Packaging and labeling: containers: slack fill.

Existing law establishes the Department of Food and Agriculture and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, enforcement of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. The act prohibits specified persons from distributing any packaged commodity that is not in conformity with prescribed packaging and labeling requirements, except as provided. The act prohibits a container wherein commodities are packed to have a false bottom, false sidewalls, false lid or covering, or to be constructed or filled as to facilitate the perpetration of deception or fraud. The act prohibits a commodities container, or a food container subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act from being made, formed, or filled as to be misleading. The act provides that a container that does not allow a consumer to fully view its contents violates this provision if it contains nonfunctional slack fill. The act provides that nonfunctional slack fill is the empty space in a package that is filled to less than its capacity for other than specified reasons. However, existing law provides that these state provisions regarding food containers are operative only to the extent they are identical to specified federal requirements. Existing law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, also provides for the regulation by the State Department of Public Health of the packaging and labeling of foods, drugs, devices, and cosmetics, and provides requirements for containers containing these commodities that are similar to the requirements for containers under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. This bill would instead define nonfunctional slack fill for all of these provisions as the empty space in a package that is filled to substantially less than its capacity for other than any one or more of the applicable reasons. The bill would provide that slack fill in a package shall not be used as grounds to allege a violation of the applicable provisions based solely on its presence in any of these types of packages unless it is nonfunctional slack fill, except that, for food containers, this would be operative only to the extent it is identical to the federal requirement.