§ 199-a. Prohibition as to adulterated or misbranded food. 1. No person or persons, firm, association or corporation shall within this state manufacture, compound, brew, distill, produce, process, pack, transport, possess, sell, offer or expose for sale, or serve in any hotel, restaurant, eating house or other place of public entertainment any article of food which is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this article.

2. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association or corporation to sell or offer or expose for sale for use in or on food or to use in the manufacturing, compounding, brewing, distilling, producing or processing of any food or food product any new food additive or combination thereof or any color additive which is not in use at the time this section as hereby amended takes effect, or to make any new use of a food additive or color additive therein or thereon unless and until he shall have reported the same to the commissioner upon a form prescribed by the commissioner and shall have submitted test data to the commissioner and shall have satisfied the commissioner as to the safety of such new food additive or color additive or of such new use of such food additive or color additive under the conditions of its intended use.

3. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association or corporation to manufacture, compound, brew, distill, produce, process, sell, offer or expose for sale any food additive or color additive or any food or food product containing a food additive or color additive which is in use at the time this section as hereby amended takes effect, or in which in the manufacturing, compounding, brewing, distilling, producing or processing of such a food additive or color additive was used, unless the manufacturer of such a food additive or color additive or of such food or food product shall have reported to the commissioner upon a form prescribed by him the identity of each such food additive or color additive and the proportions thereof by weight in the finished food product manufactured, offered or exposed for sale. The commissioner may, from time to time, through rules and regulations, exempt certain food additives and color additives from the requirements of this subdivision and remove from such exemption lists such food additives and color additives as upon further information may appear to be unsafe.

4. All data submitted to the commissioner in support of the report under this section shall be considered confidential by the commissioner and shall not be revealed to any person other than to a person authorized by the commissioner in the performance of his official duties under this article. In case of an actual controversy as to the validity of an order or decision of the commissioner respecting the test data or report in which a proceeding to review has been instituted as authorized by section two hundred two-c of this article the petition, data and report shall be transmitted by the commissioner to the clerk of the court in which the review proceeding is instituted, together with a record of the proceedings on which the commissioner based his order or decision, and such transmittal shall not be construed to be a violation of confidence. Subdivisions two and three of this section shall not apply to food additives or color additives which are safe within the meaning of the federal food, drug and cosmetic act as amended.