BREAD

1.This Ordinance may be cited as the Bread Ordinance.

2.

3. Any baker or vendor of bread who;

4. Every baker or vendor of bread shall cause to be fixed in some conspicuous part of his shop a beam and scales with standard weights or other sufficient balance, in order that all bread, except as aforesaid, there sold may, from time to time, be weighed in the presence of the purchasers thereof, if they shall so require; and if any baker or vendor of bread shall neglect to fix such beams and scales or other sufficient balance in manner aforesaid, or to provide and keep for use a proper beam and scales and proper weights or balance, or shall use any false weight, or shall not weigh bread sold in his shop when required so to do by a purchaser, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees for each offence.

5. Any baker or other person or persons who shall make bread for sale, or any person in the employ of any such baker or other person, who shall, on any account or under any colour or pretence whatsoever, at any time in the making of bread for sale use any mixture or ingredient whatsoever which shall, after due examination, be adjudged by any Magistrate to have the effect of adulterating such bread, or any damaged grain, flour, or meal, shall be liable for the first offence to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees, and to a fine of one hundred rupees for every subsequent offence.

6. If any person shall put into any corn. meal, or flour which shall be offered for sale either before or at the time of grinding, dressing, bolting, or manufacturing the same or at any other time, any ingredient or mixture whatsoever, not being the real and genuine produce of the corn or grain ; or if any person shall knowingly sell, or offer or expose for sale, either separately or mixed, any meal or flour of one sort of corn or grain as the meal or flour of any other sort of corn or grain, or any ingredient whatsoever mixed with the meal or flour so offered or exposed for sale, then and in every such case every person so offending shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees.

7. It shall be lawful for any Magistrate within the limits of his jurisdiction and also for any police or peace officer, or other person authorized by the warrant of any such Magistrate (and which warrant any such Magistrate is hereby empowered to grant), at seasonable times in the day-time to enter into any house, mill, shop, stall, or other premises of or belonging to any miller, meal man, or baker, or other person who shall grind grain, or dress, or bolt meal, or flour or make bread for reward or sale, or who shall have corn or meal for sale, and to weigh the bread kept there for sale, and to search or examine whether any mixture or ingredient not the genuine produce of the grain such meal or flour shall import or ought to be, shall have been mixed with or put into any meal or flour in the possession of such miller, meal man, or baker, whereby the purity of any meal or flour is or shall be in anywise adulterated, or for damaged grain, flour, or meal; and if, on any such search, it shall appear that any bread is not of the weight which it purports to be, or is not stamped as required by this Ordinance, or that any meal, flour, dough, or bread so found shall have been damaged or so adulterated by the person in whose possession it shall then be, or any mixture or ingredients shall be found which shall seem to have been deposited there in order to be used in the adulteration of meal, flour, or bread, then and in every such case it shall be lawful for every such Magistrate, police or peace officer, or other person authorized as aforesaid, within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, to seize and take any meal, flour, or bread which shall be found in any such search and deemed to have been damaged or adulterated, and all ingredients and mixtures which shall be found and deemed to have been used or intended to be used in or for any such adulteration as aforesaid, to the Magistrate having jurisdiction in the district where such seizure took place and such Magistrate is hereby authorized and required to dispose of the same as he in his discretion shall, from time to time, think proper.

8. Every person in whose house, mill, shop, stall, or premises any ingredient or mixture shall be found which shall, after due examination, be adjudged by any Magistrate to have been deposited there for the purpose of being used in adulterating meal, flour, or bread, or any damaged grain, flour, or meal, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees for the first offence, fifty rupees for the second offence, and one hundred rupees for every subsequent offence.

9. Magistrates before whom persons are convicted for offences under sections 4, 5, and 6 of this Ordinance are hereby required to report the same to the Minister; and it shall be lawful for the Minister to cause such offenders’ names, places of abode, and offences to be published in the towns or places where the offences were committed, in such manner as to secure the greatest publicity thereto; and it shall be lawful for Magistrates who shall report such proceedings as aforesaid upon presentation of certificates of the costs of such publication, signed by the Director of Health Services of Sri Lanka, to issue warrants for the distress and sale of so much of the property of the offenders as shall be sufficient for the repayment to the Director of Health Services of such costs, and of the costs of the distress and sale.