The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 18 : Health

Chapter 082 : Labeling of Foods, Drugs, Cosmetics, and Hazardous Substances

Subchapter 001 : Labeling for Marketing and Sale

• § 4059. Adulterated food defined

  A food shall be deemed to be adulterated:

  (1)(A) If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to health; but in case the substance is not an added substance, the food shall not be considered adulterated under this clause if the quantity of the substance in the food does not ordinarily render it injurious to health;

  (B) if it bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance that is unsafe within the meaning of section 4062 of this title;

  (C) if it consists in whole or in part of a diseased, contaminated, filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance, or if it is otherwise unfit for food;

  (D) if it has been produced, prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions in which it may have become contaminated with filth or in which it may have been rendered diseased, unwholesome, or injurious to health;

  (E) if it is the product of a diseased animal or an animal that has died otherwise than by slaughter, or that has been fed upon the uncooked offal from a slaughterhouse; or

  (F) if its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render the contents injurious to health.

  (2)(A) If any valuable constituent has been in whole or in part omitted or abstracted therefrom;

  (B) if any substance has been substituted wholly or in part therefor;

  (C) if damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner; or

  (D) if any substance has been added thereto or mixed or packed therewith so as to increase its bulk or weight, or reduce its quality or strength or make it appear better or of greater value than it is.

  (3) If it is confectionery and it bears or contains any alcohol or nonnutritive article or substance except harmless coloring, harmless flavoring, harmless resinous glaze not in excess of four-tenths of one percent, harmless natural wax not in excess of four-tenths of one percent, harmless natural gum and pectin; provided that this subdivision shall not apply to any confectionery by reason of its containing less than one-half of one percent by volume of alcohol derived solely from the use of flavoring, extracts, or to any chewing gum by reason of its containing harmless nonnutritive masticatory substances.

  (4) If it bears or contains a coal tar color other than one from a batch that has been certified under authority of the federal act. (Added 1959, No. 172, § 10, eff. May 12, 1959; amended 2023, No. 6, § 140, eff. July 1, 2023.)