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302
1913]
Butter and Margarine.—255 samples were purchased and submitted
to the Public Analyst, of which 215 were butter and 40 margarine. Of the
butters 26, or 12T per cent., were adulterated, and of the margarines 21, or
52.5 per cent., were sold contrary to the Margarine Act. Last year it was
pointed out that the sale of margarine for butter still obtained to a considerable
extent, although the practice was confined to tradesmen of a low grade
selling in the poorer neighbourhoods. Towards the close of the year, in
fulfilment of an arrangement made some two years previously with the representative
of the Irish Board of Agriculture, and with the cognisance of the
Public Health Committee, a special effort was made to discover and punish
the persons who fraudulently sold margarine for Irish butter. The Irish
Board were of course only interested in that article, but, as a matter of fact,
the persons who sold margarine to their inspectors turned out to be the persons
whom the Public Health Department knew to be selling—and in many
instances had prosecuted for the offence—margarine for butter. It does not
matter to them whether the article asked for be Irish, Brittany, Dutch,
Australian or any other butter, because they would in any case have sold
margarine.
For some time past the sale of margarine for butter has assumed
a serious aspect in Islington, because certain tradesmen persistently
substitute margarine for butter on every possible occasion. It has already
been explained in these annual reports that fraud of this character is only
to be detected by the employment of agents who become customers at the
particular shop where the fraud is carried on; and that these agents must not
only purchase butter, but other groceries, such as tea, sugar, eggs, bacon, etc.,
as well, because it is only when they are well known to the vendors that
margarine is foisted on them. There is one exception, however, to this
practice of the vendors, which is that they invariably sell margarine for
butter to young children when sent to buy butter, because they know perfectly
well that no child would be put into the witness box to give evidence against
them.
During the months of October and November the agents of the Irish
Board of Agriculture, unknown to the Public Health Department, were busily
engaged sampling the various shops in which butter is sold in Islington, with
the result that they discovered some 76 persons who persistently sold margarine
for butter. The Head Official of the Board in London then called on the
Medical Officer of Health and requested him to be good enough to arrange for
the Inspector to obtain official samples, employing their Irish agents as his