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occasion arises, they may give special consideration to the question
whether the penalties imposed in the cases that come before them are
such as are likely to deter the offenders from repeating, and other persons
from committing, the offence.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
KENFLM E. Digry.
EXTRACTED PARAGRAPHS.
The three following items are extracts from the Annual Report of the Local
Government Board for 1910-11, see the part relating to the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts: —
Vegetable Fats substituted for Animal Fats.— Many of the samples of
margarine examined during the year contained a large percentages of cocoanut
oil, and regarding some of these the analyst for Cheshire, writes :—" All
"the (21) samples of margarine were found to contain upwards of DO per cent.
" of fat foreign to butter fat. The 21 samples may be divided into two kinds,
" viz., nine consisted almost entirely of beef or mutton oleo and stearin whilst
" twelve were mixtures of the above fats, with more or less cocoa-nut oil. In
'* eight of the latter cases there were from 35 to 50 per cent. of cocoa-nut oil ;
"these were very skilfully prepared mixtures, and in many respects stimulate
" genuine butter fat in their analytical character. It is quite conceivable that
" an analyst relying upon preliminary tests alone might be led to pass such a
" fat as pure butter fat, so closely did it physically resemble the real article."
Owing to the high price in the last few years of all products derived from
the pig, there has been a large increase in the importation into this country of
cheap lard substitutes, which in a number of cases are sold as lard without
declaration. Lard substitutes, with large percentages of water, from which
lard itself is almost entirely free, have been offered to the public, while lard,
lard substitutes and margarine have all been found adulterated with paraffin.
We issued a memorandum to local authorities drawing attention to these points,
and asking to be supplied with information as to the results of any analyses
that might be made during 1910. A copy of the memorandum will be
found on page 31. The return shows a large increase in the number of
samples of lard taken for analysis in the past year, while as many as 1-4"
samples of lard substitutes (inrluded under " other articles ") were examined
under the following names :—beef lard, nutola lard, lardine, lard compound,
compound, &c.
The analyst for Kent referring to two samples of watered lard (No. 79
and 107), and to the Board's memorandum, writes :—" We were already on
" the alert. It is interesting to observe that these offences area recrudescence
"of similar practices that were common enough 20 and more years ago,
"culminating in 1888, when, as my own record show, from 30 to 40 per cent.
" of the lards then sold were adulterated in a similar fashion. The practices
"continued till about 1895, since when, until quite recently, the practice
"become obsolete. The two last mentioned samples Nos. 79 and 107
"Ashford, sold as ' compound lard ' were in fact chiefly composed of cotton