Chap. 655.—An ACT to prevent the sale of adulterated and misbranded food
in the state of Virginia.

Approved February 27, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That for the
purpose of protecting the people of the state from imposition by the
adulteration and misbranding of articles of food, the board of agri-
culture shall cause to be procured from time to time, and under the
rules and regulations to be prescribed by them, in accordance with
section nine of this act, samples of food, beverages, and condiments

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offered for sale in the state, and shall cause the same to be analyzed
or examined miscroscopically or otherwise by the chemists or other
experts of the department of agriculture. The board of agriculture is
hereby authorized to make such publications of the results of the ex-
aminations, analyses, and so forth, as they may deem proper.

2. That no person, by himself, or agent, shall knowingly manufacture,
sell, expose for sale, or have in his possession with intent to sell, any
article of food which is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning
of this act; and any person who shall violate any of the provisions of
this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for such offenses shall
be fined not exceeding two hundred dollars for the first offense, and for
each subsequent offense not exceeding three hundred dollars, or be
confined in jail not exceeding one year, or both, and such fines, less
legal costs and charges, shall be paid into the treasury of the state.

3. That the chemists or other experts of the department of agri-
culture shall make, under rules and regulations prescribed by the
board of agriculture, examinations of specimens of food, beverages,
and condiments offered for sale in Virginia which may be collected
from time to time under their directions in various parts of the state.
If it shall appear from such examination that any of the provisions
of this act have been violated, the commissioner of agriculture shall
at once certify the facts to the commonwealth’s attorney for the city
or county in which the offense shall have been committed, and furnish
that officer with a copy of the result of the analysis duly authenticated
by the analyst under oath.

4. That it shall be the duty of every commonwealth’s attorney to
whom the commissioner of agriculture shall report any violation of
this act, to cause proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted without
delay for the fines and penalties in such cases provided.

5. That the term “food,” as used herein, shall include all articles
of food—candy, condiment, or drink, by man or domestic animals,
whether simple, mixed, or compound. The term “ misbranded,” as
herein used, shall include all articles of food or articles which enter into
the composition of food, the package or label of which shall bear any
statement purporting to name any ingredients or substances as being
contained or not being contained in such article, which statement shall
be false in any particular.

6. That for the purpose of this act any article of food shall be
deemed adulterated—

First. If any substance or substances has or have been mixed or
packed with it, so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality
or strength so that such product, when offered for sale, shall deceive
or tend to deceive the purchaser.

Second. If any inferior substance or substances has or have been
substituted wholly or in part for the article so that the product when
sold shall deceive or tend to deceive the purchaser.

Third. If any valuable constituent has been wholly or in part ab-
stracted, so that the product when sold shall deceive or tend to deceive
the purchaser.

Fourth. If it be an imitation of and sold under the specific name
of another article.
Fifth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, polished, or stained
in a manner whereby damage or inferiority 1s concealed, so that such
product when sold shall deceive or tend to deceive the purchaser.

Sixth. If it contain any added poisonous ingredient, or any ingre-
dient which may render uel article injurious to the health of the
person consuming it.

Seventh. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the
purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when branded so, or an
imitation either in package or label of an established proprietary
product, which has been trade-marked or patented.

Kighth. If it consists of the whole or any part of a diseased, filthy,
decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substances, or any portion of
an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if it is the
preduct of a diseased animal or of an animal that has died otherwise
than by slaughter.

Ninth. ‘That candies and chocolates may be deemed to be adulter-
ated if they contain terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow or other
mineral substances, or poisonous colors or flavors, or other ingredients
deleterious or detrimental to health: provided, that an article of food,
beverage, or condiment which does not contain any added poisonous
ingredient shall not be deemed to be adulterated in the following cases:

First. In the case of articles, mixtures, or compounds which may
be now, or from time to time hereafter, known as articles of food,
beverages or condiments under their own distinctive names and not
included in definition fourth of this section.

Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged so as to
plainly indicate that they are mixtures, compounds, combinations, imi-
tations or blends. ,

Third. When any matter or ingredient has been added to the food,
beverage or condiment because the same is required for the production
or preparation thereof as an article of commerce in a state fit for car-
riage or consumption and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight
or measure of the food, beverage or condiment, or conceal the inferior
quality thereof: provided, that the same shall be labeled, branded or
tagged as prescribed by the board of agriculture, so as to show them
to be compounds and the exact character thereof: and provided further,
that nothing in this act shall be construed as requiring or compelling
proprietors or manufacturers of proprictary foods to disclose their trade
formulas except in so far as the provisions of this act may require
to secure freedom from adulteration or imitation: provided further,
that nothing in this act shall be construed to apply to proprietarv or
patent medicines: provided, that it shall not apply to baking powders
containing starch, wheat flour, bicarbonate of soda and exsiccated alum:
but it shall apply ‘to any baking powder containing any other ingredient
than those specifically named above which may be upon analysis found
to be deleterious to health.

Fourth. Where the food, beverage, or condiment is unavoidably
mixed with some harmless extraneous matter in the process of collection
or preparation: provided further, that no person shall be convicted
under the provisions of this act when he is able to prove a written
guaranty of purity in a form approved by the board of agriculture as

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published in their rules and regulations, signed by the wholesale jobber,
manufacturer, or other party from whom he purchased said article.

7. That the board of agriculture is hereby authorized to cause all
compound, mixed or blended products to be properly branded, and
prescribe how this shall be done. ,
' 8. That it shall be the duty of the board of agriculture to prepare
and publish from time to time lists of the articles, mixtures or com-
pounds declared to be exempt from the provisions of this act in accord-
ance with section six. The board of agriculture shall also from time
to time fix and publish the limits of variability permissible in any article
of food, beverage or condiment, and these standards, when so published,
shall remain the standards before all courts: provided, that when
standards have or may be fixed by the secretary of agriculture of the
United States they shall be accepted by the board of agriculture, and
published as the standards for Virginia.

9. That every person who exposes for sale or delivers to a purchaser
any condiment, beverage, or article of food shall furnish, within busi-
ness hours, and upon tender and full payment of the selling price, a
sample of such condiments, beverages or articles of food to any person
duly authorized by the board of agriculture to secure the same, and
who shall apply to such manufacturer or vender or person delivering
to a purchaser such beverage or article of food, for such sample for
such use in sufficient quantity for the analysis of such article or articles
in his possession.

10. That any manufacturer or dealer who refuses to comply upon
demand with the requirements of section nine of this act, or any manu-
facturer, dealer or person who shall impede, obstruct, hinder or other-
wise prevent or attempt to prevent any chemist, inspector or other
person in the performance of his duty in connection with this act shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be fined not
less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or be im-
prisoned not more than one hundred days, or both, and said fines less
legal costs shall be paid into the treasury of the state.

11. That this act shall not be construed to interfere with commerce,
or any interstate commerce laws of the United States.

12. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with this act are, to that
extent, hereby repealed.

13. This act shall take effect on and from the first day of July, nine-
teen hundred.