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291
[1913
the Local Government Board, if labelling he no longer insisted on, see that the
law is administered by the Sanitary Authorities, and also that private sampling be
practised, against which dishonest traders find it difficult to fight, as it is
to-day in all the great communities and in Islington. Then, and not till then,
will this substitution of margarine for butter cease to be practised to the great
pecuniary loss of farmers, of poor people, and of honest traders who are by far
the more numerous class.
Labelling cream to show the amount of preservatives it contains has
recently been introduced in Orders made by the Local Government Board,
and while it may be very necessary in this case, so as to prevent this food
being given to infants by their mothers or nurses, it is a practice that is to be
deprecated as regards foods in general, for the fact cannot be blinked that
preservatives are very frequently added for the purpose of enabling producers
to sell meats and other articles of diet which were fast approaching the time
when they would naturally decompose, or to prevent decomposition owing to
the insanitary conditions under which they were prepared.
The Medical Officer of Health is strongly of opinion, therefore, that no
permission to use labels to show that preservatives had been added to the food
should be given unless the Medical Officer of Health of the district could
certify from personal examination that the premises in which the food had
been prepared were in a thoroughly sanitary state; and in any case the use of
preservatives in food of any description should only be permitted in the most
exceptional cases and under exceptional circumstances.
Let us now consider the state of adulteration in Islington during the year
under consideration.
Adulteration in the Borough in 1913.
1,215 samples were submitted to the Public Analyst for his judgment, of
which 113 or 9.3 per cent, were adulterated or reported against as not complying
with the law. This percentage contrasts with 11 per cent., which was the average
of the 22 years 1891-1912. During this period the adulteration has been as
high as 17.7 per cent, and as low as 6.2. As a rule, however, from 1892 to
to 1903 it was high, and percentages above 10 were not uncommon. These
percentages do not always represent the true rate of adulteration in the
borough, because a great deal depends on the methods adopted by the several
Inspectors. There can be no doubt, for instance, that if the methods that
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