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101
the Board of Agriculture would like to point out the minimum
number of samples which should be taken ought to be in the proportion
of at least 3 per 1,000 of the population.
In Poplar seven samples are procured each week during the
year, but occasionally extra samples are taken, the total samples
per 1,000 of the population taken in the year 1902 was 2.2 per
1,000 of the population. The matter of taking increased number
of samples is now receiving the attention of the Committee.
A letter was received from the Royal Borough of Kensington,
referring to the failure of prosecutions by the Customs Authorities
in respect of the importation of inferior butter, which, if not physically
adulterated, is not distinguishable from butter which has had
an appreciable percentage of foreign fat mixed with it. The
Borough of Kensington had also taken proceedings in respect of
similar butter for false warranty, against the warrantors, who, however,
contended the butter was of Russian manufacture, that no
adulteration had taken place, and that the substance called foreign
fat, if it existed, was the natural product of the cow, and that pure
Russian and Siberian butter would not bear the rigid analytical
test applied to other butters. In the absence of any definite
standard for butter, the proceedings referred to were abandoned,
and a communication addressed by the Council to the Local Government
Board and the Board of Agriculture, urging that regulations
should be framed by the last-named Board, under Section 4 of
the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, for determining what
deficiency of the normal constituents of butter, or what addition
of extraneous matter should raise a presumption that the article
is not genuine.
The Committee recommended the Council to support the action
°f the Royal Borough of Kensington.
I lie Board of Agriculture stated, later on, that the characteristics
of Russian and Siberian butter were receiving the consideration