2014 Virginia Code
Title 3.2 - Agriculture, Animal Care, and Food
§ 3.2-5122. Adulterated food

A food shall be deemed to be adulterated if:

1. It bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to health; but if the substance is not an added substance the food shall not be considered adulterated under this subdivision if the quantity of the substance in the food does not ordinarily render it injurious to health;

2. It bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance that is unsafe within the meaning of § 3.2-5125;

3. It consists in whole or in part of a diseased, contaminated, filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance, or if it is otherwise unfit for food;

4. It has been produced, prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered diseased, unwholesome, or injurious to health;

5. It is the product of a diseased animal, an animal that has died otherwise than by slaughter, or an animal that has been fed upon the uncooked offal from a slaughterhouse;

6. Its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render the contents injurious to health;

7. Any valuable constituent has been, in whole or in part, omitted or abstracted;

8. Any substance has been substituted in whole or in part for a valuable constituent;

9. Damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner;

10. Any substance has been added or mixed or packed with the food so as to increase its bulk or weight, or reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear better or of greater value than it is;

11. It is confectionery and it bears or contains any alcohol or nonnutritive article or substance, except harmless coloring, harmless flavoring, harmless resinous glaze not in excess of four-tenths of one percent, harmless natural gum, and pectin. In addition, any confectionery that: (i) contains five percent or less by volume of alcohol or; (ii) any chewing gum that contains harmless nonnutritive masticatory substances, shall not be deemed adulterated; or

12. It bears or contains a coal-tar color other than one from a batch that has been certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Code 1950, § 3-315; 1966, c. 702, § 3.1-395; 1988, c. 110; 2008, c. 860.