Chap. 164.—An ACT to provide for the regulation of the operation of refrigerated
locker plants and the dealing in, handling and processing of food for human
consumption in connection therewith; to provide standards of sanitation and
quality ; to provide a system of licenses; defining certain offenses and pro-
viding penalties therefor ; and providing for lien and foreclosure. [fH B 289

Approved March 11, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. Section 1. This act is in exercise of the police powers of the
State for the protection of the safety, health and welfare of the people of
the State. It is hereby found and declared that the public welfare re-
quires control and regulation of the operation of refrigerated locker plants,
and of the sale, processing, and handling of human food in connection
therewith, and the control, inspection, and regulation of persons engaged
therein, in order to prevent or eliminate unsanitary, unhealthful, fraudu-
lent, or unfair practices and conditions in connection with the refrigerated
locker plant business, which practices and conditions endanger public
health, defraud customers, jeopardize the public source of supply and
storage facilities of essential food products, and‘ adversely affect an im-
portant and growing industry. It is further found and declared that
the regulation of the refrigerated locker plant business, as above outlined,
is in the interest of the economic and social well-being and the health and
safety of the State and all of its people.

Section 2. Terms used in this act shall be defined as follows:

(1) “Refrigerated Locker’, “Cold Storage Locker”, ‘Locker’
means any separate or individual compartment, maintained at a tempera-
ture below ten degrees Fahrenheit, offered to the public for the storage
and preservation of frozen food for human consumption, upon a rental or
other basis providing compensation to the person offering such services.

(2) ‘Refrigerated Locker Plant’, “Cold Storage Locker Plant’,
“Locker Plant’’, means any place, premises or establishment where facili-
ties for the freezing of human food and its subsequent storage in refriger-
ated lockers is offered on a basis of compensation to the person offering
such services.

(3) “Branch Locker Plant” means any place, premises, or es-
tablishment offering refrigerated lockers for the storage of frozen food
for human consumption, said food having been previously prepared for
storage at a refrigerated locker plant.

(4) When “plant” is used without qualification it applies to both
locker plants and branch locker plants with equal force.

(5) “Sharp Freezer” means a separate room or compartment in
which food is frozen in preparation for storage in lockers.

(6) ‘Person’ means any individual, partnership, corporation, asso-
ciation, county, municipality, cooperative group, or other entity engaged
in the business of operating or owning or offering the services of re-
frigerated lockers as above defined.

(7) “Human food”, or “food”, means all articles used for food,
drink, confectionery or condiment by man, whether simple, mixed or
compound, and any substance used as a constituent in the manufacture
thereof.

(8) “Board” means the Board of Agriculture and Immigration.

(9) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Agriculture and
Immigration.

Section 3. No person shall hereafter engage within this State in the
business of owning, operating, or offering the services of a Refrigerated
Locker Plant or a Branch Locker Plant without having obtained from
the Department of Agriculture a license for each such place of business.
Application for such license shall be made in writing and under oath
to the Department of Agriculture on such forms and with pertinent in-
formation as the commissioner deems necessary. Such licenses shall be
granted as a matter of right upon showing that the applicant has com-
plied with the applicable provisions of the law and of the rules and regu-
lations governing locker plants.

Section 4. There shall be paid to the Department of Agriculture
with each application for a license an annual license fee, as follows:

(1) Minimum fee for plants of not over two hundred installed
lockers, ten dollars ($10.00).

(2) For each additional one hundred (100) installed lockers or
fraction thereof, two dollars ($2.00).

(3) Maximum fee for one (1) plant, twenty-five dollars ($25.00).

The funds derived from such license fees shall be disbursed by the
commissioner exclusively for the enforcement of this act or for the benefit
of the locker plant industry of Virginia. Licenses shall be issued for the
calendar year beginning on January first and ending on December thirty-
first of each year, but license fees for initial applicants beginning the op-
eration of their plants after June thirtieth shall be one-half of the annual
fees as above set forth.

Section 5. (a) The commissioner, after notice and hearing, may
revoke the license issued for any locker plant or branch locker plant for
failure to comply with the provisions of this act or any lawful rules or
regulation of the board hereunder. Before revoking any license the board
or its authorized agent shall send the licensee by mail written notice of
such hearing not less than ten days before the hearing and shall afford
such licensee an opportunity to be heard in writing, in person or by at-
torney with respect thereto at a time and place specified in such notice.

(b) In the event any license is revoked, the board or its authorized
agent may permit the continued operation of the plant involved upon such
conditions or under such supervision as the board or its authorized agent
prescribes for a period of not to exceed six (6) months, in order to enable
patrons to remove any food stored therein, but during such period no ad-
ditional food shall be received or stored in such plant.

(c) Any order made by the commissioner or his authorized agent
suspending or revoking any license may be appealed to the circuit court
of the county or the corporation court of the city in which the licensed
premises are located.

Section 6. (a) No person shall work or be permitted to work in
or about any plant in the handling, processing or dealing in any human
food or any ingredient thereof without a certificate from a physician, duly
accredited for that purpose by the State Board of Health, certifying that
such person has been examined and found free from any contagious or
infectious disease. The State Board of Health may fix a maximum fee,
not exceeding two dollars ($2.00) which may be charged by a physician
for such examination. The operator of a plant shall immediately discon-
tinue the services of any employee found to be affected by any com-
municable or infectious disease.

(b) Such health certificate shall be effective for a period of six
(6) months and thereafter must be renewed following proper physical
examination as aforesaid. When such certificate is required and pro-
vided under municipal ordinance upon examination deemed adequate
by the State Board of Health, certificates issued thereunder shall be
sufficient under this act.

(c) Any such certificate shall be revoked by the State Board of
Health at any time the holder thereof is found, after proper physical
examination, to be afflicted with any communicable or infectious disease.
Refusal of any person employed in such premises to submit to proper and
reasonable physical examination upon written demand by the commis-
sioner, acting through his authorized agent, shall be cause for revocation
of that person’s health certificate.

Section 7. The board is hereby empowered to prescribe and to
enforce such rules and regulations as it deems necessary to carry into ef-
fect the full intent and meaning of this act provided that no such rules,
regulations, definitions, or procedures shall be adopted or any changes
or amendments made thereto until after at least thirty (30) days’ notice
in writing is given to each licensee under this act. Said notice shall in-
clude in detail the proposed rules, regulations, definitions and procedures.

Section 8. The commissioner shall cause to be made periodically by
his authorized agent a thorough inspection of each establishment licensed
under this act to determine whether or not the premises are constructed,
equipped and operated in accordance with the requirements of this act
and of all other laws of this State applicable to the operation either of
locker plants or branch locker plants or of the handling of human food in
connection therewith, and of all regulations effective under this act relative
to such operation. Such inspection shall also be made of each vehicle used
by operators of such plants or of an establishment handling human food
in connection therewith, when such vehicle is used in transporting or
distributing human food products to or from such plants within this
State.

Section 9. (a) Every operator of a locker plant or branch locker
plant shall provide a complete refrigeration system with adequate ca-
pacity and with accurate and reliable controls for the maintenance of
temperatures as prescribed by the regulations issued under this act, and
currently in force. Every operator shall be required to provide a re-
cording thermometer or thermometers to make permanent record of
temperatures in the locker room or rooms. Recording thermometers shall
be so located that the dials may be easily observed by the patrons of the
plant, and the daily records of temperatures shall be kept by the opera-
tor at his place of business for a period of at least six (6) months.

(b) Every person offering refrigerated lockers to the public shall
provide the following minimum facilities :

(1) A separate room or compartment for sharp freezing of foods
prior to introduction of this food into refrigerated lockers.

(2) A refrigerated room or compartment containing individual
lockers for the storage of foods previously frozen.

(c) No unfrozen food shall be placed in a refrigerated locker.

(d) Such additional services or facilities as are provided by the
operator of a plant, including chill room, age room, curing room, process-
ing room, slaughter house, smoke chamber or other facilities shall be
subject to the provisions of this act, and the rules and regulations adopt-
ed thereunder, except that when the operation of such facilities 1s covered
by an existing law, the minimum requirements of the existing law must
be met in every case.

Section 10. In any proceeding under this act the Commissioner of
Agriculture acting through his authorized agent may administer oaths
and issue subpoenas, summon witnesses and take testimony of any per-
son within the State of Virginia.

Section 11. Any person violating any provision of this act shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined
not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) nor more than one hundred
dollars ($100.00) for the first offense, and not less than fifty dollars
($50.00) nor more than two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the second
and for each and every subsequent offense within any one license period.
Iekach day that any violation continues shall constitute a separate of-
fense.

Section 12. No tainted or decomposed food shall be stored in a
refrigerated locker plant or branch locker plant.

Section 13. Food for non-human consumption shall be stored in
a separate room or compartment, and shall be clearly labelled in letters
not less than one inch high “NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”.

Section 14. (a) Every operator of a locker plant or branch locker
plant shall have a lien upon all the property of every kind in his pos-
session for all locker rentals, processing, handling or other charges due.

(b) Owners and operators of locker plants shall not be responsible
for violations of game and other laws by the renters of lockers.

Section 15. Persons who own or operate refrigerated locker plants
or branch locker plants shall not be construed to be warehousemen, nor
shall receipts or other instruments issued by such persons in the ordinary
conduct of their business be constrtted to be negotiable warehouse re-
ceipts.

Section 16. Payment of the license fee stipulated herein shall be
accepted in lieu of any and all existing fees and charges for like pur-
poses or intent which may be existent prior to the adoption of this act.
Section 17. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of
this act shall, for any reason, be adjudged or decreed to be invalid by
any court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment or decree shall not
affect, impair nor invalidate the remainder of this act, but shall be con-
fined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part
thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment or
decree was rendered.