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CHAPTER LI.

1 ADULTERATION OF FOOD.

ARTICLE 623.

DEFINITIONS.

(a.) The EXPRESSION "food" includes every article used for food or drink by man or by cattle;

(b.) The expression "drug" includes all medicines for internal or external use for man or for cattle;

(c.) 3 Food is deemed to be adulterated.

(i.) if any substance has been mixed with it, so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength;

(ii) if any inferior or cheaper substance has been substituted, wholly or in part, for the article;

(iii.) if any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted;

(iv.) if it is an imitation of, or is sold under the name of another article;

(v.) 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 or butter, if it is the produce of a diseased animal, or of an animal fed upon unwholesome food;

(vi.) if it contains any added poisonous ingredient, or any ingredient which may render such an article injurious to the health of a person consuming it;

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(d.) Every drug is deemed to be adulterated,

(i.) if, when sold, or offered or exposed for sale, under

1 See 38 & 39 Vict. c. 63.

2 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 2.

3 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 2 (e).
4 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 2 (ƒ).

or by a name recognized in the British or United States Pharmacopoeia, it differs from the standard of strength, quality or purity laid down therein;

(ii.) if, when sold, or offered or exposed for sale, under or by a name not recognized in the British or United States Pharmacopoeia, but which is found in some other generally recognized pharmacopoeia or other standard work on materia medica, it differs from the standard of strength, quality or purity laid down in such work;

(iii.) if its strength or purity falls below the professed standard under which it is sold or offered or exposed for sale;

(e.) The foregoing definitions do not apply

(i.) if 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 to conceal the inferior quality thereof, if such articles are distinctly labelled as a mixture, in conspicuous characters, forming an inseparable part of the general label, which shall also bear the name and address of the manufacturer;

(ii) if the food or drug 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;

(iii.) if the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of collection or preparation;

(iv.) if any articles of food not injurious to the health of the person consuming the same are mixed together and sold or offered for sale as a compound, and if such articles are distinctly labelled as a mixture, in conspicuous characters, forming an inseparable part of the general

1 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 2 (g).

label, which shall also bear the name and address of the manufacturer.

(f) Milk is deemed to be adulterated in a manner injurious to health if any valuable constituent is abstracted therefrom, or if water is added thereto, or if it is the product of a diseased animal or of an animal fed upon unwholesome food.

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(g.) Vinegar is deemed to be adulterated in a manner injurious to health if any mineral acid is added thereto, either during the process of manufacture or subsequently, or if it contains any soluble salt having copper or lead as a base thereof.

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(h) alcoholic, fermented or other potable liquors are deemed to be adulterated in a manner injurious to health if they contain any of the articles mentioned in the note hereto, or any article hereafter designated by the Governor-in-Council. 5

ARTICLE 624.

ADULTERATING FOOD OR DRUG.

"Every one who wilfully adulterates any article of food or any drug, or orders any other person so to do, is liable, on summary conviction before two justices of the peace, for the first offence to a penalty not exceeding

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1 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 15.

2 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 16.

3 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 17.

4 Cocculus indicus, chloride of sodium (otherwise common salt), copperas, opium, cayenne pepper, picric acid, Indian hemp, strychnine, tobacco, darnel seed, extract of logwood, salts of zinc, copper or lead, alum, methyl alcohol and its derivatives, amyl alcohol, and any extract or compound of any of the above ingredients: R. S. C. c. 107, sch.

5 The Act also contains a definition of agricultural fertilizers and of what constitutes adulteration thereof, and a general prohibition of the manufacture, sale, or offering for sale any adulterated agricultural fertilizer. The subject is further dealt with by R. S. C. c. 108, which provides for the inspection of certain fertilizers and contains regulations as to their sale and penalties for offences in respect thereof. The provisions are, however, so special that it is not necessary to embody them in the text.

R. S. C. c. 107, s. 22.

R. S. C. c. 107, s. 30; c. 34, s. 113.

fifty dollars, and not less than ten dollars and costs, and for each subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding two hundred dollars, and not less than fifty dollars and costs, if such adulteration is injurious to health; and

for a first offence to a penalty not exceeding thirty dollars and costs, and for each subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars, and not less than fifty dollars and costs, if such adulteration is not injurious to health.

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ARTICLE 625.

SELLING ADULTERATED FOOD OR DRUGS.

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Every one who, by himself or his agent, sells, offers for sale, or exposes for sale, any article of food or any drug which is adulterated, is liable, on summary conviction before two justices of the peace, for a first offence to a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars and costs, and for each subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding two hundred dollars, and not less than fifty dollars and costs, if such adulteration is injurious to health; and

for each such offence to a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars and not less than five dollars and costs, if such adulteration is not injurious to health.

If the person accused proves to the court before which the case is tried that he did not know of the article being adulterated, and shows that he could not, with reasonable diligence, have obtained that knowledge, he is not liable to such penalty, but such articles shall be forfeited under the twenty-first section of 3 The Adulteration Act.

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ARTICLE 626.

WHEN SELLING SKIMMED MILK NOT AN OFFENCE.

It is not an offence under the article next preceding

1 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 23.

2 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 30; c. 34, s. 113.

3 R. S. C. c. 107.

4 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 15.

to sell skimmed milk as such if it is contained in cans bearing upon their exterior, within twelve inches of the tops of such vessels, the word "skimmed" in letters of not less than two inches in length, and served in measures also similarly marked, and if such quality of milk has been asked for by the purchaser.

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ARTICLE 627.

HAVING ADULTERATED LIQUORS IN POSSESSION.

Every compounder or dealer in, and every manufacturer of, intoxicating liquors, who has in his possession, or in any part of the premises occupied by him as such, any adulterated liquor, knowing it to be adulterated, or any deleterious ingredient specified in the note (†) to page 498, or added by the Governor-in-Council, for the possession of which he is unable to account to the satisfaction of the court before which the case is tried, is deemed knowingly to have exposed for sale adulterated food, and is liable, for the first offence, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars, and for each subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding four hundred dollars.

ARTICLE 628.

ATTACHING FALSE LABEL TO FOOD OR DRUG.

2 Every person who knowingly attaches to any article. of food, or to any drug, any label which falsely describes the article sold, or offered or exposed for sale, is liable to a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars and not less than twenty dollars and costs.

1 R. S. C. c. 107, s. 24.

R. S. C. c. 107, s. 25.