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82
TO
THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN & COUNCILLORS OF
The Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea.
Madam Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the year 1940, 400 samples
were submitted for analysis by the Sampling
Officers appointed under the Food and Drugs
Act, 1938, Of these, 101 were samples of milk
or milk products, 14 of spirits, 258 of other
foods, and 27 of Drugs. The accompanying table
shows the wide range of foods and drugs covered.
The total percentage of samples returned as
adulterated is exactly twice that reported
against in the year 1939 and is attributable
almost entirely to the various changes connected
with the rationing of butter and attempts to mix
it with margarine or to substitute margarine
entirely, in restaurants or eating houses.
Eleven samples of bread and butter out of twenty
samples taken were adulterated. Three samples of
mint sauce, stated to have been prepared with'
malt vinegar, contained not more than 30 per cent
of malt vinegar and about 70 per cent of spirit
or artificial vinegar. Four samples of milk were
adulterated, two containing added water and two
having had a portion of the cream abstracted.
Since it has been made illegal to sell cream
there is less inducement* for the abstraction of
cream, and the practice has almost entirely disappeared.
All other samples were found to be
satisfactory and this indicates that, on the
whole, there has been no widespread tendency for
foods sold in the Borough to be of lower quality
than those sold in peacetime. This is a different
state of affairs from that which existed in
the last war and it indicates that the present
method of Food Control has certainly been
effective in this respect. Occasionally it has