Chap. 388.—An ACT to regulate the sale of bakery products; and fixing penal-
ties for violations of the provisions thereof. [H B 212]

Approved March 20, 1920.

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

Sec. 1. All materials used in the production or preparation of
bakery products shall be stored, handled and kept in a way to protect
them from spoiling and contamination, and no material shall be
used which is spoiled or contaminated, or which may render the
bread or other bakery products unwholesome or unfit for food. The
ingredients used in the production of bread and other bakery products
and the sale or offering for sale of bread and other bakery products
shall comply with the provisions of the Virginia laws against adultera-
tion and misbranding. No ingredients shall be used which may render
the bread or other bakery products injurious to health. No ingredients
shall be used which may deceive the consumer or which lessens the
nutritive value of the bakery product without being plainly labeled,
branded or tagged or having a sign making such facts plain to the
purchaser or consumer under rules and regulations to be prescribed by
the dairy and food commissioner with the approval of the board of
agriculture and immigration ; provided, however, that in case of bread
to be sold by the loaf such labeling shall be, in the case of unwrapped
bread, placed upon the same sticker as hereinafter provided to show
the name and address of the manufacturer and the net weight or
measure of the loaf.

Sec. 2. Distribution—All handling or sale of bread or other
bakery products and all practices connected therewith shall be con-
ducted at all times so as to prevent the distribution of contamination
or diseases among consumers, and so as to prevent the distribution of
the infection in bread commonly known as “rope” or other bakery
infections, and so as to protect the food supply against waste. No
bread or other bakery products except as hereinafter provided shall
be returned from any consumer or other purchaser to the dealer or
baker, nor from any dealer to the baker, and no baker or dealer shal
directly or indirectly accept any returns or make any exchange of
bread or other bakery products from a dealer, restaurant or hotel
keeper, consumer or other person, and all bread and all other bakery
products shall be kept moving to the consumer in as direct a line as
may be practicable and without unreasonable delay and without any
exchange, return or practice whatsoever which may disseminate con-
tamination, disease or fraud among consumers or infection among
bakeshops, or which may cause waste in the food supply. The dairy
and food commissioner, with the approval of the board of agriculture
and immigration, shall make such reasonable rules and regulations
as may be necessary for carrying into effect the foregoing provisions
of this act; provided, that this section shall not be construed to apply
to crackers or to such other bakery products as are packed at the
place of production in cartons, cans, boxes, or similar permanent con-
tainers and where the product is so packed or sealed at the place of
production as to fully protect the freshness and wholesomeness of the
product and to protect it from contamination, adulteration and fraud
in the channels of trade and which remains in the original unbroken
package in which each bakery product has been packed, except insofar
as may be necessary to prevent waste in the food supply; provided,
further, the dairy and food commissioner, with the approval of the
board of agriculture and immigration, may by rules and regulations
establish such exemptions as may be necessary to facilitate the sale
of any accumulated or unsold stocks of wholesome bread or other
bakery products, but any such exemptions or sales shall not be in
violation of the expressed purposes of this section; provided, further,
that the phrase “permanent cantainers” shall not be construed to in-
clude the paper or permanent wrappers as used in wrapping loaves of
read.

Sec. 3. Weights and labels——All bread stored, sold, offered or
exposed for sale by the loaf shall have conspicuously affixed thereon
a label on which shall be printed in the English language in letters
and figures not smaller than one-fourth inch in height, the net weight
of the loaf, when baked. The name and address of the baker or manu-
facturer of the loaf shall also be shown on the same label.

The dairy and food commissioner, with the approval of the board
of agriculture and immigration, shall adopt and establish such rea-
sonable tolerances or variations within which the weights of loaves
shall be kept; provided, however, that such tolerances and variations
shall not exceed one ounce per loaf on loaves weighing less than one
pound or two ounces on loaves weighing more than two pounds twelve
hours after baking. °

Sec. 4. The dairy and food commissioner is hereby charged with
the enforcement of the provisions of this act.

Sec. 5. Penalty—Any person, firm or corporation who shall vio-
late any of the provisions of this act shall be subject to a fine of not
less than ten dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars, and each
-day’s continuance of any practice, act or condition prohibited herein

shall constitute a separate offense within the meaning of this act.
578 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. [va

Sec. 6. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of this act
shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdic-
tion to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate
the remainder of this act, but shall be confined in its operation to the
clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the
controversy in which such judgment has been rendered.