Chap. 55.—An ACT defining cold storage and cold storage warehouses,
and regulating the storage of articles of food, and providing penalties
for the violation of the provisions of this act, and providing an appro-
priation for carrying out the requirements of the act. [H B 58]

Approved September 9, 1919.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. Definition of terms.—For the purpose of this
act, “cold storage” shall mean the storage or keeping of arti-
cles of food at or below a temperature of forty-five degrees
above zero Fahrenheit in a cold-storage warehouse; “cold-stor-
age warehouse” shall mean any place artificially or mechanically
eooled to or below a temperature of forty-five degrees anove
zero Fahrenheit, in which articles of food are placed or held for
‘thirty days or more; “articles of food” shall mean fresh meat
and fresh-meat products, except in process of manufacture, and
all fresh fish, game, poultry, eggs, milk, butter, cheese and
edible fats and oils and lard.

(a) Any individual, firm, corporation or association en-
gaged in the business of maintaining and operating cold-storage
warehouses in which articles of food as herein defined are stored
for hire or compensation shall be called a public cold-storage
warehouseman. |

(b) Any individual, firm, corporation or association that
maintains and operates, as an adjunct to their business, cold-
storage warehouses for the storage of articles of food as herein
defined exclusively owned or dealt in by them, shall be called
a private cold-storage warehouseman.

(c) Any individual, firm, corporation or association that
combines a public cold-storage warehouse business with the stor-
age of commodities as herein defined, which directly or indirectly
it owns, deals in, or otherwise has an interest in, shall be called
a combined public and private cold-storage warehouseman.

(d) Licenses to operate cold-storage warehouses.—Any per-
son, firm or corporation desiring to operate or to continue to
operate a cold-storage warehouse as herein defined and classified
shall make application in writing to the State dairy and food
commissioner for that purpose, stating the location of the plant
or plants. On receipt of the application, the State dairy and
food commissioner shall cause an examination to be made into
the sanitary condition of said plant or plants, and, if found by
him to be in a sanitary condition, he shall cause a license to be
issued authorizing the applicant to operate such cold-storage
warehouse or warehouses for and during the period of one year.
The license shall be issued upon the payment by the applicant of
a license fee of twenty-five dollars to the State dairy and food
commissioner for each such warehouse, except that when the
gross business of such warehouse does not exceed the sum of one
thousand dollars per annum, such license fee shall be five dollars,
and where the gross business exceeds one thousand dollars and
does not exceed two thousand dollars, such license fee shall be
ten dollars. All licenses, however, issued under this act at any
time between the date of the passage hereof and the first day of
January, nineteen hundred and twenty, shall expire on the last-
named date, and thereafter all licenses issued hereunder shall
expire on the thirty-first day of December next succeeding their
issuance.

3. Unsanitary warehouses prohibited.—In case any cold-
storage warehouse, or any part thereof, covered by a license
under the provisions of this act, shall at any time be deemed by
the State dairy and food commissioner to be in an unsanitary
condition, it shall be his duty to notify the licensee of such con-
dition, and, upon the failure of the licensee to put such cold-
storage warehouse, or the specified part thereof, in a sanitary
condition within a reasonable time to be designated by him, it
shall be the duty of the State dairy and food commissioner to
prohibit the use under his license of such cold-storage warehouse,
or part thereof, as he deems to be in an unsanitary condition,
until such time as it may be put in a sanitary condition.

4. Receipts and withdrawals of food; records; quarterly re-
ports.—It shall be the duty of any person, firm or corporation
licensed to operate a cold-storage warehouse to keep an accurate
record of the receipts and the withdrawals of the articles of
food, and the State dairy and food commissioner and his assist-
ants shall have free access to these records at any time. Every
such person, firm or corporation shall, furthermore, submit a
quarterly report to the dairy and food commissioner setting forth
in itemized particulars the quantity of articles of food products
as herein defined held in each cold-storage warehouse owned or
operated by the licensee. Such quarterly reports shall be filed
on or before the fifteenth day of the month following the ex-
piration of each quarter, and the reports so rendered shall show
the conditions existing on the last day of the quarter reported,
and a summary of such reports shall be prepared by the State
dairy and food commissioner and shall be open to public inspec-
tion at any and all times.

5. Inspe¢tions.—It shall be the duty of the State dairy and
food commissioner to inspect all cold-storage warehouses in the
State, and to make such inspection of the entry of articles of
food therein as he may deem necessary to secure the proper en-
forcement of this act. The State dairy and food commissioner,
his assistants and employees, when properly authorized by him,
shall be permitted access to such cold-storage warehouses, and
all parts thereof, at all reasonable times for the purpose of in-
spection and enforcement of the provisions of this act. The
State dairy and food commissioner may also appoint and desig-
nate such person, or persons, as he may deem qualified to make
the inspection herein required.

6. Containers; marking.—No person, firm or corporation
conducting a cold-storage warehouse, as defined in this act, shall
place or store in any cold-storage warehouse in this State arti-
cles of food, as herein defined, unless the same shall be plainly
and durably marked, stamped or tagged, either upon the con-
tainer in which they are packed or upon the article of food itself,
with the words “cold storage,” with the name and location of the
cold-storage warehouse, and with the date when placed therein;
and no person, firm or corporation shall remove or permit the
removal of such articles of food from any cold-storage warehouse
unless the same shall be plainly and durably marked, stamped or
tagged, either on the container in which it is enclosed or upon
the article of food itself, with the date when it is removed from
such cold-storage ‘warehouse.
7. Storage period.—No person, firm or corporation shall
keep in any cold-storage warehouse any article of food, as herein
defined, for a longer period than ten calendar months, except with
the written consent of the State dairy and food commissioner,
as hereinafter provided; nor shall any cold-storage warehouse
permit any articles of food to be kept in cold storage for a longer
period than ten months, except for the purpose of temporary
preservation. In the event that articles of food remain in storage
for a period of ten months, the warehouseman shall forthwith
notify the dairy and food commissioner of such fact, giving the
name and address of the owner and the quantity and kind of the
articles of food in storage, and shall also, at the same time, mail
a copy of the said notice to the owner to his last-known post-
office address. If any person, firm or corporation have any
articles of food in any cold-storage warehouse, and the name
and whereabouts of the owner thereof be unknown, then, upon
the expiration of the ten-months’ storage period prescribed by
this act, the dairy and food commissioner shall order such arti-
cles of food to be sold at public auction; and the proceeds there-
from, after deducting costs of sale and storage charges, shall be
paid into the State treasury and there held subject to the order
of said owner. The said commissioner shal) upon application,
extend the period of storage beyond ten months for any particu-
lar articles of food when, in his opinion, such extension will not
be detrimental to the public interests, and, provided the same
are found, upon examination, to be in proper condition for fur-
ther storage. The length of time for which further storage is
allowed shall be specified in an order granting the permission.
The length of time that any articles of food may have been kept
in cold storage in some other warehouse either within or without
this State shall be computed in the period of ten months per-
mitted.

8. Signs to be displayed; what advertising unlawful.—It
shall be unlawful to sell, or to offer or expose for sale, articles of
food as herein defined which have been held in any cold-storage
warehouse for a period of thirty days or over without notifying
persons purchasing or intending to purchase the same that they
have been so kept, by the display of a placard conspicuously
marked “cold-storage goods,” on the bulk mass or articles of
food, and it shall be unlawful to represent or advertise as fresh
articles of food which have been held in any cold-storage ware-
house for a period of thirty days or over.

9. Return to storage prohibited.—It shall be unlawful] to re-
turn to any cold-storage warehouse any articles of food as herein
defined ‘which has once been released from such storage and
placed on the market for sale to consumers, except for the pur-
pose of temporary preservation; but nothing in this section shal!
be construed to prevent the transfer of goods from one cold-
storage warehouse to another; provided, that all prior stamp-
ng, marking and tagging shall remain thereon, and that such
ransfer is not made for the purpose of evading any provision
of this act. |

10. The licensee shall not receive or keep in any cold-storage
warehouse any food products which are in any way diseased,
ainted or unfit for human consumption.

11. Rules and regulations.—The State dairy and food com-
missioner shall, with the approval of the State board of agricul-
ture and immigration, make all necessary rules and regulations
to carry into effect the provisions of this act.

12. To what act not applicable-—The provisions of this act
shall not apply to ice boxes or refrigerators maintained by whole-
sale or retail dealers.

18. Public warehouseman not to own or deal in stored food
commodities.—No person, firm or corporation, or any employee
of same, engaged in the business of storing foods as herein de-
fined for the public in a public cold-storage warehouse, and charg-
ing for such services, shall either directly or indirectly own or
deal in any food commodities, as herein above defined, stored in
such warehouse, except food commodities that are legally acquired
for charges or advances made.

No person, firm or corporation licensed to operate a cold-
storage warehouse shall make any loan on foods as herein de-
fined stored in such warehouse, or incur liability by indorsement,
guarantee or otherwise in connection with any loan on foods
stored in such warehouse in excess of seventy per centum of the
market value of such foods on the date of said loan. A margin
of not less than thirty per centum on every loan shall be main-
tained at all times. |

Any advances made by the cold-storage warehouse on the
goods upon which the loan is made, such as freight, cartage or
insurance, shall be included in the seventy per centum of the
market value permitted above.

14. Penalties.—After this act shall have been in force thirty
days, any person, or any member or agent of any firm, or any
officer, director or agent of any corporation violating any pro-
vision of the same shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor
more than five hundred dollars for the first offense. Upon a sec-
ond or subsequent conviction, the offender shall be subject to a
like fine, or, in addition, shall be confined in jail not less thar
thirty days nor more than one year, in the discretion of thé
tribunal trying the case.

15. Authority-of dairy and food commissioner to employ}
assistants; appropriations.—The dairy and food commissione}
is hereby authorized and required, with the approval of the boarc
of agriculture and immigration, to employ as many assistants
in addition to those already employed by them, as may be neces-
sary effectually to enforce the provisions of this act, and the
sum of five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be neces-
sary, is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the treasury not
otherwise appropriated, to be expended by the said commis-
sioner in carrying out its said provisions, in addition to the other
funds to the credit of the dairy and food division. Furthermore,
all license fees received under this act shall be paid into the treas-
ury of the State to the credit of the dairy and food division, and
shall be used for the purpose of supplementing the appropria-
tion aforesaid. The dairy and food commissioner shall include
in his annual report a detailed statement of all such receipts and
disbursements.

16. Emergency.—One of the objects of this act being to pro-
vide legislation which will reduce the present excessive prices
of food and food products, an emergency is declared to exist, and
this act shall take effect from its passage.