[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 21, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 21CFR2.25]

[Page 16-17]
 
                        TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS
 
CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN 
                                SERVICES
 
PART 2--GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE RULINGS AND DECISIONS--Table of Contents
 
                    Subpart B--Human and Animal Foods
 
Sec. 2.25  Grain seed treated with poisonous substances; color identification to prevent adulteration of human and animal food.


    (a) In recent years there has developed increasing use of poisonous 
treatments on seed for fungicidal and other purposes. Such treated seed, 
if consumed, presents a hazard to humans and livestock. It is not 
unusual for stocks of such treated food seeds to remain on hand after 
the planting season has passed. Despite the cautions required by the 
Federal Seed Act (53 Stat. 1275, as amended 72 Stat. 476, 7 U.S.C. 1551 
et seq.) in the labeling of the treated seed, the Food and Drug 
Administration has encountered many cases where such surplus stocks of 
treated wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, and sorghum seed had been mixed 
with untreated seed and sent to market for food or feed use. This has 
resulted in livestock injury and in legal actions under the Federal 
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act against large quantities of food 
adulterated through such admixture of poisonous treated seeds with good 
food. Criminal cases were brought against some firms and individuals. 
Where the treated seeds are prominently colored, buyers and users or 
processors of agricultural food seed for food purposes are able to 
detect the admixture of the poisonous seed and thus reject the lots; but 
most such buyers, users, and processors do not have the facilities or 
scientific equipment to determine the presence of the poisonous chemical 
at the time crops are delivered, in cases where the treated seeds have 
not been so colored. A suitable color for this use is one that is in 
sufficient contrast to the natural color of the food seed as to make 
admixture of treated, denatured seeds with good food easily apparent, 
and is so applied that it is not readily removed.
    (b) On and after December 31, 1964, the Food and Drug Administration 
will

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regard as adulterated any interstate shipment of the food seeds wheat, 
corn, oats, rye, barley, and sorghum bearing a poisonous treatment in 
excess of a recognized tolerance or treatment for which no tolerance or 
exemption from tolerance is recognized in regulations promulgated 
pursuant to section 408 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 
unless such seeds have been adequately denatured by a suitable color to 
prevent their subsequent inadvertent use as food for man or feed for 
animals.
    (c) Attention is called to the labeling requirements of the Federal 
Hazardous Substances Act, where applicable to denatured seeds in 
packages suitable for household use.