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FOOD SAMPLING
I am indebted to Mr. J. A. O'Keefe, O. B. E. , Chief Officer of Public
Control of the Middlesex County Council for the following information.
Food and Drugs Act, 1955
Samples procured in the Borough of Hornsey during the year 1959
Total samples
Article procured Unsatisfactory
Milk 79
Butter 10
Cakes 16
Cheese 6
Cooked Meat 14
Cream 13 1
Drugs 5
Fish and Fish Products 21
Fruit, fresh, canned etc. 12
Fruit Squash, Drinks etc. 6
Ice-Cream 10
Jelly 4
Liver 12
Margarine 5
Meat and Meat Products 43 4
Preserves 3
Sausages etc. 19
Spirits 4
Sweets 6
Vinegar 7
Miscellaneous 17 1
312 6
The following comments relate to samples noted as unsatisfactory:Cream
A sample of sterilised cream sold by a multiple firm of grocers was
found to be deficient in fat and rancid. Sterilised cream should consist of at
least 23% butter fat, whereas this sample contained only 20%. No evidence
was found to establish the cause, the tin being one of many thousands imported,
and the firms concerned were officially cautioned.
Meat and Meat Products
A retail butcher was cautioned for selling minced beef which had been
treated with sulphur dioxide preservative. The addition of preservative to
fresh meat is prohibited under the Public Health (Preservatives etc. in Food)
Regulations 1925 - 1958, and the butcher concerned, who was not English and
inexperienced in our law, was advised accordingly. Minced beef obtained from
40