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CREAM MILK, whereby the percentage of water in the
butter is increased to about 24 per cent., but this limit of
percentage is not guaranteed in milk blended butter."*
Butter.—Containing excessive water to the extent of 1.4 per cent.
Vendor cautioned.
Butter.—Containing 1.2 per cent. excessive water. Vendor cautioned.
Margarine.—Containing 1.0 per cent. excessive water. Vendor
cautioned.
* Butter and Margarine Bill.
The Butter and Margarine Bill presented by Sir Edward Strachey, which was
ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on Feb. 14th, 1907, is intended
"to make further provision with respect to the manufacture, importation and sale of
butter and margarine and similar substances." The Bill is calculated to deal the deathblow
to the sale of watered butter under the ingenious name of milk-blended butter. It
provides for the registration of butter factories in which by way of trade butter is
blended, re-worked or subjected to any treatment but not so as to cease to be butter.
Any premises are similarly to be registered in which there is manufactured any butter
substitute (that is to say, any mixture other than margarine, produced by mixing or
blending butter with milk, cream or any substance other than butter) or any imitation
butter (that is to say, any article of food which resembles butter, but which is not
margarine or a butter substitute) or on which there is carried on the business of a
wholesale dealer in butter substitutes or imitation butters. Consignments also of butter
substitutes are to be registered in the same way as are consignments of margarine in
accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899.
Any officer of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries is to have power to enter at all
reasonable times premises so registered, and an officer of a local authority who is
authorised to procure samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts may have similar
powers. When the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has reason to believe that any of
the processes of blending, and so on, are carried on in unregistered premises it may
appoint an officer and authorise him to inspect such premises. It is thus proposed to
repeal Subsection (2) of Section 7 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899. If any
substance intended to be used for the adulteration of butter is found in any butter
factory the occupier of the factory will be deemed guilty of an offence under this Act,
and if any oil or fat capable of being so used is found it shall be deemed to be intended
to be so used, unless the contrary is proved. This provision is obviously meant to avoid
the difficulty which the use of certain oils in butter has created in regard to their
detection by chemical analysis. It will be an offence under the Act to store butter or
margarine containing more than 16 per cent. of water, or to consign from a factory such
butter or margarine unless the occupier or consignor proves that the butter or margarine
was net made, blended, or re-worked, or treated in the factory. The sale of any butter
substitute containing more than 24 per cent. of water will constitute an offence; and in
the list of articles the importation of which is an offence under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Act, 1899, butter or margarine containing more than 16 per cent. of water, butter
substitutes containing more than 24 per cent. of water, or any imitation butter, except
in packages conspicuously marked "butter substitute" or "imitation butter," will be
included. Regulations are proposed in regard to the proportion of curd in butter. For
a first offence the fine proposed is £20, for a second offence £50, and for any subsequent
offence £100, while imprisonment may be inflicted under Section 17 of the Sale of Food
and Drugs Act, 1899, in which such punishment is authorised. It is proposed that this
Act shall come into operation on the first day of January, 1908.