[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 21, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 21CFR2.25]

[Page 38-39]
 
                        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

[[Page 39]]

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 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.