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138
BUTTER REGULATIONS COMMITTEE.
The Departmental Committee appointed on 3rd July, 1901, to enquire and
report as to what regulations, if any, may with advantage be made under Sec. 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, issued an Interim Report on 24th
January, 1902, unanimously recommending a limit of 16 per cent, for the
proportion of water in butter to be fixed by the Board of Agriculture under
the above-named section. This recommendation was accordingly adopted by
the said Board on the 22nd April, 1902, and came into operation on the 15th
May of that year. ( Vide Medical Officer of Health's Annual Report for 1902.)
On the 1st December, 1903, the Departmental Committee issued a final
Report dealing with the results of their enquiries as to what regulations, if any,
might with advantage be made under the said section for determining what
deficiency, if any, of the normal constituents of butter, and what addition of
extraneous matter, other than water, should raise a presumption, until the
contrary is proved, that the butter is not genuine.
In the course of the enquiry the Committee examined 26 witnesses (in
addition to those mentioned in the Interim Report whose evidence was not
restricted to the question of water in butter), including representatives from the
following countries exporting butter to the United Kingdom, viz., Holland,
Norway, Denmark, United States of America, Germany, Sweden, Russia and
France, and also 12 Analysts, 2 Magistrates and an Inspector of the Board of
Agriculture.
The Committee finally made the following recommendations :—
" (1)That the figure 24 arrived at by the Keichert-Wollny method*
"should be the limit below which a presumption should be raised
"that butter is not genuine.
" (2) That the use of 10 per cent, of sesame oil in the manufacture of
"margarine be made compulsory.
"(3) That steps should be taken to obtain international co-operation.''
The Report is signed by all the members of the Committee with one
exception (who presents a dissentient minority Report), but three of them sign
subject to notes of reservation that are appended to it.
* Full details of this process are given in a Schedule to the Report.