2005 Minnesota Statutes

     31.103 Fair packaging and labeling provisions. 

    Subdivision 1.    Consumer commodities labeling rules.  
 All labels of consumer commodities must conform with the 
 requirements for the declaration of net quantity of contents of 
 section 4 of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (United States 
 Code, title 15, section 1451 et seq.) and federal regulations 
 adopted under authority of that act, except to the extent that 
 the commissioner amends the rules under chapter 14.  Consumer 
 commodities exempted from the requirements of section 4 of the 
 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act are also exempt from this 
 subdivision.  

    Subd. 2.    Serving size.  The label of any package of a 
 consumer commodity which bears a representation as to the number 
 of servings of such commodity contained in such package shall 
 bear a statement of the net quantity (in terms of weight, 
 measure, or numerical count) of each such serving.  

    Subd. 3.    Qualifying words; supplemental material.  No 
 person shall distribute or cause to be distributed in commerce 
 any packaged consumer commodity if any qualifying words or 
 phrases appear in conjunction with the separate statement of net 
 quantity of contents required by subdivision 1, but nothing in 
 this section shall prohibit supplemental statements, at other 
 places on the package, describing in nondeceptive terms the net 
 quantity of contents; provided, that such supplemental 
 statements of net quantity of contents shall not include any 
 term qualifying a unit of weight, measure, or count that tends 
 to exaggerate the amount of the commodity contained in the 
 package.  

    Subd. 4.    Rules.  Whenever the commissioner determines 
 that rules containing prohibitions or requirements other than 
 those prescribed by subdivision 1, are necessary to prevent the 
 deception of consumers or to facilitate value comparisons as to 
 any consumer commodity, the commissioner shall promulgate, with 
 respect to that commodity, rules effective to: 

    (a) Establish and define standards for the characterization 
 of the size of a package enclosing any consumer commodity, which 
 may be used to supplement the label statement of net quantity of 
 contents of packages containing such commodity, but this 
 paragraph shall not be construed as authorizing any limitation 
 on the size, shape, weight, dimensions, or number of packages 
 which may be used to enclose any commodity; 

    (b) Regulate the placement upon any package containing any 
 commodity, or upon any label affixed to such commodity, of any 
 printed matter stating or representing by implication that such 
 commodity is offered for retail sale at a price lower than the 
 ordinary and customary retail sale price or that a retail sale 
 price advantage is accorded to purchasers thereof by reason of 
 the size of that package or the quantity of its contents; 

    (c) Require that the label on each package of a consumer 
 commodity bear the common or usual name of such consumer 
 commodity, if any, and, in case such consumer commodity consists 
 of two or more ingredients, the common or usual name of each 
 such ingredient listed in order of decreasing predominance, but 
 nothing in this clause shall be deemed to require that any trade 
 secret be divulged; or 

    (d) Prevent the nonfunctional slack-fill of packages 
 containing consumer commodities.  

    For the purposes of clause (d), a package shall be deemed 
 to be nonfunctionally slack-filled if it is filled to 
 substantially less than its capacity for reasons other than 
 protection of the contents of such package or the requirements 
 of machines used for enclosing the contents in such package.  

    HIST: 1974 c 84 s 28; 1975 c 412 s 16; 1985 c 248 s 70; 1986 c 
 444; 1989 c 350 art 11 s 3; 1994 c 571 s 3; 1997 c 220 s 3; 2000 
 c 477 s 29; 2002 c 373 s 20; 2003 c 107 s 14