2010 Arizona Revised Statutes
Title 36 - Public Health and Safety
36-904 Food adulteration

36-904. Food adulteration

A. A food is adulterated if one or more of the following conditions exist:

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

2. It is a raw agricultural commodity and it bears or contains a pesticide chemical which is unsafe within the meaning of section 36-905, subsection A.

3. It is, or it bears or contains, any food additive which is unsafe within the meaning of section 36-905, provided that where a pesticide chemical has been used in or on a raw agricultural commodity in conformity with an exemption granted or a tolerance prescribed under section 36-905 and such raw agricultural commodity has been subjected to processing such as canning, cooking, freezing, dehydrating or milling, the residue of such pesticide chemical remaining in or on such processed food shall, notwithstanding the provisions of section 36-905, not be deemed unsafe if such residue in or on the raw agricultural commodity has been removed to the extent possible in good manufacturing practice and the concentration of such residue in the processed food when ready-to-eat is not greater than the tolerance prescribed for the raw agricultural commodity.

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

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

6. It is the product of a diseased animal or an animal, other than wildlife, which has died other than by slaughter, or which has been fed uncooked garbage, except bakery and creamery products, commercial vegetables and all fruits, or offal from a slaughterhouse, with the exception of paunch wastes.

7. Its container is composed in whole or in part of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health.

8. Any required constituent has been omitted or abstracted in whole or in part.

9. Any substance has been substituted in whole or in part for a substance normally found in the food or required to be present in the food by rules adopted under section 36-903.

10. Damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner.

11. Any substance has been added to the food 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.

12. 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 per cent, harmless natural wax not in excess of four-tenths of one per cent, harmless natural gum, and pectin. This paragraph shall not apply to any confectionery by reason of its containing less than five per cent by weight of alcohol or to any chewing gum by reason of its containing harmless nonnutritive masticatory substances.

13. It is or bears or contains any color additive which is unsafe within the meaning of section 36-905, subsection A.

B. Commercial feed and whole cottonseed which contain the levels of aflatoxin prescribed by section 3-2611.01 shall not be deemed adulterated.

C. Notwithstanding this section, whole cottonseed or cottonseed products deemed unadulterated pursuant to section 3-2611.01 and food additives and resulting substances used in accordance with a sanction or approval granted pursuant to laws or regulations administered by the federal food and drug administration are not deemed adulterated for purposes of this section.

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