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121
The Dairy produce examined has, in general, been of good quality.
The average composition of the milks is:—
Total milk solids 1225 per cent.
Fat 355 „
Solids not fat 870 ,,
and only one of them was adulterated. This sample was 66 per cent.
deficient in fat.
Butters still occasionally show a slight excess of water; preservative
seems quite to have disappeared from it. Bread and Butter as
supplied to some eating houses is not always Bread and Butter; one
sample examined this year consisted of Bread and Margarine.
Three very unsatisfactory samples of Cream Cheese have been
examined. Each of these contained about 70 per cent. of water, with
only 10 to 14 per cent. of fat, so that they were in fact, products of
partly skimmed milk, soft on account of the large proportion of
water present and certainly not entitled to the description of Cream
Cheese.
Infringements of the Preservative Regulations continue to occur;
usually this takes the form of the addition of sulphur dioxide without
the required statutory declaration, and. there have been three cases of
the addition of preservative to Minced Beef, which in England is not
permitted to contain preservative, though it is permitted during certain
months of the year in Scotland. Some Dutch Mussels were also
found to contain Benzoic Acid, which is contrary to the Regulations.
Among other matters which are disclosed by examination of the
various samples, is a tendency for certain types of manufactured
products to differ widely from old fashioned notions of what they
should contain. For instance, one finds soft drinks, fruit cordials
and the like, which are prepared very largely—if not entirely—from
synthetic materials and coloured with artificial dyes. These products
may be quite wholesome and it is often difficult to decide whether they
are to be regarded as satisfactory or not. Much depends upon the
precise description on the label. I have referred on previous occasions
to the sale of synthetic mixtures in cream buns and similar products.
There is abundant evidence of a slow change in the composition of