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180
BUTTER REGULATIONS COMMITTEE.
24th January, 1902.
INTERIM REPORT.
To the President of the Board of Agriculture, and to the Vice-President
of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for
Ireland.
Sirs,
1. The Departmental Committee on Butter Regulations was appointed by Minute of
the 3rd July, 1901, to enquire and report as to what Regulations, if any, may with
advantage be made under Section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, for
determining what deficiency in any of the normal constituents of butter, or what
addition of extraneous matter, or proportion of water, in any sample of butter shall, for
the purpose of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, raise a presumption, until the contrary
is proved, that the butter is not genuine.
2. At its first meeting held on the 5th July, 1901, the Committee unanimously
decided to give precedence to that part of the Inquiry which relates to the proportion of
water in butter. The reason for this course was that a considerable period would be
necessary for the collecting of the evidence relating to the genuineness of butter so far as
this depended upon its other constituents, while the facts bearing upon the proportion of
water could be much more easily obtained.
Moreover, having regard to the large number of prosecutions which had recently
arisen in respect of an alleged excess of water in butter, and since the miscarriage of
some of these proceedings was attributed to the absence of Regulations—which must
await the result of this Inquiry—the Committee considered it convenient to issue an
Interim Report as soon as a conclusion had been reached regarding this particular part
of the Reference, and without waiting for the completion of the Inquiry, or for the
publication of evidence.
3. The Committee has now held sittings on sixteen days, and evidence has been given
in London on seven days, in Dublin on three days, in Limerick on two days, and in
Cork on two days. Fifty-five witnesses have been examined, their evidence being
restricted to the water question, except in Ireland and in the cases of a few witnesses in
London whom it was thought unnecessary to recall on a future occasion.
4. The first question which the Committee had to decide was whether any limit
whatever to the proportion of water was required, or whether the public taste—the
actual operation of the law of supply and demand—would regulate the matter without
the interference of legislative or administrative action. No doubt was left on the minds
of the Committtee upon this point. The weight of evidence was overwhelmingly in
favour of some official Regulation, and the recent legal proceedings, already referred to,
seemed to accentuate the necessity for such action.
5. The real difficulty which the Committee felt in arriving at a decision arose from
the existence in the market of a particular article which, many witnesses declared,
would be injuriously affected by any limit applicable to all other butters. Evidence was