NOTICE OF JUDGMENT NO. 2717.
(Given pursuant to section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act.)
U. S. v. Fruit Product Co.   Plea of gnilty.   Fine, $10 and costs.
ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING OF CATSUP.
On April 30, 1913, the United States Attorney for the Southern 
District of California, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agri- 
culture, filed in the District Court of the United States for said dis- 
trict an information against the Fruit Product Co., a corporation, 
Los Angeles, Cal., alleging the sale by said defendant, on November 
7, 1910, under a written guaranty, of a quantity of tomato catsup 
which was adulterated and misbranded in violation of the Food and 
Drugs Act. The information alleged further that on or about 
November 10, 1910, the purchaser of the product, without having 
changed the same or the labels thereon, shipped a quantity of said 
product in the same containers in which it was received by the pur- 
chaser from the State of California into the State of Texas. The 
product was labeled: " Bodger's Best Tomato Catsup. Manufac- 
tured by Fruit Product Co., Los Angeles, Cal. Contains 1-10 of 1% 
Benzoate of Soda to prevent Mould and Souring when open for 
use. Meat of the Tomato. Made from fresh fruit, white sugar and 
pure spices."
Analysis of a sample of the product by the Bureau of Chemistry 
of this Department showed the presence of yeasts and spores, 140 
per one-sixtieth cmm; bacteria, 160,000,000 per cc; molds in 80 per 
cent of the fields; traces of butyric acid, citric acid, 0.22 per cent, 
lactic acid, 71 per cent, indicating that it contained decomposed to- 
matoes. The analysis also showed that the product contained no 
living organisms in 1 cc quantities.    Adulteration of the product
14307'—No. 2717—14
was alleged in the information for the reason that it consisted in 
whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, and putrid animal or vege- 
table substance. Misbranding was alleged for the reason that the 
statement " Contains 1-10 of 1% Benzoate of Soda " borne by the 
label was false and misleading in that the product contained a greater 
amount of benzoate of soda, to wit, three-tenths of 1 per cent.
On May 21, 1913, the defendant company entered a plea of guilty 
to the information and  the court imposed a fine of $10 and costs.
C. F. MARVIN, 
Acting Secretary of Agriculture. 
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 7, 1913.
2717
o