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62
Report of Public Analyst.
FOOD AND DRUGS (ADULTERATION) ACT, 1928.
Year ended 81st December, 1938.
During the twelve months 612 samples of food and
drugs were submitted to me for examination. Of this
number 567 were reported as genuine, 14 as adulterated,
whilst 81 were of inferior quality. These numbers for adulterated
and inferior samples are both somewhat smaller
than those of last year, the corresponding figures being
then 18 and 40, but are still much in excess of the figures
for some years preceding 1982.
The observation made in last year's report to the effect
that the article responsible for the increase in defective
samples is milk unfortunately still remains true. The
adulteration of articles other than milk has this year been
of a rather gross nature. Later on in this report mention
is made of some labelled in such a way as to lead the
ordinary purchaser to assume that they are even better
than the article they are made to resemble; examples of
this are to be found in the two cream substitutes and the
so-called " lemon-squash." The selling of inferior articles
under trade names, and sometimes wilful misdescription,
would seem to be on the increase.
In Table I are given the total numbers of samples
received under the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act
during the several quarters of the year, together with the
numbers classified as genuine, inferior and adulterated.

In Table II will be found a statement of the number
and nature of the various articles examined during the
year with particulars of the results of analysis.