(a) As used in this section:
(1) “Food commodity in package form” means a food commodity put up or packaged in any manner in advance of sale suitable for either wholesale or retail sale.
(2) “Label” means any written, printed, or graphic matter affixed to, applied to, attached to, blown into, formed, molded into, embossed on, or appearing upon or adjacent to a consumer package containing any consumer commodity, for purposes of branding, identifying, or giving any information with respect to the commodity or the contents of the package.
(3) “Package” means any container or wrapper enclosing any commodity for sale, delivery, or display, but does not include shipping containers or wrappings used solely for the transportation of that commodity.
(4) “Perishable or semi-perishable food commodity” means any food commodity in package form which the manufacturer or packer determines as having a significant risk of spoilage, loss of value, or loss of palatability within 60 days of the date of packaging, any food commodity in package form which is required to be packaged with a pull date by the federal government, or any food commodity in package form which the Director determines is a perishable or semiperishable food as defined by the Federal Pure Food and Drug Act.
(5) “Pull date” means the last date on which a consumer package or perishable or semiperishable food commodity should be sold without the risk of spoilage, loss of value or of palatability.
(b) Selling or offering any consumer package, food commodity in package form or perishable or semiperishable food commodity in package form which is labeled with an expired pull date is prohibited.
(c) Commodities subject to the provisions of this section shall be labeled with the month and then the date of the month followed by the year in which the risk of spoilage, loss of value, or loss of palatability can reasonably be expected to occur. The month must be identified by letters or by digits 1 through 12. The day of the month must be separated from the letters or digits indicating the month and the year by a space, dash, asterisk or other symbol. With respect to pasteurized milk, the pull-date shall not exceed ten (10) days beginning after midnight on the day on which the milk was pasteurized. However, the ten (10) day pull-date requirement shall not apply to sterile milk.
(d) The date required by this section must be placed on each package made available to purchasers. This date shall be presented in a size, manner and style clearly and easily legible to the purchaser at the time of making or accepting a selection for purchase.
(e) The Director shall inspect packages or amounts of commodities kept, offered, or exposed for sale, sold, or in the process of delivery to determine whether they possess expired pull dates and whether they are kept, offered, or exposed for sale or sold in accordance with law. When such packages or commodities are found to possess expired pull dates, or are found to be kept, offered or exposed for sale in violation of law, the Director shall order that the items not be sold and shall mark or tag said items to show them to be in violation of law. The Director may employ sampling procedures whereby compliance of a given lot of packages will be determined on the basis of the result obtained on a sample selected from and representative of such lot. No person shall: (1) sell or keep, offer or expose for sale any package or commodity in package from which has been ordered not for sale or marked or tagged as provided in this section, unless and until such package or amount of commodity in package form is or has been brought into full compliance with all legal requirements, or (2) dispose of any package or amount of commodity in package form that has been ordered not for sale or marked and tagged as provided in this section and that has subsequently been brought into full compliance with all legal requirements until written authorization for such disposal has been issued by the Director; provided, that nothing in this section shall prohibit the Director from authorizing disposal when, in his discretion, the best interests of the public will be served by such authorization, and provided, further, that nothing in this section shall prohibit the supplier of the packaged or commodity found to be in violation of law from removing the product from sale and returning same to the manufacturer for credit or refund. Proof of such return by the supplier to the manufacturer shall be submitted to the Director within 15 working days after removal of the product for sale.
(f) Should any person be found in violation of the Director's stop-use or stop-removal Order, as provided in this subchapter, 24 hours after receipt of said Order, the Director shall immediately revoke said person's business license and shall insure that said person cease operation until found in compliance with the Order by the Director; provided, that no administrative fine or punishment may be levied under this section for any item which is designated perishable or semiperishable by the Director until a hearing has been held upon notice to all interested parties 90 days after the Director orders said item to be labeled with a pull date by publishing said Order in two newspapers of general circulation within the United States Virgin Islands for three (3) consecutive days. Any hearing or review of the Director's decisions or orders by any court of competent jurisdiction shall be limited to insure that the Director's actions complied with the law. Upon a finding of compliance the Director's decisions and order shall be valid and enforced.
(g) The United States Virgin Islands Government, the Consumer Services Administration, its Director and employees shall not be held liable for the removal or destruction of consumer packages, food commodities in package form, or perishable or semiperishable food commodities in package form that are in violation of this section.