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Cal. PEN § 382

This is the official text of Cal. PEN § 382, part of California’s Penal Code — defines crimes and sets criminal procedure in California.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

Every person who adulterates or dilutes any article of food, drink, drug, medicine, spirituous or malt liquor, or wine, or any article useful in compounding them, with the fraudulent intent to offer the same, or cause or permit it to be offered for sale as unadulterated or undiluted; and every person who fraudulently sells, or keeps or offers for sale the same, as unadulterated or undiluted, or who, in response to an inquiry for any article of food, drink, drug, medicine, spirituous or malt liquor, or wine, sells or offers for sale, a different article, or an article of a different character or manufacture, without first informing such purchaser of such difference, is guilty of a misdemeanor; provided, that no retail dealer shall be convicted under the provisions of this section if he shall prove a written guaranty of purity obtained from the person from whom he purchased such adulterated or diluted goods.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.