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51
To the Mayors Aldermen and Councillors of
The Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the year 1954, 400 samples of foods and drugs were examined.
Of these 197 were taken formally and 203 informally.

No samples of milk examined during the year were found to be adulterated.
An ice cream was very lumpy and contained only 3.8 per cent of fat.
The Food Standards (Ice Cream) Order, 1953, requires ice cream to contain
not less than 5 per cent of fat, and most ice cream at the present time
contains about 10 per cent of fat.
A sample of double cream contained only 47.6 per cent of fat, whereas
double cream must contain not less than 48 per cent of fat. The cream was
supplied to the packers by the North of Scotland Milk Marketing Board with
a guarantee that all cream contains not less than 48 per cent of milk fat.
Examination of a sample from store, (which was a year old) by the Board
showed this to contain 48 per cent of butter fat, and the Board promised
that all future supplies would be tested.
Some Pure Devon Cream was a tinned cream containing only 23.3 per cent
of milk fat. Your analyst considers that the term "Devon Cream" is
synonymous with Clotted Cream which is a thick cream containing 48 per cent
of milk fat. The packers claimed that as it is cream from Devon cows
produced in Devonshire it must be Devon Cream and the Ministry of Food
agreed with the packers.
The fat of a sample of margarine gave a positive test for rancidity by
the Kreis reaction. The manufacturers after testing the sample, agreed
that it had an off-flavour and suggested that this might be due to an unusual
instance of some unbalancing of ingredients. None of the ingredients,however,
ought to have been rancid in the first place.
A sample of cheese had an unpleasant flavour and contained 0.83 per
cent of butyric acid as a result of fermentation.
Two samples of Brie cheese were found to contain only 25.1 per cent
and 37.2 per cent of fat respectively, calculated on the dry matter. Unless
stated to the contrary Brie cheese must be either a full cream milk cheese,
or a cheese made from milk the fat of which may have been adjusted to about
3.3 per cent. In either case the fat should be from 45 to 51 per cent,
calculated on the dry matter. The suppliers suggested that the percentage
of fat calculated on the dry basis decreases with age. This is contrary to
general experience since the protein usually decomposes first and