CHAPTER 160.
GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING TRADE.
AN ACT to Secure the Purity of Foods and Drugs and to Prevent Deception in the Distribution and Sale Thereof.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, dispense, sell or offer for sale, within the limits of this State, any article of food or drug which is adulterated within the meaning of this Act.
Section 2. The term "drug", as used in this Act, shall include all medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia, National Formulary or American Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia for internal or external use, and any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used for the cure, mitigation or prevention of disease of either man or other animals. The term "food", as used herein, shall include all articles used for food, drink, confectionary, or condiment, by man or other animals whether simple, mixed or compound. When a substance answers both descriptions, a "food" and a "drug" as above defined, the purpose for which it was manufactured, dispensed, sold, or offered for sale as the case may be, shall determine its character.
Section 3. For the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be adulterated:
In case of drugs:
First. If, when a drug is sold under or by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia, National Formulary or American Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, it differs from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia, National Formulary or American Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, unless the order calls for an article differing from such standard, or unless such difference is made known or so appears to the purchaser at the time of each sale.
Second. If its strength or purity fall below the professed standard or quality under which it is sold.
But in no case shall a drug be deemed to be adulterated, as differing from the proper standard, when the variation is caused by the evaporation of any volatile ingredient or by other change beyond control, happening after the manufacture of the same, provided that due care be taken to preserve its integrity.
In case of food.
First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.
Second. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article.
Third. If any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted.
Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.
Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredients which may render such article injurious to health.
Sixth. If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any, 'portion of an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter.
Section 4. Provided that the provisions of this Act shall not apply to articles of food, or to mixtures or compounds of foods, offered for sale in this State, when prepared, labeled, branded, or inspected, in compliance with Federal Laws and department regulations established thereunder.
Section 5. An offense shall not be deemed to be committed under this Act in the following cases: (1) where the order calls for an article of food or drug inferior to such standard and such difference is made known at the time; (2) where the article of food or drug is mixed with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health and not intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight or measure or conceal its inferior quality, if at the time such article is delivered to the purchaser, it is made known to him that such article of food or drug is so mixed.
Section 6. No dealer shall be prosecuted under the provisions of this Act when he can establish a guaranty signed by the wholesaler, jobber, manufacturer or other party residing in the United States, from whom he purchases such articles, to the effect that the same are not adulterated within the meaning of this Act or the National Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906. Said Guaranty, to afford protection, shall contain the name and address of the party or parties making the sale of such articles to such dealer, and in such case said party or parties shall be amenable to the prosecutions, fines, and other penalties which would attach, in due course, to the dealer under the provisions of this Act.
Section 7. It shall be the duty of the Board of Health of the State of Delaware to enforce all the provisions of this Act and to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the same so far as they relate to foods; and it shall be the duty of the State Board of Pharmacy to enforce all the provisions of this Act and to promulgate rules and regulations for carrying out the same so far as they relate to drugs, including proper methods for handling volatile and variable drugs.
Such rules shall provide for the examination and analysis of specimens and shall give the party from whom the same is obtained opportunity to verify any findings and to be heard before prosecution. The rules and regulations officially prescribed for the enforcement of the Act of Congress, approved June 30, 1906, entitled, "An Act for preventing the manufacture, sale or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein and for other purposes," so far as applicable, shall be adopted by the said officials for the enforcement of this Act.
Section 8. Whoever knowingly violates any of the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, in the discretion of the Court; said fine to be paid to the State Treasurer.
Section 9. The expenses incurred by all officials in performing duties imposed by the provisions of this Act, including reasonable compensation for services rendered, shall be paid by requisition upon the State Treasurer, when approved by the Governor, out of funds in hand not otherwise appropriated.
Section 10. The word "person" as used in this Act shall be construed to import both the singular and plural, as the case demands, and shall include corporations, companies, societies and associations. When construing and enforcing the provisions of this Act, the act, omission or failure of any officer, agent or other person acting for or employed by any corporation, company, society or association, within the scope of his employment or office, shall in every case be also deemed to be the act, omission, or failure of such corporation, company, society or association as well as that of the person.
Section 11. This Act shall go into force and effect on the first day of October, nineteen hundred and seven, but shall not apply to packages then in stock.
Approved April 9, A. D. 1907.