APPENDIX E. SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACTS, 1875. 38 & 39 VICT. c. 63. An Act to repeal the Adulteration of Food Acts, and to make better provision for the Sale of Food and Drugs in a pure state. [11th August, 1875.] WHEREAS it is desirable that the Acts now in force relating to the adulteration of food should be repealed, and that the law regarding the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine condition should be amended: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent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:: 1. From the commencement of this Act the statutes of the Repeal of twenty-third and twenty-fourth of Victoria, chapter eighty- statutes. four, of the thirty-first and thirty-second of Victoria, chapter one hundred and twenty-one, section twenty-four, of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth of Victoria, chapter twenty-six, section three, and of the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth of Victoria, chapter seventy-four, shall be repealed, except in regard to any appointment made under them and not then determined, and in regard to any offence committed against them or any prosecution or other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. (1) 2. The term "food" shall include every article used for Interpretafood or drink by man, other than drugs or water: 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 and stipendiary magistrate invested with the powers of a justice of the peace in England, and any divisional justices in Ireland. (1) A circular letter has been issued by the Local Government Board, dated the 30th September, 1875, and directed to borough authorities, drawing their attention to this Act, and shewing the most material tion of words. Description of Prohibition of selling the same. Prohibition of the mixing of drugs with inju and of selling the sa ne 3. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any article of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that 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. 4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding as hereinafter described, mix, colour, stain, or powder, rions ingredients, 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. Exemption in case of proof of absence of knowledge. Prohibition of the sale of 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, and of drugs not substance, and quality of the article demanded by such pur articles of food of the proper nature, sub stance, and quality. Provision for the sale of com chaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds; pro- (4.) Where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with 7. No person shall sell any compound article of food or compounded drug which is not composed of ingredients in pounded articles accordance with the demand of the purchaser, under a penalty pounded drugs. not exceeding twenty pounds. of food and com of label. 8. Provided that no person shall be guilty of any such Protection from offence as aforesaid in respect of the sale of an article of food offences by giving or a drug 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 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. the abstraction before sale, and 9. No person shall, with the intent that the same may be Prohibition of sold in its altered state without notice, abstract from an of any part of an article of food any part of it so as to affect injuriously its article of food quality, substance, or nature, and no person shall sell any selling without article so altered without making disclosure of the alteration, notice. under a penalty in each case not exceeding twenty pounds. Analysts, and of analysts. 10. In the city of London and the liberties thereof the Appointment Commissioners of Sewers of the city of London and the and Duties of liberties thereof, and in all other parts of the metropolis the Proceedings to obtain Analysis. vestries and district boards acting in execution of the Act for the better local management of the metropolis, the court of Appointment quarter sessions of every county, and the town council of every borough having a separate court of quarter 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. In Scotland the like powers shall be conferred and the like duties shall be imposed upon the commissioners of supply at their ordinary meetings for counties, and the commissioners or boards of police, or where there are no such commissioners or boards, upon the town councils for boroughs 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 imposed respectively upon the grand jury of every county and town council of every borongh; 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 appointed by any neighbouring borough or for the county in which the borough is situated, shall act for their borough during such time as the said council shall think proper, and shall make due provision for the payment of his remuneration, and if such analyst shall consent, he shall during such time be the analyst for such borough for the purposes of this Act. 12. Any purchaser of an article of food or of a drug in any place being a district, county, city, or borough where there is any analyst appointed under this or any Act hereby repealed shall be entitled, on payment to such analyst of a sum not exceeding ten shillings and sixpence, or if there be no such analyst then acting for such place, to the analyst of another place, of such sum as may be agreed upon between such person and the analyst, to have such article analysed by such analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his analysis. 13. Any medical officer of health, inspector of nuisances, or inspector of weights and measures, or any inspector of a market, or any police constable under the direction and at the cost of the local authority appointing such officer, inspector, or constable, or charged with the execution of this Act, may procure any sample of food or drugs, and if he suspect the same to have been sold to him contrary to any provision of this Act, shall submit the same to be analysed by the analyst of the district or place for which he acts, or if there be 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 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 submitting the same to analysis shall, after the purchase shall have been completed, forthwith notify to the seller or his agent selling the article his intention to have the same analysed by the public analyst, and shall offer to divide the article into three parts to be then and there separated, and each part to be marked and sealed or fastened 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. 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. divided. 15. If the seller or his agent do not accept the offer of the Provision when purchaser to divide the article purchased in his presence, the sample is not 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. the analyst post office. 16. If the analyst do not reside within two miles of the Provision for residence of the person requiring the article to be analysed, sending article to such article may be forwarded to the analyst through the through the post office as a registered 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 (1). to sell any to penalty. 17. If any such officer, inspector, or constable, as above Person refusing described, shall apply to purchase any article of food or any article to any drug exposed to sale, or on sale by retail on any premises or officer liable 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 Form of the set forth in the schedule hereto, or to the like effect. certificate. of the analyst. 19. Every analyst appointed under any Act hereby re- Quarterly report pealed 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. against offen 20. When the analyst having analysed any article shall Proceedings have given his certificate of the result, from which it may ders. appear that an offence against some one of the provisions of (1) The Postmaster-General has issued the following regulations in pursuance of this clause: 1. Each packet must be addressed according to the official designation of the analyst, as "public analyst," or otherwise, and the nature of its contents must be stated on the front of the packet. 2. Any postmaster at whose office a packet for a public analyst shall be tendered for registration may refuse to accept it for this purpose, unless it be packed in so secure a manner as to render it least likely that its contents will escape and injure the correspondence. Proceedings 3. Liquids for analysis shall be contained against offenders in stout bottles or bladders which shall be inclosed in strong wooden boxes with rounded edges, the boxes being covered by stout wrappers of paper or cloth; and no such packet shall exceed 8 inches in length, 4 inches in width, or 3 inches in depth. 4. No packet whatever addressed to a public analyst shall exceed the dimensions of 18 inches in length, 9 inches in width, or 6 inches in depth. The postage and registration fee on such packet must of course be prepaid. |