any person engaged in the distribution of inspected and passed meat, meat products, poultry or poultry products. 
  
  A KDA Meat & Poultry Wholesale License is required to sell individual packages of fully inspected meat and/or poultry products within the state of Kansas. The wholesale license allows you to sell these fully inspected products both directly to the end consumer and/or to retail outlets, such as grocery stores, restaurants, schools, hotels, etc. All meat and/or poultry items sold are required to be fully inspected and passed from either a state inspected facility or a USDA inspected facility, and labeled properly for re-sale. 
  
  Does it matter if I take my animals to a state inspected facility verses a federally inspected facility?
  Yes, it does! Product from a state inspected facility cannot be sold across state lines, whereas product from a USDA facility can be sold and/or shipped across state lines.  
  
  Will I need to have a separate facility at my farm?
  No, it's not required. We only require that there must be clear separation between the meat products for sale and the meat products for personal consumption. This mean different freezers, or different shelves within the same freezer. The meat cannot be intermingled. 
  
  Can I add my own label to the packages of meat when I get it back from the locker plant?
  Each package is required to meet the regulatory label requirements set by USDA-FSIS. All labels are put on the individual packages at the inspected facility. Label requirements include 1) product name, 2) special handling statement, 3) inspection legend, 4) net weight statement, 5) ingredients statement, 6) signature line, and 7) safe handling instructions.
  
  We will allow the producer to place a "Farm Sticker" (name of business selling product and contact information) in addition to the full label from the plant, as long as everything on the sticker is accurate and truthful. The "Farm Sticker" cannot cover any labels placed on the package by the plant.

• Inspected or Custom Operations

  At Inspected Slaughter and Processing Facilities, continuous inspection is provided for commercial slaughter operations, and daily inspection is provided for commercial processing operations. Inspection coverage includes all aspects of intrastate slaughter and processing from ante-mortem (before death) inspection through slaughter, processing and to the retail level. The Kansas inspection legend will be applied only to wholesome carcasses and products slaughtered and produced that day. These facilities must be able to provide a clean and sanitary environment for the production of wholesome, unadulterated meat and poultry products. Products are sampled during inspection and sent to the Kansas Agricultural Laboratory located in Topeka. These samples are analyzed for economic wholesomeness, label guarantees, antibiotic residues, and are tested for harmful food borne bacteria. Laboratory support is also provided for veterinarians in their diagnosis of conditions found in livestock presented for slaughter. 

  Custom Slaughter and Processing Facilities are not inspected on a continuous basis. These facilities are inspected for construction and sanitation requirements but on a less frequent basis.

  At the retail level, consumers can find meat and poultry products with either the federal inspection legend or the Kansas inspection legend indicating that the product has been produced with the benefit of inspection. Businesses may further process inspected meat and sell products without a legend on the package. The Kansas Meat and Poultry Inspection Program works with the Kansas Food Safety and Lodging Program to verify that meat products are safe and properly labeled. Both programs are dedicated to reducing the risk of contamination as meat products are produced, processed, packaged, distributed and prepared for consumption. 

• Poultry Exempt Operations

  What does exempt mean?  The term “exempt” means that certain types of poultry slaughter and processing operations qualify to operate without the benefit of federal or state inspection on a daily basis, and a grant of inspection is not required. Such operations are exempt from continuous bird-by-bird inspection and the presence of inspectors during the slaughter of poultry and processing of poultry products. These products cannot bear the inspection legend. However, a facility operating under such an exemption is not exempt from all requirements of the Act. All businesses slaughtering or processing poultry for use as human food, including exempt operations, can only slaughter healthy birds, and must produce poultry product that is not adulterated or misbranded.

  Exempt Poultry Slaughter and Processing Guidelines

  • Exempt Poultry Slaughter and Processing Guidelines

    Kansas Poultry Exemptions 

  • Poultry Exempt Registration

    Kansas Poultry Exemption Application of Registration 

  • Religious Exemption for the Slaughter and Processing of Poultry - USDA/FSIS

    See FSIS Directive 6030.1

• Rabbit Exempt Operations

  Exempt Rabbit Slaughter and Processing Guidelines

  Is rabbit considered meat?  Yes.  The definition of meat food product in the Kansas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act includes domestic rabbits.

  Can I slaughter and process some rabbits without inspection?  Yes.  K.A.R. 4-16-3a(d) allows a person to slaughter or process 250 or less in a calendar year without inspection.  The following requirements must be met to qualify for this exemption:

  Registration: There is no requirement to register with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, Meat & Poultry Inspection Program under this exemption. The department will inspect these operations on a complaint basis.             

  Business operations:  You do not engage in the business of buying and selling any rabbits or rabbit products capable of use as human food in a calendar year.  Therefore, the rabbits must be raised by you.

  Sale of rabbit meat:  Rabbits are for distribution directly to the household consumer from that person’s own premises.  If you maintain control of the meat products, you can deliver the meat products directly to household consumers from your premises.

  Healthy rabbits:  Only healthy rabbits may be slaughtered to preclude adulteration of the finished product.

  Sanitation and adulteration: Sanitation and adulteration requirements of the Kansas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act apply to the slaughter and processing of rabbits under this exemption.  The applicable regulations can be found here.    

  Sanitation: Sanitation is found specifically in 9 CFR 354.210 through 354.248, and can be accessed through the link above.  This includes maintaining proper temperatures in freezers or coolers.  If you freeze the meat products, keep the product solidly frozen.  If the meat is fresh, you should hold it at a temperature not to exceed 36° F. (9 CFR 354.244(d))

  Adulteration: Adulteration includes rabbits:

  • that contain any substance that might make it injurious to health,
  • that have been fed or injected with a poisonous substance,
  • that consist of any filthy, or decomposed substance, or is otherwise unwholesome,
  • that have been prepared or held under insanitary conditions that may contaminate the meat product,
  • that die other than by slaughter, or
  • that are put in containers that are composed of any poisonous substance that may render the rabbit injurious to health.

  If your operation does not meet the exemption requirements, you should contact our office to discuss the requirements for inspection.

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