Novo Enzyme Corp. v. United States

82 Cust. Ct. 240, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1160
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 15, 1979
DocketC.D. 4806; Court No. 76-5-01079
StatusPublished

This text of 82 Cust. Ct. 240 (Novo Enzyme Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Novo Enzyme Corp. v. United States, 82 Cust. Ct. 240, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1160 (cusc 1979).

Opinion

Ford, Judge:

This action contests the classification of a microbial enzyme preparation, described on the import invoice as “Rennilase.” Rennilase is used in the curdling of milk for the manufacture of cheese. The merchandise in issue was produced in Denmark and entered at New York.

The merchandise was classified under item 437.49 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States, as modified by T.D. 68-9, as “Enzymes and ferments: * * * Other,” at 5 per centum ad valorem. Plaintiff claims the proper classification is under TSUS item 437.46 which provides for “Enzymes and ferments: Rennet,” free of duty. Specifically, these statutory provisions read as follows:

Tariff Schedules of the United States:
Schedule 4. — Chemicals and Related Products
Part 3. — Drugs and Related Products
Subpart B. — Alkaloids, Antibiotics, Barbiturates, Hormones, Vitamins, and Other Drugs and Related Products
Enzymes and ferments:
437.46 Rennet_ Free
437.49 Other_ 5% ad val.

Plaintiff contends the enzyme preparation in question is “rennet” within the meaning of that term as used in item 437.46. The term [242]*242“rennet,” it is alleged, encompasses a group of enzyme preparations which coagulate milk to produce a curd suitable for making cheese and, as such, includes all enzyme preparations, whether from animal, plant or microbial sources. This is so since item 437.46 is an eo nomine provision which includes all forms of the named article. Plaintiff asserts the microbial preparation Rennilase is a form of rennet.

Alternatively, plaintiff urges that item 437.46 is a use provision, that is, a provision by which the classification of the import is determined by the use to which the import is intended. Since Rennilase is exclusively used for making cheese, plaintiff claims it to be properly classifiable as rennet.

Defendant does not dispute that the enzyme preparation in question is principally used to make cheese. While rejecting the construction of item 437.46 as a use provision, defendant agrees with plaintiff that it is an eo nomine provision. Nevertheless, defendant maintains that plaintiff’s definition of “rennet” is overbroad and incorrectly encompasses microbial enzyme preparations such as Rennilase.

Defendant maintains the term “rennet” refers only to milk-clotting enzyme preparations which are derived from the fourth stomach of ruminant animals. Defendant’s definition does not recognize any plant source for rennet and only selectively recognizes animal sources. Defendant contends milk-clotting enzymes derived from four-stomached animals as cows, sheep, and goats constitute rennet, but enzymes extracted from pigs’ stomachs are not rennet.

The record consists of testimony of 5 witnesses called on behalf of plaintiff and receipt in evidence of 18 exhibits. Plaintiff’s witnesses included a representation of persons involved, both commercially and academically, in the enzyme and cheese fields. These witnesses included a quality control director of the plaintiff’s corporation, a microbiologist for a pharmaceutical company, a university professor of food science, a management and research representative of an enzyme products corporation, and a recently retired scientist who was employed by a cheesemaking company for approximately 40 years.

Mr. William McMullen, with an M.S. in chemistry, has been director of analytical and quality control laboratories for plaintiff corporation for 7 years. Novo imports and sells enzyme products. Mr. McMullen’s previous 22-year employment with Pfizer Co. included chemical and quality control work in the area of enzymes.

Dr. Joseph Sardinas, with a Ph. D. in microbiology, has been employed by Pfizer, Inc.1 for 28 years. Pfizer is a multinational, pharmaceutical company. Dr. Sardinas holds seven patents in the enzyme field, one of which is related to milk-clotting enzymes.

[243]*243Dr. Frank V. Kosikowski, with a Ph. D. in dairy chemistry and biochemistry and microbiology, has been a professor of food science at Cornell University for 32 years. He shares eight patents, which involve microbial enzymes, bacteria removal from milk, and dairy product packaging. The witness has performed consulting services for microbial enzyme companies, government agencies, and the United Nations.

Dr. Theodore Gayle is vice president and technical director of Dairyland Food Laboratories, which manufactures milk coagulants, various rennets, and other enzyme products for the manufacture of cheese. Prior to his association with Dairyland, Cayle was director of research at Wallerstein Co., Division of Baxter Laboratories, an enzyme manufacturer. He holds a Ph. D. in plant biochemistry and microbiology.

Plaintiff’s final witness, Dr. J. B. Stine, was employed by Kraft Foods from 1934 until his retirement in 1976. Until 1962, Dr. Stine’s duties at Kraft involved only cheese. After that date, his responsibilities included all Kraft products. His Ph. D. is in dairy bacteriology. In the past 10 or 12 years, Dr. Stine has served as chairman of nearly every cheese committee of the Committee of Government Experts concerning the Code of Principles of Milk and Milk Products.

Testimony by the plaintiff’s witnesses established that an enzyme is a protein that works as a catalyst. The enzyme accelerates a reaction without entering into the action or being used up in it. The phrase “enzyme preparation” describes the biological suspension which acts as a carrier for the enzymes. This carrier contains the active agent and usually such other substances as water, sodium chloride, preservatives, bacteria, and other enzymes. An enzyme preparation may be in what is called suspended form, which is a liquid, or it may be in dehydrated form, that is, dried.

According to plaintiff’s witnesses, enzymes are sometimes grouped or classified according to their source, but ordinarily they are classified by the function they perform. All five of plaintiff’s witnesses testified that because of the function microbial milk-clotting enzymes perform in cheesemaking, they considered such enzymes rennet.

Dr. Sardinas testified that rennet’s chief function in cheesemaking is coagulating milk to form a stable curd. The witness explained that coagulation is the result of splitting a bond in the casein. Milk contains casein which colloides in suspension. There are three types of casein, alpha, beta, and kappa. According to Dr. Sardinas:

* * * the integrity of this casein colloid, the unit referred to as a mycele * * * is guaranteed, as it were, by the kappa casein. The rennet enzyme can split a particular bond. The bond which joins one amino phenylalamine with another amino acid methionine bond is a labile bond. It splits it into two parts. The [244]*244consequence of this action is that the mycele, the colloid, destabilizes, and no one understands completely just why. There are at least three theories trying to explain what goes on in this complexity, but the sum total of the action is that the proteins, the alpha and beta proteins, along with some of the kappa casein, which is now called para-k-casein * * * form a curd which, of course, is insoluble.

Dr. Sardinas noted that there are other enzymes besides rennet which will coagulate milk.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 Cust. Ct. 240, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/novo-enzyme-corp-v-united-states-cusc-1979.