For the purposes of this chapter, the following words, terms and phrases shall have the meaning stated below:
(a) Food.— Shall mean any substance for human consumption that upon being ingested, digested, absorbed and consumed contributes to the development of the body, provides energy to perform its activities, and allows its normal functioning.
(b) Agency.— Shall mean any department, board, commission, office, division, bureau, public corporation or its subsidiary, municipality, or instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(c) Food chain.— Shall mean the processes that intervene in the diet that include the stages of production, importing, distribution, marketing and availability, preparation and consumption of foods, as well as their nutritional component that includes the processes that occur from the acquisition of the food by human beings to their ingestion, digestion and use.
(d) Commission.— Means the Puerto Rico Food and Nutrition Commission.
(e) Private entity.— Means any natural or juridical person, association, partnership, federation, institute, cooperative and any other of a similar nature that operates with, or without pecuniary interest.
(f) Executive Director.— Means the main administrative official of the Commission, appointed pursuant to this chapter.
(g) Nutritional Watch System.— Means the permanent and on-going process of compiling, analyzing, and distributing the information needed to maintain a updated knowledge of the availability, consumption, and best use of food and the nutritional status of the population; identification of the causes, changes and trends; prediction of possible variations, and making timely decisions regarding emergency preventive actions, cures, or rehabilitation to [m]odify the situation encountered, and evaluation of the impact caused by the actions taken.
History —Jan. 8, 1999, No. 10, § 2, eff. July 1, 1999.