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since modern descriptive methods suggest that a like malady has made a
full scale and successful incursion into the verbal field of advertising. It
may be that in due course the ordinary product may well achieve a
demand because of its seeming scarcity. Until then various permutations
and combinations of superlatives must go far to bemuse the ordinary
purchaser, who, by this time entering into the spirit of the thing, probably
ends up satisfied or at any rate having no adequate legal grounds for
being otherwise.
It will be noted that few prosecutions were undertaken—only
watered milk and tobacco in foodstuffs being dealt with in this way.
A variety of circumstances attend each instance of substandard
report or complaint, and in many of these the degree of failure is of a
minimal order and could not justify prosecution.
Informal action has, however, succeeded in having the labels of
several products modified in accordance with our desires or the product
itself altered to a less contentious standard.
The main difficulty in dealing with food complaints from members
of the public is the time lag (with its consequent complications) between
the time of purchase and the time of notification to this department.
There must be a reliable and unequivocal chain of evidence attending
the article from the sale until it is received by us and the circumstances
after sale must not be of such a nature as to cast doubt upon the validity
of the original complaint. To quote only one type of complaint, if a
mouldy meat pie is brought to us days after purchase having meantime
been kept at room temperature in warm weather it is impossible to determine
when the mould was actually present. Even a complaint of this
nature can be explored and provides an insight into the length and conditions
of shop storage which is valuable and on occasion reveals practices
not elicited at routine inspections.
It must also be emphasised that food not intended for sale should
be kept rigidly away from other normal food in the shop as, if not, it may
well cause trouble by inadvertent sale or otherwise and produce a situation
prejudicial both to vendor and buyer and yet readily preventable.
The success of our work is not to be regarded as reflected in our
successful prosecutions. The latter are a last resort. A careful analysis
of the informal action taken suggests a substantial measure of progress.
I must express my indebtedness to the Public Analysts, Mr. George
Taylor, O.B.E., F.R.I.C., and Dr. J. Hubert Hamence, M.Sc., Ph.D.,
F.R.I.C. for their helpful and ready advice in the many difficulties which
necessarily crop up in this highly specialised branch of our work.