19625. Adulteration of celery.     U.  S. v. 384 Crates,  et al., of Celery.     De¬
crees of condemnation entered. Portions of product released 
under bond. Remainder ordered destroyed. (F. & D. Nos. 27719, 
27732, 27745, 27746. I. S. Nos. 43137, 43881, 48651, 52815. S. Nos. 5813, 
5827, 5835, 5841.)
These actions involved four interstate shipments of celery from Florida to 
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Arsenic having been found on samples 
taken from each of the shipments, the Secretary of Agriculture reported the 
matter to the appropriate United States attorneys and recommended seizure 
under the food and drugs act.
On February 5 and February 15, 1932, libels were filed in the United States 
Court for the District of Connecticut against 464 crates of celery; on February 
9, 1932, a libel was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against 82 
cases of celery, and on February 13, 1932, a libel was filed in the Southern 
District of Ohio against 87 crates of celery. It was alleged in the libels that 
the article had been shipped by the Palmer Farms Growers Cooperative Asso- 
ciation, of Sarasota, Fla., in part from Sarasota, Fla., on or about January 28 
and February 1, 1932, and in part from Belspur, Fla., on or about February 4 
and February 5, 1932; that it remained in the original unbroken packages in 
various lots at Philadelphia, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio, Bridgeport, Conn., and 
Hartford, Conn.; and that it was adulterated in violation of the food and 
drugs act.
Adulteration was charged in the libels in that the article contained an added 
poisonous or deleterious ingredient, arsenic, which might have rendered it 
injurious to health.
On February 9, 1932, Fred Morinelli, jr., Philadelphia, Pa., having appeared 
as claimant for the lot seized at Philadelphia, judgment of condemnation and 
forfeiture was entered, and it was ordered by the court that the product be 
released to the claimant upon payment of costs and the execution of a bond 
in the sum of $200, the terms of the bond requiring that the celery be recon- 
ditioned under the supervision of this department, and that it should not be 
sold or otherwise disposed of contrary to the laws of the United States or of 
any State, Territory, District, or insular possession. On February 17, 1932, the 
Castellini Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, having appeared as claimant for the lot seized 
at Cincinnati and having filed a bond in the sum of $350, a decree was entered 
condemning the product and ordering its release under substantially the same 
conditions as contained in the Philadelphia decree. On February 19, 1932, 
the claimant in the two libels instituted in Connecticut covering 464 crates 
of the product, having consented to the entry of decrees, judgments were 
entered condemning the lots seized at Bridgeport and Hartford, Conn., 131 crates 
in all, and ordering that they be destroyed by the United States marshal.
ABTHTJB M. HYDE, Secretary of Agriculture.