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101
FOOD AND DRUGS (ADULTERATION) ACT, 1928.
Extract from Report of the Public Analyst for the
Year ended 31st December, 1936.
Eight hundred samples of food and drugs were submitted
for analysis by the Council's Sampling Officers, and of
these a total of eighty-seven, or a percentage of 10.9, were
reported upon adversely. This represents an increase of
1.4 per cent. over the preceding year, the increase being
due to the greater number of samples of inferior quality
where actual adulteration could not be certified. The number
adulterated is exactly the same as in 1935.
Reference to Table II will reveal that although the percentage
of samples not genuine fell in the years immediately
after the passing of the Food and Drugs Act of 1928, the
average for the last five years is 9.5 per cent. It is to be
hoped that the changes in the law relating to food and
drugs foreshadowed in the concluding parts of this Report
will lead to a fall in this figure, for the present position
cannot be regarded as at all satisfactory.
The present-day trend toward somewhat gross misdescription
of food and drugs receives due comment in this
Report. The many examples quoted will show clearly the
need for vigilance in this matter.