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90
The Bill, when it becomes law, should be of considerable
assistance to those interested in securing a clean and pure milk
supply.
Butter.
One hundred and fifty-five samples of butter were taken, and
of these 10 samples (i.e., 6.4 per cent.) were reported by the Analyst
to be adulterated. The percentage of adulteration in butter samples
was considerably higher than in 1911.
The form of adulteration found to be present in eight of these
ten samples was in each instance foreign fat.
The added foreign fat (margarine) ranged from a minimum
of 33 per cent. to a maximum of 81.8 per cent., viz., 33, 46, 56.8,
69.7, 72.7, 78.5, 79, 81.8.
Two samples contained excess of water to the extent of 0.65
and 0.87 per cent. in excess of the amount allowed by the Regulations
made by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.
A retail trader having a milk round in the Borough was convicted
for selling butter certified by the Analyst to be adulterated
with 59.7 per cent. of foreign fat. An employee of this man on
his round was kept under observation by the Inspector, who sent
an agent to purchase a sample of milk and butter, as the Inspector
had received information that it was this traders' practice to
employ his men to sell so-called butter to their customers while
on the round. The employee sold the agent a sample of milk,
but on being asked for butter declared that he had none. The
Inspector, who was lying in ambush, followed the man as he was
passing along a street in Winstanley Ward. When the man
saw him he quickened his pace, and turning round the corner of
a street, he stopped his barrow outside a general shop at which
he supplied milk for sale by the proprietor, but not butter. The
Inspector, who followed him closely, saw him take some packages
from a drawer in his barrow and run into this shop, leaving the
drawer open in his hurry. He was seen by the Inspector to pass
behind the counter of the shop with the packages containing what
purported to be butter in his arms, and seeing he was caught,
he piled the butter on the window board of the shop. The proprietor
of the shop on being asked by the Inspector if the butter
was for him replied in the negative, and turning to the man said,
"I wish you had not brought it in here. I don't want to be
mixed up in the matter." The Inspector demanded to be supplied
with ½-lb. of butter, and paid 6id. for it. His employer was
convicted and fined £2 and 9s. costs.