Food Adulteration and Its Detection / With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix

by Jesse P. Battershall

1. If any substance or substances has or have been mixed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.

2. If any inferior or cheaper substance or substances have been substituted wholly or in part for the article.

3. If any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted.

4. If it be an imitation of, or be sold under the name of, another article.

5. If it consists wholly or in part of a diseased or decomposed, or putrid or rotten, animal or vegetable substance, whether manufactured or not, or, in the case of milk, if it is the produce of a diseased animal.

6. If it be coloured, or coated, or polished, or powdered, whereby damage is concealed, or it is made to appear better than it really is, or of greater value.

7. If it contain any added poisonous ingredient, or any ingredient which may render such article injurious to the health of the person consuming it: Provided, that the State Board of Health may, with the approval of the Governor, from time to time declare certain articles or preparations to be exempt from the provisions of this Act: And provided further, that the provisions of this Act shall not apply to mixtures or compounds recognised as ordinary articles of food, provided that the same are not injurious to health and that the articles are distinctly labelled as a mixture, stating the components of the mixture.

4. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Health to prepare and publish from time to time lists of the articles, mixtures, or compounds declared to be exempt from the provisions of this Act in accordance with the preceding section. The State Board of Health shall also from time to time fix the limits of variability permissible in any article of food or drug, or compound, the standard of which is not established by any national pharmacopœia.

5. The State Board of Health shall take cognisance of the interests of the public health as it relates to the sale of food and drugs and the adulteration of the same, and make all necessary investigations and inquiries relating thereto. It shall also have the supervision of the appointment of public analysts and chemists, and upon its recommendation whenever it shall deem any such officers incompetent, the appointment of any and every such officer shall be revoked and be held to be void and of no effect. Within thirty days after the passage of this Act, the State Board of Health shall meet and adopt such measures as may seem necessary to facilitate the enforcement of this Act, and prepare rules and regulations with regard to the proper methods of collecting and examining articles of food or drugs, and for the appointment of the necessary inspectors and analysts; and the State Board of Health shall be authorised to expend, in addition to all sums already appropriated for said Board, an amount not exceeding ten thousand dollars for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act. And the sum of ten thousand dollars is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for the purposes in this section provided.