To clarify the identity of a manufacturer, packer, or distributor for the purpose of § 500.5 of this chapter, the following represents the opinions of the Commission.

A manufacturer of a bulk product who supplies the product to a contract packager and permits his bulk product to be packaged by the contract packager remains the manufacturer of the commodity, if the contract packager does not perform any act other than package filling and labeling.

A manufacturer of a bulk product who supplies the bulk to a contract packager but permits the packager to modify the bulk commodity by the addition of any substance which changes the identity of the bulk, ceases to be the manufacturer of the consumer commodity. At that point, if the manufacturer of the bulk elects to use his name on the label of the consumer commodity, his name should be qualified to show “Distributed by _______”, or “Manufactured for _________”.

The identity of a bulk substance received by a contract packager is changed if the packager, for example, adds a propellant as in the case of an aerosol, or adds a solvent as in the case of a paint, or blends two or more components, or changes the physical state as in the case of a liquid being changed to a gel or a semisolid being changed to a solid.

A person or firm who supplies a formula and/or specifications to a contract packager but who takes no part in the actual production of the consumer commodity is not the manufacturer of the consumer commodity for the purpose of § 500.5(a) of this chapter. This is true whether the person or firm who supplies the formula or specifications, or both, also supplies the raw materials which are to be reacted, mixed, or otherwise modified to produce the consumer commodity.

A corporation which wholly owns a manufacturing subsidiary which retains its separate corporate identity, is not the manufacturer of the consumer commodities manufactured by the wholly owned subsidiary, but must qualify its name if it elects to use its name on the label. Such qualification may be “Manufactured for ______”, “Distributed by _______”, or “Manufactured by _______ (XYZ, Inc., City, State, Zip Code, a subsidiary of ABC, Inc.)”.