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48
During the year the Council undertook a prosecution, which
proved unsuccessful, against a Vendor of Peark's Milk Blended
Butter. This Firm possesses some 140 shops throughout the country
and they do a large business in the sale of imported Colonial Butter
into which a certain proportion of milk is churned. The accepted
standard of moisture in butter is 16%—a high percentage; but in the
case of this butter the moisture is increased so as to amount to over
20%, so that nearly a quarter of weight of the material purchased is
water (paid for at the rate of 1/- per pound). The prosecution was
dismissed on the finding of the Magistrate that the Vendors had
sufficiently declared the nature of the article and that in consequence
the article was not sold to the prejudice of the purchaser. This
practice of declaration is extending and threatens to reduce the Food
and Drugs Act to a dead letter. At one time it was only the Publican
who announced in his shop that in order to comply with the requirements
(sic) of the Food and Drugs Act the articles which he
sold were diluted. Now it appears that Grocers may post a notice
to the effect that Butter which they sell contains a certain proportion
of Milk, the addition of which amounts to the Butter being watered;
and many restaurant proprietors intimate to the Public that they
cannot guarantee to supply milk with its full complement of cream.
Something ought to be done to stop this practice, which, if it continues
to grow, is calculated to defeat the objects of the Act, namely,
to maintain the quality of the Food Supply. Legislation which protects
the Seller and not the Consumer is opposed to sound principles and
it is perfectly evident that the labelling of these articles conveys very
little if any information to 99 out of every 100 purchasers. It ought
at any rate to be insisted upon that when the adulteration of any
kind of food is declared, it should be done in the plainest possible
terms. A Publican for instance should be made to state that he sells
watered spirits, the Grocer that he sells watered butter, the Restaurant
Proprietor that he sells skimmed milk. There is a wide difference
between the price of water and that of genuine butter or milk or
that of undiluted spirits.