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34
APPENDIX
Report of the Public Analyst (J. H. E. Marshall, M.A., F.R.I.C.)
for the year ended 31st December, 1964
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the year under review the total number of samples submitted
was again 500. Of these 486 were obtained under the provisions
of the Food and Drugs Act, 1955, and the remainder (14)
were complaint samples. Of these fourteen, four were without
justification but all were the subjects of special reports. The complaints
not justified were:—pineapple alleged to be over-ripe; kippers
and sausages alleged to have an unusual smell and a dirty milk
bottle where the dirt was on the outside of the bottle and not on
the inside.
The complaints which were justified were as follows: —a sample
of lard where the manufacturers admitted the possibility of a breakdown
in the deodorising plant. The taint from this lard persisted
into a portion of mince tart made with it. Canned spinach was
gritty. Some rashers of bacon had picked up some of the greasy
dirt from the slicing machine. A meringue had probably been made
in a dirty meringue-making machine. Some cooked pheasant had
a smell of petrol and there were five samples of milk in milk bottles
all of which contained residues of dirt. The fact that there were
only six complaints due to dirty milk bottles reflects very great credit
on the milk producers supplying Paddington with literally millions
of bottles in the course of a year, for the public nowadays are
sufficiently cleanliness-conscious to make known their grievances.
Of the eighteen samples about which adverse reports were
made, twelve were due to inadequate or inaccurate labels. A can
of pike dumpling and a sample of gherkins were insufficiently
labelled. A sample of strawberry jam contained redcurrants but the
confusion was due to an overprinted label. Two samples of instant
coffee did not bear the usual declaration of ingredients "Soluble
solids of pure coffee". However, this declaration of ingredients was
the one used to describe a sample of decaffeinated instant coffee and
if the description is true in one case, it must be false in the other.
The label of a sample of guava jelly depicted many fruits but no
guavas. A sample of cheese sauce had been made with skimmed
milk and it was difficult to reconcile the analytical figure with the
description "Concentrated" which appeared on the label. A further
direction on the label recommended that the sauce should then be
sprinkled with grated cheese!
A sample of dried fruit was infested. A sample of "homogenised"
milk was not homogenised. A sample of honey showed
evidence of the presence of added invert sugar. A sample of cauliflower
in brine contained prohibitive preservative and a sample of
sausages contained preservative, the presence of which was not