CHAPTER 190
GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING THE POLICE PURE FOOD AND DRUGS
AN ACT making It a misdemeanor to manufacture or sell, or trade In, adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious food or drugs, and prescribing penalties therefor.
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, sell or trade in, within the State of Delaware, any article of food or drugs which is adulterated, misbranded, poisonous or deleterious, within the meaning of this Act.
Section 2. That the term "food", as used in this Act, shall include all articles used for food, drink, confectionery or condiment by man or other animal, whether simple, mixed or compound; and the term "drug," as used in this Act, shall include all medicines and preparations recognized in the 'United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary 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.
Section 3. That, for the purposes of this Act, an article shall be deemed to be adulterated:
In case of drugs:
1. If, when a drug is sold under or by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary, it differs from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary official at the time of investigation: Provided, that no drug defined in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary shall be deemed to be adulterated under this provision if the standard of strength, quality, or purity be plainly stated upon the bottle, box, or other container thereof although the standard may differ from that determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary.
2. If its strength or purity fall below the professed standard or quality under which it is sold.
In the case of confectionery:
If it contains terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow, or other mineral substance or poisonous color or flavor, or other ingredient deleterious or detrimental to health, or any vinous, malt or spirituous liquor or compound or narcotic drug.
In case of other food:
1. If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.
2. If any substance has 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 mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.
5. If it contain any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health: Provided, that when in the preparation of food products for shipment they are preserved by any external application applied in such manner that the preservative is necessarily removed mechanically, or by maceration in water, or otherwise, and directions for the removal of said preservative shall be printed on the covering or the package, the provisions of this Act shall be construed as applying only when said products are ready for consumption.
6. 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. That the term "misbranded", as used herein, shall apply to all drugs, or articles of food, or articles which enter into the composition of food, the package or label of which shall bear any statement, design, or device regarding such article, or the ingredients or substances contained therein which shall be false or misleading in any particular, and to any food or drug product which is falsely branded as to the State, territory, or country in which it is manufactured or produced.
That, for the purposes of this Act, an article shall also be deemed to be misbranded :
In case of drugs:
1. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the name of another article.
2. If the contents of the package as originally put up shall have been removed, in whole or in part, and other contents shall have been placed in such package, or if the package fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein.
In the case of food:
1. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article.
2. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when not so, or if the contents of the package as originally put up shall have been removed in whole or in part and other contents shall have been placed in such package, or if it fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any of such substances contained therein.
3. If in package form, the quantity of the contents be not plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count.
4. If the package containing it or its label shall bear any statement, design, or device regarding the ingredients or the substances contained therein, which statement, design, or device shall be false or misleading in any particular. Provided, that an article of food which does not contain any added poisonous or deleterious ingredients shall not be deemed to be adulterated or misbranded in the following cases:
1. In the case of mixtures or compounds which may be now or from time to time hereafter known as articles of food, under their own distinctive names, and not an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article, if the name be accompanied on the same label or brand with a statement of the place where said article has been manufactured or produced.
2. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged so as to plainly indicate that they are compounds, imitations, or blends, and the word "compound", "imitation", or "blend", as the case may be, is plainly stated on the package in which it is offered for sale. Provided, that the term "blend" as used herein shall be construed to mean a mixture of like substances, not excluding harmless coloring or flavoring ingredients used for the purpose of coloring and flavoring only. And provided further, that nothing in this Act shall be construed as requiring or compelling proprietors or manufacturers of proprietary foods which contain no unwholesome added ingredient to disclose their trade formulas, except insofar as the provisions of this Act may require to secure freedom from adulteration or misbranding.
Section 5. That 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 is not adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this Act, designating it. 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 6. That any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each offense shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed five hundred dollars, or shall be sentenced to not more than one year's imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court, and for each subsequent offense and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than One Thousand Dollars, or sentenced to one year's imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court.
Section 7. That this Act shall be in force and effect from and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.
Approved April 11, A. D. 1921.