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Food and Drugs Act, 1938.—During the year 481 samples
were taken and submitted to the Public Analyst for analysis under
the provisions of the above Act and of these, 58 were formal and
423* informal. Twenty samples (4 formal and 16 informal) were
reported upon as being non-genuine, the resultant adulteration
figure of 4.1 % of the total samples examined was 1.3% less than that
of the previous year.
As in past years, Milk was the main commodity sampled and of
the 99 samples sent for examination (43 formal and 56 informal)
only 3 proved to be non-genuine. As satisfactory explanations were
furnished in each instance no proceedings were instituted in respect
of any of the adulterated samples but the Vendors were warned that
future adverse reports of analyses to which their careless handling
had contributed would result in more stringent action on the part of
the Council.
For some time now ice-cream manufacturers have been taking
advantage of the Ministry of Food's scheme of extra allocation of fat
and sugar for the preparation of ice-cream and, in view of this fact,
*This figure includes two samples of whalemeat taken 'on request'
and not in the normal course of Food and Drugs sampling. These
samples were taken after 3 weeks' application of ozone to ammoniacontaminated
whalemeat. This treatment effected a considerable
reduction of the amount of ammonia present and the whalemeat was
released for consumption. These samples have not been included in
the adulteration percentage figures.