265.494. Prohibited practices, required disclosures.

MISSOURI STATUTES AND CODES

265.494. Prohibited practices, required disclosures.

Prohibited practices, required disclosures.

265.494. No person advertising, offering for sale or sellingall or part of a carcass or food plan shall engage inany misleading or deceptive practices, including, but not limitedto, any one or more of the following:

(1) Disparaging or degrading any product advertised oroffered for sale by the seller, displaying any product ordepiction of a product to any buyer in order to induce thepurchase of another product or representing that a product is forsale when the representation is used primarily to sell anotherproduct, or substituting any product for that ordered by thebuyer without the buyer's consent. Nothing in this subdivisionshall be construed to prohibit the enhancement of sales of anyproduct by the use of a gift;

(2) Failing to have available a sufficient quantity of theproduct represented as being for sale to meet reasonableanticipated demands, unless the available amount is disclosedfully and conspicuously;

(3) Using any price list or advertisement subject to changeswithout notice unless so stated, and which contains prices otherthan the seller's current billing prices, unless changes aresubject to consumer's advance acceptance or rejection at orbefore the time of order or delivery;

(4) Misrepresenting the amount of money that the buyer willsave on purchases of any products which are not of the same gradeor quality;

(5) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously in anyprinted advertisement and invoice in at least ten-point type anycharge for cutting, wrapping, freezing, delivery, annual interestrate or financing and other services;

(6) Representing the price of any product to be offered forsale in units larger than one pound in terms other than price persingle pound. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed toprevent the price of such units from also beingrepresented by individual serving, by fluid measure or by othermeaningful description;

(7) Misrepresenting the cut, grade, brand or trade name, orweight or measure of any product;

(8) Using the abbreviation "U.S." in describing a productnot graded by the United States Department of Agriculture, exceptthat a product may be described as "U.S. Inspected" when true;

(9) Referring to a quality grade other than the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture quality grade, unless the gradename is preceded by the seller's name in type at least as largeand conspicuous as the grade name;

(10) Misrepresenting a product through the use of any termsimilar to a government grade;

(11) Failing to disclose in uniform ten-point type, when aquality grade is advertised, a definition of the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture quality grade in the following terms:

(a) Prime;

(b) Choice;

(d) Standard;

(e) Utility;

(f) Commercial;

(g) Canner;

(h) Cutter;and within each quality grade the following yield grade:

(a) Yield grade 1 - extra lean;

(b) Yield grade 2 - lean;

(d) Yield grade 4 - wasty;

(e) Yield grade 5 - exceptionally wasty;

(12) Advertising or offering for sale carcasses, sides orprimal cuts as such, while including disproportionate numbers oramounts of less expensive components of those cuts, or offeringthem in tandem with less expensive components from othercarcasses, sides or primal cut parts;

(13) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously the correctgovernment grade for any product if the product is represented ashaving been graded;

(14) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously that theyield of consumable meat from any carcass or part of a carcasswill be less than the weight of the carcass or part of thecarcass. The seller shall, for each carcass or part of carcassadvertised, use separately and distinctly in any printed matter,in at least ten-point type, the following disclosure: "Soldgross weight subject to trim loss.";

(15) Misrepresenting the amount or proportion of retail cutsthat a carcass or part of carcass will yield;

(16) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously whether aquarter of a carcass is the frontquarter or hindquarter;

(17) Representing any part of a carcass as a "half" or"side" unless it consists exclusively of a frontquarter andhindquarter. Sides or halves must consist of only anatomicallynatural proportions of cuts from frontquarters or hindquarters;

(18) Representing primal cuts in a manner other thandescribed in subdivision (1) of section 265.490;

(19) Using the words "bundle", "sample order" or words ofsimilar import to describe a quantity of meat unless the selleritemizes each type of cut and the weight of each type of cutwhich the buyer will receive;

(20) Advertising or offering a free, bonus, or extra productor service combined with or conditioned on the purchaseof any other product or service unless the additional product orservice is accurately described, including, whenever applicable,grade, net weight or measure, type and brand or trade name. Thewords "free", "bonus" or other words of similar import shall notbe used in any advertisement unless the advertisement clearly andconspicuously sets forth the total price or amount which must bepurchased to entitle the buyer to the additional product orservice.