CHAPTER 88 - STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE - MARKETING OF EGGS
AN ACT RELATING TO THE MARKETING OF EGGS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any person by himself or for another person, or his agents or servants, firm, association or corporation to sell, ship, or transport, or consign, or expose, or offer for sale, to have in his possession with intent to sell to the consumer, retail or wholesale trade, any egg that is unfit for human consumption. Eggs described by the United States Department of Agriculture, as black rots, white rots (addled eggs), sour eggs, eggs with green white, stack yolks, blood rings, large embryo, bloody whites, crusted yolks, and eggs with abnormal odors, and any other eggs which contain wholly or impart a tainted, diseased, filthy, decomposed or putrid substance shall be deemed to be unfit for human food.
Section 2. It shall be unlawful for any person by himself or for another person or his agents or servants, firm, association, or corporation to advertise or in any other manner represent for sale as FRESH, hennery, new laid, best, direct from the farm, grade A, No. 1, fancy, special, extra selected, or under any words, figures, symbols, or description of similar import eggs which are not fresh.
Section 3. Incubated Eggs:—It shall be unlawful for any person to transport, or sell or offer for sale, incubated eggs in the shell unless they have been properly identified in a manner set forth by the State Board of Agriculture.
Section 4. Tolerance:—In lots of eggs sold, as herein provided, a tolerance of two (2) eggs having no serious defects shall be allowed in each dozen. In lots, sold as large, medium, or small, a tolerance of two (2) eggs of the next lower weight classification shall be allowed in each dozen. If any lot of eggs is sold as fresh and at the same time is sold as large, medium or small, the sum of the tolerance allowed above shall not exceed two (2) eggs in any dozen. Eggs below the designated size shall meet the requirements of the next lower size and eggs so included shall be those other than eggs included in the tolerance of the lower size.
Section 5. For the purpose of this Act
(a) The term "Person" includes individual, partnership, corporations, associations, and any other business unit, or receiver, trustee or assignee of such business units.
(b) The term "Incubated Eggs" shall be applied to eggs which have been subjected to incubation practices, either artificial or natural.
Section 6. The State Board of Agriculture, through its Bureau of Markets, is hereby authorized, directed and empowered to promulgate and enforce such rules and regulations as shall be deemed necessary to put into effect the intent and provisions of this act and to make such revisions of egg standards as shall be deemed necessary in order to promote the best interests of the industry. All revisions shall become the official State standards.
Section 7. In order to carry out the provisions of this act, the State Board of Agriculture or its agents and employees, are authorized to enter, during the usual hours of business, any warehouse, store, building, market, or any other place, carrier, conveyance or vehicle at, in, on, or from which eggs are sold, offered, or exposed for sale and to examine any or all such eggs for the purpose of determining whether the provisions of this act shall have been violated. The sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) is hereby appropriated annually from the general fund not otherwise appropriated for the purpose of enabling the State Board of Agriculture to enforce the provisions of this act.
Section 8. Any person, firm, corporation, partnership or other association which violates any of the provisions of this act, or willfully interferes with the State Board of Agriculture, or its duly authorized agents in the performance, on account of the execution of its or their duties, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before any Justice of the Peace or other enforcing agency of the County wherein such violation occurs, be fined a sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) for every such violation.
Section 9. If any of the provisions of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, or is in conflict with any Federal law, the validity of the remainder of this Act, and the application thereof to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected hereby.
Section 10. This Act shall take effect May 1, 1941.
Approved May 22, 1941.