(a) No person may sell, transport, offer for sale or transportation, or receive for transportation, in commerce, any fish or fish product that is capable of being used as human food and is adulterated or fails to bear an official inspection legend or is otherwise misbranded at the time of such sale, transportation, offer or receipt, except otherwise provided in this paragraph or in part 557 of this subchapter.

(b) No person, engaged in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, or transporting, in or for commerce, fish products capable of use as human food, or importing such articles, shall transport, offer for transportation, or receive for transportation, in commerce or in any State designated under § 560.3 of this subchapter, any fish product which is capable of use as human food and is not wrapped, packaged, or otherwise enclosed to prevent adulteration by airborne contaminants, unless the railroad car, truck, or other means of conveyance in which the product is contained or transported is completely enclosed with tight fitting doors or other covers for all openings. In all cases, the means of conveyance shall be reasonably free of foreign matter (such as dust, dirt, rust, or other articles or residues), and free of chemical residues, so that product placed therein will not become adulterated.

(c) Any cleaning compound, lye, soda solution, or other chemical used in cleaning the means of conveyance must be thoroughly removed from the means of conveyance prior to its use. Such means of conveyance onto which product is loaded, being loaded, or intended to be loaded, shall be subject to inspection by an inspector at any official establishment.

(d) The decision whether or not to inspect a means of conveyance in a specific case, and the type and extent of such inspection shall be at the Agency's discretion and shall be adequate to determine if fish product in such conveyance is, or when moved could become, adulterated.

(e) Circumstances of transport that can be reasonably anticipated shall be considered in making said determination. These include, but are not limited to, weather conditions, duration and distance of trip, nature of product covering, and effect of restowage at stops en route. Any means of conveyance found upon such inspection to be in such condition that fish product placed therein could become adulterated shall not be used until such condition which could cause adulteration is corrected.

Fish product placed in any means of conveyance that is found by the inspector to be in such condition that the fish product may have become adulterated shall be removed from the means of conveyance and handled in accordance with part 539 or § 540.3 of this subchapter.

When any shipment of any fish product is offered to any carrier for transportation within the United States as a part of an export movement, the same certificate shall be required as if the shipment were destined to a point within the United States.

The requirements governing transportation of fish product that has been inspected and passed, but not so marked, from one official establishment to another official establishment are the same as those in § 325.5 of this chapter that apply to unmarked inspected meat products.

The provisions of § 325.10 of this chapter regarding the handling of products that may have become adulterated or misbranded apply to fish and fish products.

The provisions in § 325.11(e) of this chapter regarding the transportation of inedible livestock products apply to the transportation of inedible fish parts or products.

The provisions in § 325.14 of this chapter regarding the filing of original certificates of unmarked inspected meat products delivered to carriers applies with respect to fish and fish products.

The official seals required by this part are those prescribed in § 541.3 and § 312.5 of this chapter.

The requirements in 9 CFR 325.17 governing the unloading of any meat or meat food product from an officially sealed railroad car, truck, or other means of conveyance containing any unmarked product or loading any means of conveyance after the product leaves an official establishment are applicable to fish and fish products.

(a) Shipments of inspected and passed fish products that bear the inspection legend may be diverted from the original destination without a reinspection of the articles if the waybills, transfer bills, running slips, conductor's card, or other papers accompanying the shipments are marked, stamped, or have attached thereto signed statements in accordance with § 325.15 of this chapter.

(b) In case of a wreck or similar extraordinary emergency, the Department seals on a railroad car or other means of conveyance containing any inspected and passed product may be broken by the carrier, and if necessary, the articles may be reloaded into another means of conveyance, or the shipment may be diverted from the original destination, without another shipper's certificate; but in all such cases the carrier must immediately report the facts by telephone or telegraph to the District Manager in the area in which the emergency occurs. The report must include the following information:

(1) Nature of the emergency.

(2) Place where seals were broken.

(3) Original points of shipment and destination.

(4) Number and initial of the original car or truck.

(5) Number and initials of the car or truck into which the articles are reloaded.

(6) New destination of the shipment.

(7) Kind and amount of articles.

The provisions of this part do not apply:

(a) To specimens of product sent to or by the Department of Agriculture or divisions thereof in Washington, DC, or elsewhere, for laboratory examination, exhibition purposes, or other official use;

(b) To material released for educational, research, and other nonfood purposes, as prescribed in § 540.2 of this subchapter;

(c) To tissues for use in preparing pharmaceutical, organotherapeutic, or technical products and not used for human food, as described in § 540.2 of this subchapter;

(d) To material or specimens of product for laboratory examination, research, or other nonhuman food purposes, when authorized by the Administrator, and under conditions prescribed by him in specific cases; and

(e) To articles that are naturally inedible by humans.

No person engaged in the business of buying, selling, or transporting in commerce, or importing any dead, dying, or diseased fish or parts of fish that died otherwise than by slaughter shall:

(a) Sell, transport, offer for sale or transportation, or receive for transportation, in commerce, any dead, dying, or diseased fish or parts of fish that died otherwise than by slaughter, unless the fish and parts are consigned and delivered, without avoidable delay, to establishments of animal food manufacturers, renderers, or collection stations that are registered as required by part 550 of this subchapter, or to official establishments that operate under Federal inspection, or to establishments that operate under a State or Territorial inspection system approved by FSIS as one that imposes requirements at least equal to the Federal requirements for purposes of section 301(c) of the Act;

(b) Buy in commerce or import any dead, dying, or diseased fish or parts of fish that died otherwise than by slaughter, unless he is an animal food manufacturer or renderer and is registered as required by part 550 of this subchapter, or is the operator of an establishment inspected as required by paragraph (a) of this section and such fish or parts of fish are to be delivered to establishments eligible to receive them under paragraph (a) of this section;

(c) Unload en route to any establishment eligible to receive them under paragraph (a) of this section, any dead, dying, or diseased fish or parts of fish that died otherwise than by slaughter, which are transported in commerce or imported by any such person: Provided, That any such dead, dying, or diseased fish, or parts of fish may be unloaded from a means of conveyance en route where necessary in case of a wreck or otherwise extraordinary emergency, and may be reloaded into another means of conveyance; but in all such cases, the carrier must immediately report the facts by telephone or other electrical or electronic means to the Office of Investigation, Enforcement and Audit, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250.

(d) Load into any means of conveyance containing any dead, dying, or diseased fish, or parts of fish that died otherwise than by slaughter, while in the course of importation or other transportation in commerce any fish or parts of fish not within the foregoing description or any other products or other commodities.

All vehicles and other means of conveyance used by persons subject to § 555.11 for transporting in commerce or importing, any dead, dying, or diseased fish or parts of fish that died otherwise by slaughter must be leak proof and so constructed and equipped as to permit thorough cleaning and sanitizing. The means of conveyance used in conveying the fish or parts of fish must be cleaned and disinfected before being used in the transportation of any product intended for use as human food. The cleaning procedure must include the complete removal from the means of conveyance of any fluid, parts, or product of dead, dying, or diseased fish and the thorough application of a disinfectant approved by the Administrator to the interior surfaces of the cargo space.