View report page

42
Borough Councils are authorised to grant licences to any person other
than a Producer, to .sell milk as "Certified," "Grade A (Tuberculin
tested)," "Grade A," and "Pasteurised." Such licences may be suspended
or revoked if any of the conditions set out in the Order upon
which the licence is granted are not being complied with by the
Distributor. In every case, except that of "Pasteurised" milk, it will
be necessary for the Sanitary Authority to ascertain the source of
supply and then to satisfy themselves that the corresponding licence has
been issued to the Producer by the County or County Borough Council
concerned. In the case of "Certified" milk, a licence may ordinarily
be issued without further inquiry. In the case of " Grade A
(Tuberculin tested)" and "Grade A "milk the Sanitary Authority must
verify that the Distributor has an efficient arrangement for bottling,
and that, until after bottling, the milk is being dealt with in a part of
the premises separate from other milk, and should also arrange for an
examination of the caps and seals proposed to be used, and should
require the applicant to have one or more samples of the milk submitted
to bacteriological examination at his own expense. The Ministry
suggest that the Sanitary Authority should also take samples of milk
from time to time and arrange for them to be submitted to bacteriological
examination. The Public Health Committee have given authority for
such examinations to be made.
Section 4 continues and extends the provisions of an existing Order
of the Food Controller. The section prohibits the addition of any
colouring matter or water, or re-constituted milk, or skimmed or
separated milk, to milk intended for sale. This will enable Local
Authorities to deal with cases in which such additions are made for
fraudulent purposes but difficulty is experienced in proving that the
mixture is sold as milk. The section also prohibits the sale of re-constituted
milk as milk.
Section 5 imposes a heavy penalty on any person who sells the milk
of a cow suffering from tuberculosis of the udder where it is proved
that he knew, or could have ascertained by ordinary care, that the cow
was suffering from that disease. The maximum penalty for a second
or subsequent offence is a fine of £100 or imprisonment with or without
hard labour for a period of six months, or both such fine and imprisonment.
The importance of this clause cannot be over-estimated, the need
for action being very great. As the result of the analysis of many