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134
The following Report was submitted to the Public Health
Committee:—
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Walworth Road, S.E.
December list, 1908.
REPORT ON INFORMAL SAMPLING OF FOOD.
The practice of buying informal samples was started in this Borough
in the latter part of 1901. It was primarily employed only in detecting
the illicit sale of margarine which there were reasons to believe was
going on, and which the purchasing of official samples had failed to disclose.
At a later date the system was extended, and samples were taken for
the purpose of testing the genuineness of butter and a few other articles
of food on sale when it was inconvenient or inexpedient to take official
samples.
The utility of taking informal samples has been recognised by the
Local Government Board and the Board of Agriculture, and the practice
is now a work of some importance in the administration of the Sale of
Food and Drugs Acts. The majority of the samples which have been
taken are those of butter.
One of the methods employed in procuring these being to pick out a
few shops and send a person two or three times a week to buy at each
shop a few articles of food in small quantities. Butter is not always, but
is frequently included in the purchases. The buying of these articles is
continued for some time at the same shops, three or four weeks being
considered long enough as a rule for the buyer to become a regular customer.
Finally, official samples are bought from those persons who have
been found selling margarine for butter. This completes the period of
buying. If any of the shops visited in one period are also visited in the
next, another buyer is employed. The buyer is provided with a note
book in which to enter the necessary particulars, such as the address of
the shop, the time of the visit, the articles bought and the amount paid
for each, the person who served, and from what part of the shop the
butter was taken by the seller. He is also instructed to write on the
wrapper of each sample of butter the address of the shop at which it was
purchased before entering another shop.