View report page

123
adulteration systematically, and, indeed, speaking generally,
such informal sampling, when judiciously carried out, is
shown, by evidence that is accumulating, to be by far
the best method for the detection of offenders under the
Food and Drugs Acts. A deputy calls again and again,
day by day or week by week, or longer, at a certain shop
or shops where it is thought adulteration is being systematically
carried out, and in that way, is regarded, after
a longer or shorter period by the tradesman as a regular
customer, who can with safety, they think, be imposed upon !
A formal sample or samples are taken after an interval,
and the vendors are caught. The suspicions of trades
are not raised by informal sampling, and much time is
saved.
Informal sampling (where the samples are reported
against) must be followed up by formal sampling.
Of the 108,174 samples submitted for analysis during
1912-13 in England and Wales, nearly 24,000, taken in 184
districts, were purchased informally, 1,886 being condemned.

Informal sampling is of little use in the case of milk
(except, perhaps, "station" milk), but is of value in the
case of butter.