WAC 296-17A-4301:

296-17A-4201 << 296-17A-4301 >> 296-17A-4302

Agency filings affecting this section

PDFWAC 296-17A-4301

Classification 4301.

4301-10 Sausage: Manufacturing

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in manufacturing sausage.

The process of manufacturing sausage may include:

• Grinding, mixing, and blending cuts of meat with seasonings, spices, and fillers;

• Filling synthetic or natural casings or packing meat into forms;

• Cooking in pressurized cooking tanks;

• Curing by pumping or injecting a curing solution into the meat or by dry rubbing a curing substance into the meat and immersing it in a brine solution. Curing solutions usually contain one or more chemicals, such as sodium or potassium nitrate, ascorbate, or erythorbate, and water. The meats may then cure for up to 40 days;

• Smoking meat for a period of several hours to several days in a temperature controlled smokehouse;

• Packaging, canning, jarring, or freezing.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Cooking tanks;

• Cutting instruments;

• Grinders;

• Mixers;

• Pots.

Exclusions:

• Retail meat and poultry dealers are classified in 3303;

• Worker hours engaged in handling livestock are reported separately in the applicable classification;

• Businesses that manufacture other meat products, including combined with manufacturing sausage, are classified in 4301-12;

• Natural sausage casings dealers are classified in 4301-19.

4301-11 Packing house

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in packing house operations which include the handling and slaughtering of livestock and the preparation of fresh meat and meat products. Meat packing and processing operations may be consolidated or may be in different locations.

This classification includes incidental:

• Butter substitutes manufacturing;

• Cooking of offal (waste);

• Fertilizer manufacturing;

• Lard refining;

• Processing of the viscera manually or by machine;

• Rendering;

• Salting of hides;

• Sausage and other meat product manufacturing;

• Washing of casings.

Packing house processes may include:

• Moving livestock through a system of chutes and conveyors, through a stunning machine, and then into the slaughtering area;

• Slaughter of livestock;

• Draining, collecting and storing blood;

• Dipping carcasses into scald tanks;

• Conveying carcasses to dehairer machines;

• Removing hides;

• Weighing and inspecting carcasses;

• Placing carcasses in blast freezers or coolers;

• Cutting carcasses into portions and specific cuts of meat;

• Packing prepared meats in cans, bottles, or jars that are then sealed and cooked in vats;

• Placing products in cardboard boxes and loading onto pallets.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Cleavers;

• Hoists;

• Hydraulic dropper/spreaders;

• Knives;

• Meat chippers;

• Razors;

• Scissors;

• Scrapers.

Exclusions:

• Retail meat and poultry dealers are classified in 3303;

• Wholesale meat dealers and poultry processors/dealers are classified in 3304;

• Businesses primarily engaged in sausage manufacturing are classified in 4301-10;

• Meat products manufacturing is classified in 4301-12;

• Natural sausage casings dealers are classified in 4301-19;

• Slaughterhouse only operations are classified in 4301-22;

• Custom meat cutting is classified in 4302.

4301-12 Meat products: Manufacturing

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in meat products manufacturing, including canning or dehydrating. No handling or slaughtering of livestock is performed by employers subject to this classification.

Products manufactured include, but are not limited to:

• Bologna;

• Frankfurters;

• Head cheese;

• Meat loaf;

• Sausage.

The process of meat products manufacturing may include:

• Receiving meats halves, quarters, or individual fresh cuts;

• Washing, soaking in brine, smoking, pickling, corning, or otherwise cooking cuts of meat;

• Bottling in jars, bottles, or sealing in cans;

• Chopping, grinding, mixing, smoking, boiling, or stuffing meat trimmings in sausage casings.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Bottling equipment or tools;

• Cutting instruments;

• Grinders;

• Mixers.

Exclusions:

• Retail meat and poultry dealers are classified in 3303;

• Wholesale meat dealers and wholesale poultry processors/dealers are classified in 3304;

• Businesses primarily engaged in sausage manufacturing are classified in 4301-10;

• Packing house operations are classified in 4301-11;

• Natural sausage casings dealers are classified in 4301-19;

• Glue, tallow, and lard manufacturing are classified in 4301-21;

• Slaughterhouse operations are classified in 4301-22;

• Custom meat cutting is classified in 4302.

4301-13 Peat moss: Shredding and baling

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in the shredding and baling of peat moss, including cleaning, sorting and packaging of peat moss to be used as mulch, plant food (fertilizer), soil amendment, fuel, or decorative uses such as in floral arrangements.

Exclusions:

• Digging or stripping of peat from the surface of bogs with use of mechanical equipment is classified in 0112;

• Picking of moss by hand in a forest is classified in 4802.

4301-17 Tanneries, fur manufacturing

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in tannery operations. These businesses usually process raw hides and skins into fur pelts, leather, or suede for sale to dealers or manufacturers of leather or fur products. Taxidermists often send hides to a tannery rather than treating them at their own shops.

Tannery processes may include:

• Receiving hides;

• Rehydrating cured hides;

• Removing excess flesh and tissue using fleshing machines and with hand knives;

• Agitating in a lime solution to soften and remove hair or fur;

• Deliming, cleaning, and softening using water and a variety of chemicals, such as enzymes, sulfates, or chlorides;

• Vegetable tanning, soaking in a tannin solution in oversized vats;

• Chemical tanning, rotating in revolving drums containing a highly alkaline chemical, such as sodium carbonate, bicarbonate, or chromium sulfate;

• Removing excess moisture using oversized wringers;

• Splitting, bleaching, and dying hides;

• Stretching hides;

• Drying using air drying techniques, drying units with temperature and humidity controls, tunnel dryers, vacuum drying techniques, or drying using a high-frequency electromagnetic field;

• Brushing to buff out imperfections or to raise the nap resulting in suede;

• Finishing by applying coatings to the leather's grain side;

• Glazing to produce patent leather;

• Plating or embossing using a plating press;

• Baling shredded hide for sale to glue makers;

• Hand sewing tears in hides.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Agitating drum machines;

• Brushing machines;

• Drying units, tunnels, and other drying equipment;

• Hide shaving and fleshing machines;

• Knives;

• Plating presses;

• Vats;

• Wringing machines.

Exclusions:

• Hide or leather dealers are classified in 3708;

• Businesses engaged in hide pelting are classified in 3708;

• Taxidermists are classified in 3708.

4301-19 Sausage casing dealers

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in the sales and distribution of natural sausage casings to others. Natural casings are animal intestines, usually received from packing houses or rendering plants.

Work activities include:

• Wash, dry, sort, and package casings for distribution.

Exclusion:

• Businesses engaged in sausage manufacturing are classified in 4301-10.

4301-21 Rendering works, N.O.C.; Glue, lard, or tallow: Manufacturing

Applies to:

• Businesses engaged in rendering operations not covered by another classification (N.O.C.). Rendering is the act of reducing or melting down fat by heating.

• Businesses engaged in the manufacturing of products from animal substances such as glue, lard, and tallow.

Work activities and processes may include, but are not limited to:

• Receiving raw animal materials such as, discarded fat, bone trimmings, meat scraps, blood, grease, and feathers from farms, stockyards, slaughterhouses, butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, meat and poultry stores, ranches, or feed lots;

• Removing hides for shipment to hide dealers and tanneries;

• Cutting carcasses into workable sizes;

• Placing carcasses into tanks where steam passes directly into the materials being cooked. Grease is drawn off and meat and bones drop into a slush box. The slush is then pressed to remove more water and grease before going to steam pressure dryers. In some plants this is all performed with one piece of equipment;

• Boiling animal substances, including skins and hoofs, in water until the materials are diluted and melted, then drying to form a hard pure protein gelatin;

• Separating the hard fat from parts of cattle, sheep, or horse carcasses by melting it from the fibrous and membranous matter, then mixing the whitish solids for use in making candles, leather dressing, soap, and lubricants;

• Making or refining lard;

• Crushing, grinding, pressing, drying, pulverizing, and bagging of dried slush or tankage to produce fish meal, bone meal, feed concentrates for livestock and poultry, or fertilizer;

• Pumping fish oils and animal grease or tallow into receiving or settling tanks;

• Filling barrels, drums or tank cars for shipment to manufacturers of assorted products such as soap, cosmetics, lubricants, paints, and plastics.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Blow tanks;

• Boiling pots;

• Bucket elevators;

• Conveyors;

• Crushers;

• Dryers;

• Grinders;

• Hashers;

• Hoggers;

• Prebreakers;

• Pumps;

• Razors;

• Scrapers;

• Screw presses;

• Steam-heater batch corkers;

• Wastewater treatment equipment.

Exclusions:

• Slaughterhouse operations are classified in 4301-22;

• Manufacturing synthetic glues, such as acrylic base, contact cement, polyester, latex combination, epoxy sticks, polyethylene, polyvinyl, cellulose nitrate, or rubber base, is classified in 3701;

• Packing houses are classified in 4301-11.

4301-22 Slaughterhouses

Applies to:

Businesses engaged in the slaughter of animals and the initial processing of meat. This includes purchasing livestock from individuals or feedlots, handling the livestock, maintaining pens, and butchering.

Slaughterhouse processes include, but are not limited to:

• Preparation of the animal carcass;

• Washing of casings;

• Salting of hides;

• Cooking of offal (waste);

• Distributing to buyers using box freezer or container trucks.

Equipment used include, but are not limited to:

• Cleavers;

• Hoists;

• Hydraulic dropper/spreaders;

• Knives;

• Meat chippers;

• Razors;

• Scissors;

• Scrapers;

• Stunning machines.

Exclusions:

• Retail meat and poultry dealers are classified in 3303;

• Wholesale meat dealers and wholesale poultry processors/dealers are classified in 3304;

• Packing houses are classified in 4301-11;

• Manufacturing meat products is classified in 4301-12;

• Custom meat cutting is classified in 4302.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 51.04.020 and 51.16.035. WSR 22-21-117, § 296-17A-4301, filed 10/18/22, effective 1/1/23. WSR 07-01-014, recodified as § 296-17A-4301, filed 12/8/06, effective 12/8/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 51.16.035. WSR 98-18-042, § 296-17-630, filed 8/28/98, effective 10/1/98; WSR 88-12-050 (Order 88-06), § 296-17-630, filed 5/31/88, effective 7/1/88; WSR 85-24-032 (Order 85-33), § 296-17-630, filed 11/27/85, effective 1/1/86; WSR 85-06-026 (Order 85-7), § 296-17-630, filed 2/28/85, effective 4/1/85. Statutory Authority: RCW 51.04.020(1) and 51.16.035. WSR 78-12-043 (Order 78-23), § 296-17-630, filed 11/27/78, effective 1/1/79; Order 76-36, § 296-17-630, filed 11/30/76; Order 75-38, § 296-17-630, filed 11/24/75, effective 1/1/76; Order 74-40, § 296-17-630, filed 11/27/74, effective 1/1/75; Order 73-22, § 296-17-630, filed 11/9/73, effective 1/1/74.]