London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1937
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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| Article analysed. | Nature and amount of adulteration. | Action taken. |
|---|---|---|
| Jam (Blackcurrant) | Was labelled lower fruit stan-dard but contained only 16 per cent. of blackcurrants. | Informal sample. |
| „ „ | „ ,, 11 per cent. of blackcurrants. | ,, ,, |
| „ „ | ,, ,, 11 per cent. of blackcurrants. | ,, ,, |
| Milk | 30 per cent. deficient in fat | Proceedings. Fined £1 and 10s. 6d. costs. |
| „ | 11 „ „ „ | Proceedings. Fined £5 and £1 1s. costs. |
| „ | 7 per cent. extraneous water | No legal action. |
| „ | 5•3 „ „ „ | Proceedings. Fined £10. |
| „ | 5 per cent. extraneous water and 5•2 per cent. deficient in fat. | Vendor cautioned. |
| „ | 3•3 per cent. extraneous water | ,, ,, |
| Sausages | 320 parts of sulphur dioxide per million. | Informal sample. |
| „ | 250 „ „ „ | Vendor cautioned. |
| „ | 137 ,, „ ,, | ,, ,, |
| „ | 64 „ „ „ | Informal sample. |
| Sugar, demerara | 0•5 grain of lead per lb. | No legal action was taken but these results were com-municated to the Ministry of Health. |
| „ | „ „ „ | |
| „ | „ „ „ | |
| „ | „ „ „ | |
| „ | 0•75 „ „ „ | |
| Table cream | Consisted only of flavoured custard powder. | Informal sample. |
| Tea | Sold as tannin free but con-tained 14 per cent. of tannin. | ,, ,, |
| Vinegar | 7 per cent . deficient in acetic acid | Vendor cautioned. |
| „ | Consisted entirely of artificial vinegar. | ,, ,, |
| „ | „ „ „ | ,, ,, |
| Whisky | 41•2 degrees under proof | Proceedings. Fined £3 and £2 costs. |
The number of prosecutions under the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act was four. The
fines and costs, amounted to £22 11s. 6d.
Misleading and Deceptive Labelling.—During the year under review numerous cases of false
or misleading labelling of foodstuffs were adversely commented upon by the public analyst. The
following extracts from the analyst's reports for 1937 indicate a few of the various types of
misleading descriptions met with :—
Cherry Ciderette.—"This article consisted merely of a coloured and artificially flavoured
beverage of the mineral water type and probably owed nothing to either cherries or cider."
Milk Foam.—"The 'milk foam' consisted of an artificially coloured and flavoured kind of
sherbet powder, mainly sodium bicarbonate, tartaric acid and sugar. The label on this was
to my mind, as masterly in deception as any I have seen."
Tea.—" One sample of tea was found to be quite an ordinary kind of tea, with a tannin
content of 14 per cent., but bore the following false and deceptive label:—
' Health tea. No free tannin. No indigestion. Truly digestive as the injurious
free tannin is eliminated by the process of manufacture
Table Cream.—" A sample sold as' table cream ' consisted not of cream but of a vanillaflavoured
custard powder. The name ' table cream ' is applied to cream of rather low fat
content, just as is the term ' coffee cream,' and the dairy trade may be said to have established
a right to the use of such a name. Its application to a custard powder is, to my mind, wholly
unwarrantable ; it is calculated to mislead the purchaser and is a particularly glaring example
of deceptive labelling."
Vinegar.—" Twenty vinegars were reported genuine, but attention was directed in my
reports upon two of them to the fact that the labels were not satisfactory. One bore the words
4 vinegar ' in large print and ' non-brewed ' in small print. As vinegar is essentially a brewed
article, I am of the opinion that this name is merely a contradiction in terms. The other bore a
label having the words ' pure table vinegar ' in large type and the word ' synthetic ' in very
small characters, the latter apparently having been applied by means of a rubber stamp. In
this case I expressed the opinion that, since the small overprinting was easily capable of being
overlooked by any ordinary purchaser, this label was deceptive."