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177
MILK REGULATIONS.
The following Circular was issued by the Board of Agriculture with
reference to obtaining samples of food and drugs, and calling attention to
standards of purity for Milk, Separated Milk, and Cream, and also to the
practice of adding gelatin and other thickening materials to Cream with a
view to hiding adulteration by dilution.
By direction of your Medical Officer of Health a number of samples of
Cream were collected within the City to discover any such sophistication,
but these all proved to be genuine.
28th December, 1901.
"SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1899.
"(62 & 63 Vict, c. 51.)
"Sir,
"I am directed by the Board of Agriculture to bring under the notice of
"your Local Authority the following observations with reference to the
"Regulations relating to the Sale of Milk in Great Britain, which, in
"pursuance of the powers conferred upon the Board by Section 4 of the Sale
"of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, were made by the Board on the 5th August,
"and came into operation on the 1st September, 1901.
"The Regulations were as follows:—
" MILK.
"1. Where a sample of milk (not being milk sold as skimmed, or separated,
"or condensed, milk) contains less than 3 per cent, of milk-fat, it shall be
"presumed for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 to 1899,
"until the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine, by reason of the
"abstraction therefrom of milk-fat, or the addition thereto of water.
"2. Where a sample of milk (not being milk sold as skimmed, or separated
"or condensed, milk) contains less than 8.5 per cent of milk-solids other than
"milk-fat, it shall be presumed for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs
"Acts, 1875 to 1899, until the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine,
"by reason of the abstraction therefrom of milk-solids other than milk-fat, or the
"addition thereto of water.
"SKIMMED OR SEPARATED MILK.
"3. Where a sample of skimmed or separated milk (not being condensed
"milk) contains less than 9 per cent. of milk-solids, it shall be presumed for the
" purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 to 1899, until the contrary
"is proved, that the milk is not genuine, by reason of the abstraction therefrom
"of milk-solids other than milk-fat, or the addition thereto of water.
"In the Regulations the limits below which a presumption is raised that
"the milk is not genuine were necessarily fixed at figures lower than those