The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-12-11
FOOD AND DRUG
OFFICIALS COOPERATE
Federal and State Food and Drug Laws
Supplement Each Other, Making
Enforcement More Effective.

The work accomplished by the coop
eratiye efforts of the officials charged
with the enforcement of the Federal
food and drug act and the officials
who enforce state laws regulating COM
merce in similar products is outlined IN
the annual report of the chief OF the
bureau of chemistry, e. S. department.
of agriculture, which has just been pup
lished The report states that such CO.
operation has been more effective than
ever before owing to the manner III
which the Office OF state cooperative
food and drug control has conducted
| its work. This Office was established IN
1914 for the purpose of making food ana
drug law enforcement more effective by
! facilitating the systematic exchange OF
information regarding law violations ana
methods of detecting them between led
eral and state officials and among OIL
Gals of various states. In the absence
of some quick method OF distributing
such information it might be possible
for a manufacturer TO dispose OF his
adulterated products in other states Tor
I
some time after detection.
The cooperation work, however, has
accomplished much more than the ex-
change of information. Federal and state
officials have united their efforts in i'm
proving the food supply in definite To-
calities and for the correction OF specific
, abuses in the production and sale OF
particular products. For instance, the
| federal and state officials co-operated
| in the sanitary control OF the milk sup
| ply of small cities near state boundaries
| in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri,
Kansas and in New England. These
cities received part of their milk sup
ply from the state in which they were
| located and part from neighboring
states. The part of the supply that came
from other states could best be handled
under the federal law, for that law APP
plies to all food and drugs shipped into
I interstate commerce. that Is, shipped
from one state to tnother. Thus all
parties responsible for the shipment OF
adulterated milk could be reached
whether they resided in the state where
the milk was sold or not. Without the
cooperation of the federal officials 1t
would not be possible for the state OF
ficials to reach effectively the offenders
residing in other states. 1T is proposed
to repeat this work year after year, the
report states, extending it each year
to new territory. Similar cooperative
work has been done on the control OF
| the shipment of decomposed eggs so ct
fectively that this traffic has been broken
up.
| Food and drug officials found that,
owing to high prices prevailing Tor Ger
tain synthetic drugs used extensively
| by physicians in the treatment OF va
rious diseases, there were being put on
the market cheap limitations which were
sold under the name and label OF the
genuine medicine but which on eXaml-
nation were found to have little or none
of the therapeutic effects of the gsnu-
inc articles. Though a number of ship
ments were seized, and number OF
individuals successfully prosecuted un-
der the federal food and drugs act, and
| indictments returned under the postal
| laws, the traffic could not be wholly sup
| pressed by federal action, nor all the
offenders reached. The situation was
/ laid before the state and municipal OF
ficials who instituted many prosecutions
and seizures, with the result that the
Joint action of the federal, state and
municipal officials broke up this fraud
ulent traffic.
| As the result of joint action be-
tween the federal and state officials, or
independent action based upon the ex
change of information regarding law
viola tions. much work was done dur
ing the year to clear the channels OF
commerce from decomposed canned
goods, decomposed fish and poultry,
polluted or watered oysters, watered
scallops. liquors containing wood alcohol,
misbranded nostrums, adulterated oats,
misbranded cottonseed meal, misbranded
stock feeds, and large number OF other
adulterated or misbranded foods and
drugs.
| The work of the Office of state coop
erative food and drug control has
brought about greater uniformity IN the
administration of the federal and OF the
various state food and drug laws. In
the opinion of the food and drug officials,
uniform and cooperative action makes
| it easier for the honest producers and
distributors to comply with all the pro-
visions of the different laws relating to
their products, and makes it harder for
dishonest manufacturer who purposely
try to evade the laws, to escape detec-
ton.