CHAPTER 209
AN ACT to prevent deception in the Manufacture and Sale of Imitation Butter.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
SECTION 1. No person, by himself or his agents or servants, shall render or manufacture, sell, offer for sale, expose for sale or have in his possession with intent to sell, any lawful article, product or compound made wholly or partly out of any fat, oil or oleaginous substance or compound thereof, not produced from unadulterated milk or cream from the same which shall be in imitation of yellow butter produced from pure unadulterated milk or cream of the same; provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit the manufacture or sale of oleomargarine in a separate and distinct form and in such manner as will advise the consumer of its real character, free from coloration or ingredient that causes it to look like yellow butter. If any person shall violate any of the provisions of this Section he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punishable in the Court of General Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery as hereinafter provided.
SECTION 2. That if any person shall make complaint in writing, verified by oath or affirmation, before any justice of the peace alleging that the complainant has probable cause to suspect, and does suspect and believe that any other person by himself, or his agents or servants, has rendered or manufactured, sold, offered or exposed for sale, or has in his possession with intent to sell any article, product or compound made as aforesaid, in imitation of yellow butter produced as aforesaid, and shall in said complaint describe such article, product or compound as particularly as may be, and designate the house or place where complainant suspects and believes such article, product or compound is, and the name of the person suspected as aforesaid, thereupon such justice of the peace may within the limits of his jurisdiction issue his warrant to search such house or place. Such warrant shall be directed to any officer or to any other person by name for service, and shall recite the essential facts alleged in the complaint, and the officer or other person to whom it shall be directed for service as aforesaid shall proceed thereunder as follows:
He may enter the house or place designated and if he shall find therein what he believes to be any article, product or compound made as aforesaid in imitation of yellow butter produced as aforesaid, be shall take therefrom a sample or samples thereof for the purpose of having the same analyzed or tested as hereinafter provided, and to obtain such sample or samples such officer or other person to whom such warrant shall be directed as aforesaid may open any can, vessel or package by him believed to contain such imitation article, product or compound and take therefrom the sample or samples for the purpose aforesaid. The said officer or other person to whom such warrant shall be directed as aforesaid when so taking a sample or samples of such alleged imitation article, product or compound as aforesaid, shall then and there divide said sample into two parts as nearly equal as may be, wrap said parts in separate packages, then and there seal the same and offer one of said parts to the person in whose custody the said article was when taken, with a written notice of the time, place and date, when and where said sample was so taken and that it was taken for the purpose of analyzing or testing it. The other part of said sample shall, together with a copy of the written notice last above mentioned, be delivered by said officer, or other person to whom said warrant shall be directed as aforesaid, to the State Chemist, who shall cause the same to be analyzed or otherwise satisfactorily tested, the result of which analysis or test he shall record and preserve as evidence.
That the said officer or other person to whom said warrant shall be directed as aforesaid shall, within one week next ensuing such delivery to the State Chemist as aforesaid, return said warrant with his proceedings thereunder and his costs and actual expenses endorsed thereon to the said justice of the peace, the said costs to correspond in amount as nearly as may be with the costs to which an officer serving a search warrant would thereby be entitled to.
The said sample having been delivered to the State Chemist State as aforesaid, he shall with all convenient speed analyze or test the same, and upon the completion thereof shall forward to the Attorney-General a certificate of the result thereof, duly verified by oath or affirmation, and such certificate so verified shall be admitted as evidence before the grand or petit juries in any prosecutions under this act.
SECTION 3. That if any person shall be convicted of a violation of any of the provisions of Section 1 of this act he shall forfeit and pay to the State of Delaware a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year, and shall pay the costs of prosecution, among which shall be taxed the costs of the said justice of the peace and the costs and actual expenses endorsed upon said warrant and the charge of the State Chemist, whose charge shall not in any one case exceed the sum of twenty dollars. In case of failure to convict, the charge of the State Chemist and the costs of said justice of the peace and the costs and actual expenses endorsed upon said warrant as aforesaid shall be paid by the county in which the prosecution is conducted; provided, that the amount of money so to be paid by any county shall not exceed in any one year the sum of two hundred dollars.
SECTION 4. That when any person exposes for sale in this State oleomargarine, butterine or any substance made in imitation or semblance of pure butter, such person shall have conspicuously upon or across the surface of the exposed contents of every open tub, package or parcel thereof a placard with
the word "oleomargarine" printed thereon in plain, uncondensed gothic letters, not less than one inch long, and any person failing to comply with the requirements of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof in the court of General Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery shall be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars for each offence.
SECTION 5. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
Passed at Dover, May 8, 1895.