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58
Legal proceedings were instituted in 36 per cent, of the cases of adulteration,
but, as has been already mentioned, a large proportion of the samples were of milk
deviating but slightly from the Board of Agriculture's standard, or samples containing
traces of artificial colouring matter or preservatives in such small quantities as to
render proceedings inadvisable.
BUTTER AND MARGARINE ACT, 1907.
The above Act, which is construed as one with the Sale of Food and Drugs
Act, 1899, and may be cited with the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, as the Sale of
Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1907, came into operation on the first day of January,
1908. This Act requires the registration of (a) butter factories, that is to say, any
premises on which, by way of trade, butter is blended, reworked, or subjected to any
other treatment, but not so as to cease to be butter; and (b) any premises on which
there is manufactured any milk-blended butter, that is to say, any mixture produced
by mixing or blending butter with milk or cream (other than condensed milk or
cream), or on which there is carried on the business of a wholesale dealer in milkblended
butter. Section 2 (2) enables an officer of the Local Authority, if duly
authorised, to enter and inspect such premises and to procure samples under the
Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. The district sanitary inspectors in Shoreditch have
been authorised by the Borough Council for this purpose. Section 3 prohibits
adulterants in butter factories, and Section 4 makes it an offence to have in any
butter or margarine factory, butter or margarine containing more than 16 per cent,
of water; and also to sell, expose, or offer for sale, or possess for the purpose of sale,
milk-blended butter containing more than 24 per cent, of water. Section 5 contains
a list of articles (butter, margarine, and milk-blended butter) importation of which is
made an offence by Section 1 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899. Section 7
enables the Local Government Board to make regulations as to the use of preservatives
in butter, margarine, or milk-blended butter. Sections 8 and 9 deal with the
marking of wrappers used in connection with the sale of margarine and milk-blended
butter respectively. Any person guilty of an offence under this Act is liable to a
penalty of £20 for a first offence, £50 for a second, and £100 for a third or subsequent
offence, and in certain cases of imprisonment may be ordered. Margarine is defined in
the Act as meaning any article of food, whether mixed with butter or not, which
resembles butter, and is not milk-blended butter.
SANITARY STAFF.
During the year, the question of the adequacy of the sanitary staff again came
under the consideration of the Council in connection with a report from the Health
Committee recommending the appointment of an additional sanitary inspector. The
recommendation was not adopted by the Council, but there was a feelling that
additional work might with advantage be performed in connection with the supervision
of the street markets and be food of the people in the Borough. On five evenings