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136
In no less than 123, or 21 per cent., of the 581 registered milk shops in
the City a notice is exhibited which protects the vendor from the consequences
of selling a sophisticated article of food on the statutory grounds that he has
made a sufficient disclosure of the nature of the same under the Sale of
Food and Drugs Act, 1875.
In all cases it is a question of fact whether the disclosure is sufficient or
otherwise to protect the vendor, but a card exhibited in some part of the shop
bearing an inscription to the following effect has been found generally a bar to
taking action in cases of adulteration:—
"Milk Notice.
"We purchase all milk sold under a warranty of its purity and
"genuine quality, and take all possible precautions to ensure its supply
"to our customers in proper condition, but we are unable to guarantee it
"as either new, pure, or with all its cream, and to meet the requirements
"of the Food and Drugs Acts do not, therefore, sell it as such."
The importance of ensuring that milk—especially that intended for the use
of children—should be of unquestionable purity has long been insisted upon
by responsible advisers in public health matters, and some observations on the
relations between milk and disease in human beings will be found on
page 22 in the section of this Report dealing with the subject of
contaminated milk.
PRESERVATIVES IN MILK.
On 11th July, 1906, the Local Government Board issued a circular letter
urging Sanitary Authorities to adopt the recommendations of the Departmental
Committee appointed in July, 1899, by the Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries, to enquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matter in the
preservation and colouring of foods.
Attention was directed to the recommendations of this Committee in my
Annual Report for 1901, a Report to the Sanitary Committee in September,
1904, and also in my Annual Report for that year. The Departmental
Committee, in the course of their enquiry, heard much evidence on the subject
of preservatives in milk, and from that given by milk traders, were satisfied
that the addition of preservatives to milk was quite unnecessary, as there was
evidence to show that a very large number of milk vendors conducted their
business without the use of these substances, even when the milk came long
distances by train.
There appearing to be some differences of opinion amongst local authorities
as to whether the use of preservatives should be permissible or not, the Local
Government Board were strongly of opinion that the time had come when the
recommendations of the Departmental Committee should be adopted generally.