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Section 3 provides that it shall be the duty of every local
authority entrusted with the execution of the laws relating to
the sale of food and drugs to appoint a public analyst, and put
in force from time to time, as occasion may arise, the powers
with which they are invested, so as to provide proper securities
for the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine condition,
and in particular to direct their officers to take samples for
analysis.
If the Local Government Board or Board of Agriculture,
after communication with a local authority, are of opinion
that the local authority have failed to execute or enforce any
of the provisions of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts in relation
to any article of food, and that their failure affects the
general interest of the consumer or the general interests of
agriculture in the United Kingdom, as the case may be, the
Board concerned may, by order, empower an officer of the
Board to execute and enforce those provisions or to procure
the execution and enforcement thereof in relation to any article
of food mentioned in the order.
The expenses incurred by these Boards or their officers under
this section are to be defrayed by or recovered from the defaulting
local authorities.
By Sub-section 5 of Section 3 it is also provided that any
public analyst appointed under the Sale of Food and Drugs
Acts, shall furnish such proof of competency as may from time
to time be required by regulation framed by the Local Government
Board.
Section 4 empowers the Board of Agriculture to make regulations
for determining what deficiency in any of the normal
constituents of genuine milk, cream, butter or cheese, or what
addition of extraneous matter or proportion of water, in any
sample of milk (including condensed milk), cream, butter, or
cheese, shall, for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs
Acts, raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved, that
the milk, cream, butter, or cheese, is not genuine or is injurious
to health, and an analyst shall have regard to such regulations
in certifying the result of an analysis under those Acts.
Sections 5-8 relate especially to margarine. By Section 5
the provisions of the Margarine Act, 1887, as amended by this
Act, are to extend to "margarine-cheese," provided that all
"margarine-cheese'' sold or dealt in otherwise than by retail