APPENDIX. THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRugs Act, 1875. AN ACT TO REPEAL THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD ACTS, AND TO WHEREAS it is desirable that the Acts now in force relating to the adulteration of food should be repealed, and that the law regarding the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine condition should be amended: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Vict. c. 121 1. From the commencement of this Act the statutes of the twenty- Repeal of 23 third and twenty-fourth of Victoria, chapter eighty-four, of the & 24 Vict. c. thirty-first and thirty-second of Victoria, chapter one hundred and $4, & 31 & 32 twenty-one, section twenty-four, of the thirty-third and thirty-fourths 24, 33 & 34 of Victoria, chapter twenty-six, section three, and of the thirty-fifth Vict. c. 26 and thirty-sixth of Victoria, chapter seventy-four, shall be repealed, $ 3, & 35 & 36 except in regard to any appointment made under them and not then Vict. c. 74. determined, and in regard to any offence committed against them or any prosecution or other act commenced and not concluded or completed, and any payment of money then due in respect of any provision thereof. 2. The term "food" shall include every article used for food or Definitions. drink by man, other than drugs or water: 66 The term drug" shall include medicine for internal or external use: The term "county" shall include every county, riding, and division, as well as every county of a city or town not being a borough: The term "justices" shall include any police or stipendiary magistrate invested with the powers of a justice of the peace in England, and any divisional justices in Ireland. Description of Offences. health. 3. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or per- Mixing, mit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any article colouring, of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article staining so injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that as to injure state, and no person shall sell any such article so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under a penalty in each case not exceeding fifty pounds for the first offence; every offence, after a conviction for a first offence, shall be a misdemeanor, for which the person, on conviction, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months with hard labour. No drug to be coloured, &c., so as to injure its quality. Guilty knowledge the proof of the offence. essential to No person to sell foods or drugs to the prejudice of purchaser. Exceptions. Compound foods or drugs must be in accordance with 4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding as hereinafter described, mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under the same penalty in each case respectively as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offence. 5. Provided that no person shall be liable to be convicted under either of the two last foregoing sections of this Act in respect of the sale of any article of food or of any drug, if he shows to the satisfaction of the justice or court before whom he is charged that he did not know of the article of food or drug sold by him being so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, as in either of those sections mentioned, and that he could not with reasonable diligence have obtained that knowledge. 6. No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds; provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed under this section in the following cases; that is to say, (1.) Where any matter or ingredient not injurious to health has been added to the food or drug because the same is required for the production or preparation thereof as an article of commerce, in a state fit for carriage or consumption, and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight, or measure of the food or drug, or conceal the inferior quality thereof: (2.) Where the drug or food is a proprietary medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force, and is supplied in the state required by the specification of the patent : (3.) Where the food or drug is compounded as in this Act mentioned: (4.) Where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of collection or preparation. 7. No person shall sell any compound article of food or compounded drug which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. the demands 8. Provided that no person shall be guilty of any such offence as of purchaser. aforesaid in respect of the sale of an article of food or a drug mixed A legible with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health, and not descriptive intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight, or measure, or conceal its inferior quality, if at the time of delivering such article or drug he shall supply to the person receiving the same a notice, by a label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the article or drug, to the effect that the same is mixed. notice exonerates seller. Abstraction of con stituents of food. The local bodies by whom 9. No person shall, with the intent that the same may be sold in its altered state without notice, abstract from an article of food any part of it so as to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature, and no person shall sell any article so altered without making disclosure of the alteration, under a penalty in each case not exceeding twenty pounds. Appointment and Duties of Analysts, and Proceedings to obtain the appointment of Analysis. 10. In the city of London and the liberties thereof the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London and the liberties thereof, and in all other parts of the metropolis, the vestries and district boards analysts acting in execution of the Act for the better local management of the may be, or metropolis, the court of quarter sessions of every county, and the appointed in are to be, town council of every burgh having a separate court of quarter England. sessions, or having under any general or local Act of Parliament or otherwise a separate police establishment, may, as soon as convenient after the passing of this Act, where no appointment has been hitherto made, and in all cases as and when vacancies in the office occur, or when required so to do by the Local Government Board, shall for their respective city, districts, counties, or boroughs, appoint one or more persons possessing competent knowledge, skill, and experience, as analysts of all articles of food and drugs sold within the said city, metropolitan districts, counties, or boroughs, and shall pay to such analysts such remuneration as shall be mutually agreed upon, and may remove him or them as they shall deem proper; but such appointments and removals shall at all times be subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, who may require satisfactory proof of competency to be supplied to them, and may give their approval absolutely or with modifications as to the period of the appointment and removal, or otherwise; Provided, that no person shall hereafter be appointed an analyst for any place under this section who shall be engaged directly or indirectly in any trade or business connected with the sale of food or drugs in such place. Scotland. In Scotland the like powers shall be conferred and the like duties Appointshall be imposed upon the commissioners of supply at their ordinary ments in meetings for counties, and the commissioners or boards of police, or where there are no such commissioners or boards, upon the town councils for burghs within their several jurisdictions; provided that one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State in Scotland shall be substituted for the Local Government Board of England. In Ireland the like powers and duties shall be conferred and In Ireland. imposed respectively upon the grand jury of every county and town council of every borough; provided that the Local Government Board of Ireland shall be substituted for the Local Government Board of England. 11. The town council of any borough may agree that the analyst Town appointed by any neighbouring borough or for the county in which the Councils borough is situated, shall act for their borough during such time as the may agree with analyst said council shall think proper, and shall make due provision for the of neighpayment of his remuneration, and if such analyst shall consent, he bouring shall during such time be the analyst for such borough for the pur- county or poses of the Act. borough. foods or 12. Any purchaser of any article of food or of a drug in any place Any being a district, county, city, or borough where there is any analyst purchaser of appointed under this or any Act hereby repealed shall be entitled, on payment to such analyst of a sum not exceeding ten shillings and cus entitled, on sixpence, or if there be no such analyst then acting for such place, to payment of a the analyst of another place, of such sum as may be agreed upon between fee, to have such person and the analyst, to have such article analysed by such an analysis analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his certificate. analysis. and 13. Any medical officer of health, inspector of nuisances, or inspec- Medical tor of weights and measures, or any inspector of a market, or any officers of police constable under the direction and at the cost of the local health, inspectors, authority appointing such officer, inspector, or constable, or charged and certain with the execution of this Act, may procure any sample of food or other drugs, and if he suspect the same to have been sold to him contrary officials may to any provision of this Act, shall submit the same to be analysed by procure the analyst of the district or place for which he acts, or if there be samples for analysis. no such analyst then acting for such place to the analyst of another place, and such analyst shall, upon receiving payment as is provided in The person the last section, with all convenient speed analyse the same and give a certificate to such officer, wherein he shall specify the result of the analysis. 14. The person purchasing any article with the intention of subpurchasing mitting the same to analysis shall, after the purchase shall have been must notify completed, forthwith notify to the seller or his agent selling the his intention article his intention to have the same analysed by the public analyst, of having the article and shall offer to divide the article into three parts to be then and analysed by there separated, and each part to be marked and sealed or fastened the public up in such manner as its nature will permit, and shall, if required to do so, proceed accordingly, and shall deliver one of the parts to the seller or his agent. analyst, and divide it into three parts. The seller not accept ing, the analyst divides it into two parts. He shall afterwards retain one of the said parts for future comparison, and submit the third part, if he deems it right to have the article analysed, to the analyst. 15. If the seller or his agent do not accept the offer of the purchaser to divide the article purchased in his presence, the analyst receiving the article for analysis shall divide the same into two parts, and shall seal or fasten up one of those parts and shall cause it to be delivered, either upon receipt of the sample or when he supplies his certificate to the purchaser, who shall retain the same for production in case proceedings shall afterwards be taken in the matter. Articles may 16. If the analyst do not reside within two miles of the residence be forward- of the person requiring the article to be analysed, such article may ed through be forwarded to the analyst through the post office as a registered the post. letter, subject to any regulations which the Postmaster-General may make in reference to the carrying and delivery of such article, and the charge for the postage of such article shall be deemed one of the charges of this Act or of the prosecution, as the case may be. Penalty for refusing to sell. Certificate. Analysts must report quarterly. Proceedings 17. If any such officer, inspector, or constable, as above described, shall apply to purchase any article of food or any drug exposed to sale, or on sale by retail on any premises or in any shop or stores, and shall tender the price for the quantity which he shall require for the purpose of analysis, not being more than shall be reasonably requisite, and the person exposing the same for sale shall refuse to sell the same to such officer, inspector, or constable, such person shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. 18. The certificate of the analysis shall be in the form set forth in the schedule hereto, or the like effect. 19. Every analyst appointed under any Act hereby repealed or this Act shall report quarterly to the authority appointing him the number of articles analysed by him under this Act during the foregoing quarter, and shall specify the result of each analysis and the sum paid to him in respect thereof, and such report shall be presented at the next meeting of the authority appointing such analyst, and every such authority shall annually transmit to the Local Government Board, at such time and in such form as the Board shall direct, a certified copy of such quarterly report. Proceedings against Offenders. 20. When the analyst having analysed any article shall have given after receipt his certificate of the result, from which it may appear that an offence of certificate. against some one of the provisions of this Act has been committed, the person causing the analysis to be made may take proceedings for the recovery of the penalty herein imposed for such offence, before any justices in petty sessions assembled having jurisdiction in the place where the article or drug sold was actually delivered to the purchaser, in a summary manner. Recovery of penalties. Every penalty imposed by this Act shall be recovered in England in the manner prescribed by the eleventh and twelfth of Victoria, |