COMMISIBIQOTSB OF AGRICULTURE 39 



State of New York, 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Raymond A. Pearson, Commissioner 



Albany, August 5, 1909. 



Labeling of Butter and Cheese Imitations, Adulterations and 



Substitutes. 

 To Whom, It May Concern: 



Attention is hereby called to the fact that section 30 of the Agricultural 

 Law provides as follows: 



" The terms ' butter ' and ' cheese,' when used in this article, mean the 

 products of the dairy, usually known by those terms, which are manufac- 

 tured exclusively from pure, unadulterated milk or cream or both, with or 

 without salt or rennet, and with or without coloring matter or sage. The 

 terms ' oleomargarine,' ' butterine,' ' imitation butter ' or ' imitation cheese ' 

 shall be construed to mean any article or substance in the semblance of 

 butter or cheese not the usual product of the dairy, and not made exclusively 

 of pure and unadulterated milk or cream." 



Article 8 of the Agricultural Law, section 201, subdivision 3, provides: 



" Any article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated if any valuable 

 constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted, so that the 

 product, when sold or offered for sale, shall deceive or tend to deceive the 

 purchaser." 



The sale of an adulterated food product is a violation of article 8 of 

 the Agricultural Law unless it be sold under one of the exceptions in sec- 

 tion 201 of the Agricultural Law. The exception that would seem to apply 

 in this case reads as follows: 



"An article of food which does not contain any added poisonous or dele- 

 terious ingredients shall not be deemed to be adulterated or misbranded in 

 the following cases: 



" Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded or tagged so as to 

 plainly indicate that they arc mixtures, compounds, combinations, imita- 

 tions or blends: provided, that the same shall be labeled, branded or tagged 

 so as to show the character and constituents thereof." 



In view of these provisions of the Agricultural Law, I am constrained 

 to call attention to the fact that it is incumbent upon manufacturers of 

 so-called skimmed or partly skimmed cheese and of so-called soaked curd 

 cheese and washed curd cheese to label the product so as to indicate its nature. 

 The percentages are not in my judgment necessary but the labeling should 

 indicate that the commodity is a product made from a milk that has been 

 skimmed or partly skimmed or, in the case of a washed curd or soaked curd 

 product, it should be so branded or labeled as to show that fact, using the 

 words " Soaked Curd," " Washed Curd," " Watered Curd," or some similar 



