546
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH JULY, 1896.
Title.
Shert title.
Interpretation of words. (38 & 39 Vic.
c. 63. 5. 2.)
Prohibition against the mixture of food with injurions ingredients and against selling when eo mixed.
(Ibid, v. 3.)
Frohibition Agrinet the mixing of Injurious Ingredients with druge and against selling the mixturo.
(Ibid, «, 4,)
Exemption in ense of proof of absence of knowledge.
(Zhid, 9. 5.1
Prohibition against the
Fale of articles of food and
drugs not of
the proper nature, substance, or quality.
In male of Adulterated
articles no defence to allego pur clase for Analysis.
42 A 43 Vi c. 3, s. 2.1
A BILL
ENTITLED
An Ordinance to make better provision for the Sale of Food and Drugs in a pure state.
E it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the
Be in vice fund 20 sent of the Legislative Council thereof,
as follows:-
1. This Ordinance may be cited as The Sale of Food and Drugs Ordinance, 1896.
2. The term food, when used in this Ordinance, shall include every food or article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water.
The term drug, when used in this Ordinance, shall include medicine for internal or external use.
3. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any article of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such article so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under a penalty in each case, upon summary conviction before a Magistrate, not exceeding the sum of five hundred dollars or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months with or without hard labour.
4. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under the same penalty in each case as pre- seribed in the preceding section of this Ordinance.
5. Provided that no person shall be liable to be con- victed under either of the two last foregoing sections of this Ordinance in respect of the sale of any article of food, or of any drug, if he shows to the satisfaction of the Magistrate before whom he is charged that he did not know of the article of food or drug sold by him being so mixed, colour, stained, or powdered as in either of those sections mentioned, and that he could not with reasonable diligence have obtained that knowledge.
6. No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, or quality of the article demanded by such pur- chaser, under a penalty, upon summary conviction before a Magistrate, not exceeding two hundred dollars and in default of payment of the said penalty imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months with or without hard labour; provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed under this section in the following cases; that is to say :—
(1) Where any matter or ingredient not injurious to health has been added to the food or drug because the same is required for the production or preparation thereof as an article of com- merce, in a state fit for carriage or consump- tion, and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight, or measure of the food or drug, or conceal the inferior quality thereof;
(2) Where the drug or food is a proprietary medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force, and is supplied in the state required by the specifica- tion of the patent;
(3) Where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of col- lection or preparation.
7. In any prosecution under the provisions of this Ordinance for selling to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, it shall be no defence to any such prosecution to allege that the purchaser, having bought only for analysis, was not prejudiced by such sale. Neither shall it be a good defence to prove that the article of food or drug in question, though defective in nature or in sub- stance or in quality, was not defective in all these respects.