---
kind: "section"
citation: "21 U.S.C. § 611"
title: "21"
title_heading: "Food and Drugs"
number: "611"
heading: "Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/21/611"
units:
  - "Chapter 12 — Meat Inspection"
  - "Subchapter I — Inspection Requirements; Adulteration and Misbranding"
---

# §611. Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations

- (a) **Devices to be made under authorization of Secretary—** No brand manufacturer, printer, or other person, [firm](/usc/21/601.md?p=b), or corporation shall cast, print, lithograph, or otherwise make any device containing any [official mark](/usc/21/601.md?p=s) or simulation thereof, or any [label](/usc/21/601.md?p=o) bearing any such mark or simulation, or any form of [official certificate](/usc/21/601.md?p=u) or simulation thereof, except as authorized by the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a).
- (b) **Other misconduct—** No person, [firm](/usc/21/601.md?p=b), or corporation shall—
  - (1) forge any [official device](/usc/21/601.md?p=v), mark, or certificate;
  - (2) without authorization from the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a) use any [official device](/usc/21/601.md?p=v), mark, or certificate, or simulation thereof, or alter, detach, deface, or destroy any [official device](/usc/21/601.md?p=v), mark, or certificate;
  - (3) contrary to the regulations prescribed by the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a), fail to use, or to detach, deface, or destroy any [official device](/usc/21/601.md?p=v), mark, or certificate;
  - (4) knowingly possess, without promptly notifying the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a) or his representative, any [official device](/usc/21/601.md?p=v) or any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered [official certificate](/usc/21/601.md?p=u) or any device or [label](/usc/21/601.md?p=o) or any carcass of any animal, or part or product thereof, bearing any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered [official mark](/usc/21/601.md?p=s);
  - (5) knowingly make any false statement in any shipper’s certificate or other nonofficial or [official certificate](/usc/21/601.md?p=u) provided for in the regulations prescribed by the [Secretary](/usc/21/601.md?p=a); or
  - (6) knowingly represent that any article has been inspected and passed, or exempted, under this chapter when, in fact, it has, respectively, not been so inspected and passed, or exempted.

## Source credit

(Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 11, formerly 9th par., 34 Stat. 1263; renumbered § 11 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 8, Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 589.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 79 of this title.

### Amendments

1967—Pub. L. 90–201, § 8, clarified application to brand manufacturers and printers of existing prohibition against counterfeiting official marks, labels or certificates, the provisions with respect to forgery, unauthorized use or failure to use official marks, or similar items, and similar offenses, and existing prohibitions with respect to false statements in official or nonofficial certificates, and added restriction upon possession of official devices, or devices, labels, meat, or other articles bearing counterfeit official marks, counterfeit official certificates, or similar items, and prohibition against false representations.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1967 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 90–201 effective Dec. 15, 1967, except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after Dec. 15, 1967, see section 20(b) of Pub. L. 90–201, set out as an Effective Date note under section 601 of this title.