13604. Adulteration  and misbranding of butter.     IT.  S. v. 41  Tubs and 36
Tubs of Butter. Consent decrees of condemnation and forfeiture. 
Product released under bond. (F. & D. Nos. 20213, 20214. I. S. Nos. 
24748-v, 24749-v.    S. Nos. E-5397, E-5399.)
On June 29, 1925, the United States attorney for the Southern District of 
New York, acting upon reports by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the 
District Court of the United States for said district libels praying the seizure 
and condemnation of 77 tubs of butter, remaining in the original unbroken 
packages at New York, N. Y., one libel alleging shipment by McDougall Ter- 
minal Wholesale Co., and one libel alleging shipment by the McDougall Ter- 
minal Warehouse, from Duluth, Minn., on or about June 17, 1925, the article 
having been transported from the State of Minnesota into the State of New 
York, and charging adulteration and misbranding in violation of the food and 
drugs act.
Adulteration of the article was alleged in the libels for the reason that a 
substance deficient in butterfat had been mixed and packed therewith so as to 
reduce, lower, or injuriously affect its quality or strength and had been sub- 
stituted in whole or in part for the said article.
Misbranding was alleged for the reason that the article was offered for sale 
under the distinctive name of another article.
On July 11 and 14, 1925, respectively, the Minnesota-Cooperative Dairies 
Assoc, and the Farmers Cooperative Creamery having appeared as claimants 
for respective portions of the product and having admitted the allegations of 
the libels and consented to the entry of decrees, judgments of condemnation 
and forfeiture were entered, and it was ordered by the court that the product 
be released to the said claimants upon payment of the costs of the proceedings
suit is also offered.   The issues being practically alike, a single jury may try 
them   thereby securing six separate trials without calling as many juries,', '
??The Government has seized six certain interstate shipments of canned 
s-ilmon described in the six several suits, claiming adulteration, in that each 
Shipment consisted in whole or in part of decomposed salmon. An added 
-round of seizure is alleged as to two of the shipments, claiming that each
was misbranded. 

? ?   .? '
?? Section 7, paragraph 6, of the food and drugs act (Comp. St. se; 8723 and 
S7-4) of 1006, provides 'that for the purpose of this 'act, .an; article shall be 
deemed to be adulterated: In the case of food, if it consists in whole or in 
part of decomposed * * * animal substance.' Section 8 provides 'that 
for the purpose of this act the term "misbranded" as used herein shall apply 
to all drugs or articles of "food, .or articles which enter into the composition 
of food, the package or label of which shall bear any statement, design, or 
device, regarding such articles * .'* * which shall be false or misleading 
in any particular.' And in'the case of food, paragraph 2 ' if ? it be labeled 
or branded so as to deceive or mislead the* purchaser.' Section' 10 of the 
act provides that adulterated articles shall be excluded from interstate ? Com- 
merce and be subject to seizure by the Government through the district courts 
by process of libel for condemnation. It is; conceded that the salmon1 was 
moving from Seattle, Wash., consigned to Texas points. '?'-??' ' ? ' ? "?- ??'?'?' 
"The Government as libelant in each of the suits stands'as a plaintiff and 
seeks condemnation and, destruction of each shipment. The Claimants are 
owners or consignees, taking the attitude of" defendants.     ,: ????''"???..
"Responsive to the publication of notices of the Government's purpose; the 
various claimants named in each libel have intervened, asserting ownership 
of the several shipments seized in each suit, and deny in each suit that the 
salmon was adulterated or misbranded as charged by the Government and 
charge that no lawful grounds exist for the seizure, condemnation, or' de- 
struction of the property and say that each shipment should; be 'delivered 
to the respective claimant.
"The statute requires you to decide- whether the salmon consisted in 
whole orin part of decomposed animal substance and, in two of th? suits, 
whether those two particular shipments of salmon were misbranded.   >     .. -.-. 
"The word 'decomposed' as used in the statutes, applying its ordinary 
meaning, is a state of decomposition, and 'decomposition' means a condition 
of being decayed, putrid, or rotten. If, therefore, you find that th& salmon in 
question was decomposed as denned, you should find for the Government, 
libelant, and against the claimants. 
? '"     " "'T ?  '< 
" Section 7 of the act refers to the adulteration of the' article.' Each ship- 
ment consists of hundreds of cases of salmon, each case containing 48 cans. , 
Does the use of the word ' article' in the statute have reference to a single 
package, such as a can, or does it refer to the separate case, or to the shipment : 
as a whole? You are instructed that the word ' article' as used does not refer 
to the single, separate can, or to the single or separate case, of salmon in each 
shipment, but refers to each lot or shipment seized under each of the several 
suits. 
" The letter of the statute forbids the transportation and sale in interstate 
commerce of an article of food which is decomposed. The words used are free 
and clear from ambiguity, and each has a common, ordinary, every-day, well- 
known meaning. It would, therefore, be improper for you to take into consid- 
eration any evidence which tends to show that the salmon is fit or unfit for 
food, or harmful to health. There is nothing in the statute itself which would 
make the state of healthfulness or the edibleness of the article relevant to your 
inquiry. Those considerations, if in your minds, must be disregarded. It 
makes no difference whether the salmon was fit for food and healthful or 
was not. 
. ? .   .
" Decomposition begins where life ends, but that is not the sort of decom- 
position meant by the statute. The moment life commences, in a sense it begins 
to fade, and the moment that life ceases, in a sense decomposition begins, and 
increases by degrees to rottenness, decomposition, and decay. The witnesses 
both for the claimants and the libelant uniformly testify as to salmon that 
three well defined degrees of decomposition exists after life has ceased. The 
first definite or least degree of decomposition was described as " stale," the 
second or next greater degree was called " tainted," and the third or last 
degree indicates total decomposition and was called " putrid." If you find and 
believe that the evidence in these suits has fixed such degrees or states of decom-
and the execution of bonds in the aggregate sum of $2,080, in conformity with 
section 10 of the act, conditioned in part that it be reworked so as to contain at 
least 80 per cent of butterfat.
R. W. DUNLAP, Acting Secretary of Agriculture.