12776. Adulteration and misbranding of mustard.     U. S. v. Libby, McNeill
& T,ibby, a  Corporation.     Plea of guilty.     Fine, $50.     (F.  & D.  No.
13921.    I. S. No. 2175-r.)
On February 7, 1921, the United States attorney for the Northern District 
of Illinois, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in ihe 
District Court of the United States for said district an information against 
Libby, McNeill & Libby, trading at Chicago, Ill., alleging shipment by said 
company, in violation of the food and drugs act, on or about October 3, 1918, 
from the State of Illinois" into the State of California, of a quantity of mustard 
which was adulterated and misbranded.
Analysis of a sample of the article by the Bureau of Chemistry of this de- 
partment showed that it contained wheat starch and was colored with turmeric.
Adulteration of the article was alleged in the information for the reason 
that cereal products had been mixed and packed therewith so as to lower and 
reduce and injuriously affect its quality and strength, for the further reason 
that cereal products had been substituted in part for mustard, which the said 
article purported to be, and for the further reason that it was a product 
inferior to mustard, to wit, a product composed in part of cereal products pre- 
pared in imitation of mustard, and was colored with turmeric so as to simulate 
the appearance of mustard in a manner whereby its inferiority to mustard was 
concealed.
Misbranding was alleged for the reason that the statement, to wit, 
" Mustard," borne on the barrels containing the article, was false and. mislead- 
ing, in that the said statement represented that the article consisted wholly of 
mustard, and for the further reason that it was labeled as aforesaid so as to 
deceive and mislead the purchaser into the belief that it consisted wholly of 
mustard, whereas, in truth and in fact, it did not so consist but did consist in 
part of cereal products artificially colored. Misbranding was alleged for the 
further reason that the article was a mixture composed in part of cereal 
products artificially colored with turmeric, prepared in imitation of and offered 
for sale and sold under the distinctive name of another article, to wit, mustard.
On February 6, 1923, a plea of guilty to the information was entered on 
behalf of the defendant company, and the court imposed a fine of $50.
HOWARD M. GORE, Secretary of Agriculture.