(a) The following acts, and the causing of the following acts, within the state are prohibited:

Attorney's Note

Under the Tennessee Code, punishments for crimes depend on the classification. In the case of this section:
ClassPrisonFine
class C misdemeanorup to 30 daysup to $50
For details, see Tenn. Code § 40-35-111
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 53-1-103

  • Advertisement: means all representations disseminated in any manner or by any means, other than by labeling, for the purpose of inducing, or that are likely to induce directly or indirectly, the purchase of food, drug, devices or cosmetics. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Alcohol: means :
    (A) Rubbing alcohol compound. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Color: includes black, white and intermediate grays. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of agriculture. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Cosmetic: means :
    (A) Articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body or any part of the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Department: means the department of agriculture. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Drug: means articles, not including devices or their components, parts or accessories, that are:
    (A) Recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, Official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, Official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Food: means :
    (A) Articles used for food or drink for humans or other animals. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Food additive: means any substance, the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected to result, directly or indirectly, in its becoming a component or otherwise affecting the characteristics of any food, including any substance intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting or holding food. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Label: means a display of written, printed, or graphic matters upon the immediate container of any article, and a requirement made by or under authority of this chapter, that any word, statement, or other information appearing on the label shall not be considered to be complied with unless the word, statement or other information also appears on the outside container. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Labeling: means all labels and other written, printed or graphic matter:
    (A) Upon any article or any of its containers or wrappers. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Person: includes an individual, partnership, corporation and association. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Salvageable merchandise: means any food, drug, cosmetic, device or other item listed in this chapter or any regulations promulgated under this chapter that can be reconditioned, labeled, relabeled, repackaged, recoopered, sorted, cleaned, culled or by any other means be salvaged to meet the requirements of this chapter or those regulations. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • Seller: means a person who sells a homemade food item to a consumer. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: means the state of Tennessee and its political subdivisions. See Tennessee Code 53-1-102
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The manufacture, sale, or delivery, holding or offering for sale of any food, drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded;
(2) The adulteration or misbranding of any food, drug, device or cosmetic;
(3) The receipt of any food, drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded, and the delivery or proffered delivery of any food, drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded for pay or otherwise;
(4) The sale, delivery for sale, holding for sale, or offering for sale of any article in violation of § 53-1-110, § 53-1-201, § 53-1-203, § 53-1-204, or any rule promulgated thereunder;
(5) The dissemination, in any manner or by any means or through any medium, of any false advertisement or for any advertising medium to knowingly publish false or misleading advertising;
(6) The refusal to permit:

(A) Entry or inspection, or refusal to permit the taking of a sample, as authorized by § 53-1-203; or
(B) Access to or copying of any record as authorized by § 53-1-203;
(7) The giving of a guaranty or undertaking, which guaranty or undertaking is false, except by a person who relied on a guaranty or undertaking to the same effect signed by, and containing the name and address of the person residing in the United States from whom this person received in good faith the food, drug, device or cosmetic;
(8) The removal or disposal of a detained or embargoed article in violation of § 53-1-201;
(9) The alteration, mutilation, destruction, obliteration or removal of the whole or any part of the labeling of, or the doing of any other act with respect to, a food, drug, device or cosmetic, if the act is done while the article is held for sale and results in the article’s being misbranded;
(10) The forging, counterfeiting, simulating or falsely representing, or without proper authority using any mark, stamp, tag, label or other identification device authorized or required by regulations promulgated under this chapter;
(11) The using, on the labeling of any drug or in any advertisement relating to the drug, of any representation or suggestion that an application with respect to the drug is effective under § 53-1-110, or that the drug complies with § 53-1-110;
(12) The sale of alcohol in violation of rules and regulations adopted by the United States treasury department, alcohol tax division, or by the department of revenue or the alcoholic beverage commission;
(13) The sale by vending machines of any drugs that are capable of causing physical or mental harm if taken internally in overdoses;
(14) The manufacture, sale, or delivery, holding or offering for sale of any food, drug, device or cosmetic that contains any level of radiation or any amount of pesticide residue, food additive, color additive or other substance, in excess of the amount adopted or prescribed by regulation of the commissioner under authority of § 53-1-107; or
(15) The sale, delivery, holding, processing, or offering for sale any salvageable merchandise in violation of this chapter or any regulation promulgated under this chapter.
(b)

(1) Any person who violates subsection (a) commits a Class C misdemeanor.
(2) No person shall be subject to the penalties of subdivision (b)(1) for having violated subdivision (a)(1) or (a)(3) if the person established a guaranty or undertaking signed by, and containing the name and address of, the person residing in the United States from whom the person received in good faith the article, to the effect that the article is not adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this chapter.
(c) No publisher, radio-broadcast licensee, or agency or medium for the dissemination of an advertisement, except the manufacturer, packer, distributor, or seller of the article to which a false advertisement relates, shall be liable under this section by reason of the dissemination by the publisher, licensee, agency or medium of the false advertisement unless the publisher, licensee, agency or medium has refused, on the request of the commissioner, to furnish the commissioner with the name and post office address of the manufacturer, packer, distributor, seller or advertising agency, who caused the publisher, licensee, agency or medium to disseminate the advertisement.
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