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excellence by the general dissemination of information, and by educational and
experimental means.
10. In the course of their Inquiry the Committee were informed that the incorporation
or blending of water with butter intended for exportation to this country, in order to
increase its weight, was at one time extensively practised in Hamburg and in certain
parts of Holland. A modified form of this practice is now in operation in this country,
and considerable quantities of a material known as " milk-blended butter " are now made
by working milk into butter, whereby the amount of water in the original butter is
increased from a relatively small proportion up to 20 or 25 per cent. This mixture of
milk and butter has been the subject of numerous prosecutions under the Sale of Food
and Drugs Acts, but the latest magisterial decisions concerning it would seem to show
that the seller would be legally protected, provided that a sufficient disclosure of its real
character were made to the purchaser at the time of sale.
RECOMMENDATION.
We therefore recommend the adoption of a limit of 16 per cent, for the proportion of
water in butter to be fixed by a Regulation under Section 4 of the Sale of Food and
Drugs Act, 1899, and we make this recommendation on the assumption that butter
containing a larger percentage of water that 16 per cent, will escape the operation of
this limit provided that a sufficient disclosure is made to the purchaser.
The following are the Regulations made by the Board of Agriculture, and
which came into operation on the 15th May, 1902 :—
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE RULES
(Dated 22nd April, 1902).
SALE OF BUTTER REGULATIONS, 1902.
The Board of Agriculture, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by
Section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1899, do hereby make the following
Regulations :—
1. Where the proportion of water in a sample of butter exceeds
16 per cent, 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 butter is not genuine by reason of the excessive amount of water
therein.
2. These Regulations extend to Great Britain.
3. These Regulations shall come into operation on the fifteenth day
of May, One thousand nine hundred and two.
4. These Regulations may be cited as the Sale of Butter
Regulations, 1902.
In witness whereof the Board of Agriculture have hereunto
set their Official Seal this Twenty-second day of April,
One thousand nine hundred and two.
T. H. ELLIOTT,
Secretary.