FOODS, Recent Legislation Respecting. The Food and Drugs Act of 30 June 1906 commonly called the "pure food law)) went into effect 1 Jan. 1907. It forbids the importa tion into the United States, the exportation from the United States, the introduction into interstate commerce and the manufacture and sale in the District of Columbia and the Terri tories, of misbranded and adulterated food and drugs. The term food is defined to in clude all articles used for food, drink, confec tionery or condiment by man or animals. It is to be deemed misbranded if any substance has been mixed or packed with it so as to reduce or lower, or injuriously affect its quality or strength; or if any substance has been sub stituted wholly or in part for the articles; or if any valuable constituent has been wholly or in part removed; or if it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated or stained so as to conceal damage or inferiority; or if it contains any added poisonous or deleterious ingredient; or if it consist in whole or in part of any filthy, decomposed or putrid animal or vegetable sub stance; or if it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter.
It is deemed misbranded if it be an imita tion of, or offered for sale as, another article; or if it be labelled so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purport to be imported when it was not; or if the contents of the original package shall have been removed and other contents shall have been placed therein; or if it fail to bear a label stating the amount of any certain drugs (designated) contained therein; or, being in package form, the con tent in weight or measure is not plainly stated on the outside of the package; or if the pack age or its label shall bear any statement, de sign, or device (including pictures), which shall be false or misleading in any particular. But, in the case of food mixtures or com pounds sold under distinctive (that is, trade or proprietary) names, they shall not be deemed misbranded if the label states where the article is produced or manufactured, or, in the case of compounds, imitations or blends, if they are so labelled. Manufacturers of proprietary foods are required to state on their labels the per centages only of such ingredients as the Secre tary of Agriculture shall deem needful to as sure freedom from adulteration.
Unlabelled foods in packages are adjudged misbranded if they are imitations. Untruthful geographical names are forbidden.
Food products for aport may contain added ingredients not permitted in foods to be sold in the United States, when the addition of such substances does not conflict with the laws of the country to which such food products are to be exported, and when additions are made at the request of the foreign pur chaser.
Articles condemned as being adulterated or misbranded, or of a poisonous or deleterious character, are to be confiscated by the govern ment and destroyed, or sold under conditions not contrary to the provisions of this act.
Dealers are exempt from prosecution under this law if they can establish a genuine guar anty by a wholesaler, jobber, manufacturer or mother party)) residing in the United States, from whom the unlawful articles were pur chased.
Under rulings of the Department of Agri culture seven coal-tar colors may be used in foods, viz.: 107 Amaranth; 56 Ponceau 3R; 517 Erythrosin; 85 Orange I; 4 Naphthol Yel low S; 435 Light Green SF; 692 Indigo disul foacid. The prefixed numbers identify the dyes as listed in A. G. Green's of Organic Coloring Matters) (1904). The law is administered under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture and provides that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall make uniform rules and regu lations for carrying out its provisions. Such regulations have been made and are printed, together with the act, for distribution by the Department of Agriculture (Chemistry Bureau Bulletin 112). The opinion of this department regarding various features of the law is ex pressed in Food Inspection Decisions published from time to time from the office of the Secre _ tary: Under date of 17 Oct. 1906, 40 rules and regulations for the enforcement of the act were adopted by the three secretaries. Since then, up to 23 July 1910, seven of these regu lations (Nos. 3, 9, 15, 17, 19, 28 and 34) were amended by Food Inspection Decisions. These amendments refer to sections of the law relat ing to the collection of samples change in form of guaranty legend; permitting the addi tion of -harmless coloring matter or flavors in proportion not to exceed 1 part to 800 of the food; permitting the use of seven specified coal-tar colors; forbidding the use of sac charine; permitting benzoate of soda in any i amount if stated on the label; relating to ar rangement and size of type on labels, character of name, labelling of derivatives, denaturing and permitting the use of copper salts and sulphur dioxide if so stated on the label.