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43
shown to be practicable under the voluntary system should in future be carried
on under a compulsory one, and at my suggestion the Sanitary Committee
urged upon the Local Government Board the advisability of initiating an
efficient system of registration and supervision over mineral water factories
throughout the Kingdom.
In the course of the enquiry, my attention was called by manufacturers to
the practice which is gaining ground in small establishments of the use
of what is known as the "Soda Stream" process, which consists of filling
bottles with ordinary tap water, and then aerating it from a cylinder of
compressed gas.
There can be no objection to this process in itself, providing every care is
taken to ensure that the bottle before filling is perfectly clean, but it is this
possibility of the use of a dirty bottle that, in my opinion, renders the
continuation of this practice undesirable.
This objection does not, of course, apply in cases where the soda water is
manufactured direct into a glass for immediate consumption.
I was only able to locate one shopkeeper in the city using this apparatus,
and a sample taken for analysis showed that:—
''The water contains many hundreds of bacteria per 1 c.c.
"The water does not contain any B. coli per 10 c.c. or per 1 c.c.
"On account of the great number of bacilli per 1 c.c., I do not
"consider this water satisfactory."
Upon my representations, the use of this apparatus has been discontinued.
Following upon the issue of the above report, the trade has again taken up
the matter of registration, and already 18 have undertaken to renew their
undertaking to carry out the regulations of the Association, and the following
Resolution has been unanimously passed by the Council of the London Bottle
Exchange and Mineral Water Trade Protection Society:—
"That in the opinion of the Council of this Association, it is desirable
for the protection of the public, that every manufacturer or bottler of
aerated waters for sale should be registered, and should observe regulations
that would be a guarantee of the purity of the waters manufactured;
also that such registered bottler should pay an annual licence."