18003. Adulteration of butter. U. S. v. 23 Tubs of Butter. Consent decree 
of  condemnation  and  forfeiture.    Product  released  under  bond.
(F. & D. No. 27128.    I. S. No. 39757.    S. No. 5298.)
Samples of butter from the shipment herein described having been found to 
contain less than 80 per cent by weight of milk fat, the standard provided by 
Congress, the Secretary of Agriculture reported the matter to the United States 
attorney for the Southern District of New York.
On October 2, 1931, the United States attorney filed in the District Court 
of the United States for the district aforesaid a libel praying seizure and 
condemnation of 23 tubs of butter, remaining in the original unbroken packages 
at New York, N. Y., alleging that the article had been shipped by the Sheldon 
Creamery, Sheldon, Wis., September 17, 1931, and had been transported from 
the State of Wisconsin into the State of New York, and charging adulteration 
in violation of the food and drugs act. The article was labeled in part: (Tub) 
" Hunter Walton & Co. New York."
It was alleged in the libel that the article was adulterated in that a product 
containing less than .80 per cent by weight of milk fat had been substituted for 
butter, a product wMch should contain not less than 80 per cent of milk fat 
as provided by the act of March 4, 1923; and in that the article was deficient 
in butterfat.
Hunter, Walton & Co., New York, N. Y., interposed a claim for the product 
as agent for the Sheldon Cooperative Creamery, Sheldon, Wis., and admitted the 
allegations of the libel, consented to the entry of a decree, and agreed that 
the product be reconditioned so that it contain at least 80 per cent by weight 
of butterfat. On October 7, 1931, judgment of condemnation and forfeiture 
was entered, and it was ordered by the court that the product be released to 
the said claimant upon payment of costs and the execution of a bond in the 
sum of $500, conditioned in part that it be reworked so that it comply with 
the requirements of the Federal food and drugs act and all laws, State and 
Federal.
ARTHUR M. HYDE, Secretary of Agriculture.