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(4) Suggestions for the control of trade in butter—
(a) Increase of penalties.
(b) Voluntary control.
(c) Ear-marking margarine.
(d) Legislation as to sale.
(e) Control of factories.
(f) General power of entry.
(g) Control of importation of butter.
(5) Suggestions for the better control of the trade in butter substitutes.
(6) Facilities for Analysis.
One of the most important features of the enquiry was the evidence taken
in relation to so.called "milk-blended butter."
This is a form of sophistication that I have already directed attention to in
my Annual Reports for the years 1903.4.5.
It was ascertained in the course of the enquiry that this so-called butter is
made in this country by five firms, and it was also given in evidence that it
is composed of butter and milk, with the addition of boracic acid, that have
been mixed together by machinery, one firm alone making from 80 to 85 tons
a week.
Upon its first introduction, some years ago, it was sold as butter, such
description being, of course, a fraudulent one. This abuse was checked to
some extent by the imposition of fines in cases where the firms manufacturing
it were proceeded against under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, for selling
butter containing an excessive amount of water.
For some reason or other this mixture appealed to a certain section of the
community that did not know butter when they saw it, and who were readily
imposed upon by cleverly worded advertisements. This stuff is now sold as
"milk.blended butter," a title cleverly designed to mislead. It is further
placed in a wrapper, bearing an artfully worded declaration that purports to
describe its real nature.
This statement protects the manufacturer from prosecution, as it is a
sufficient disclosure that the article is a mixture. It professes to be a
"blend" of butter and milk, but the ordinary buyer can hardly be expected
to know that the milk so added itself contains about 87 per cent, of water as a
natural constituent.
Nor do the public know that this "butter," as a result of such blending,
when completed may contain as much as 28 per cent. of water.