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V. INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
Particular attention is being paid to the sampling of milk supplied to
school-children and to the various hospitals in the Borough.
The marking of butter, fruit and meat exposed for sale in shops in the
Borough, in accordance with the Merchandise Marks Act, is, on the whole,
satisfactory.
Twenty summonses were issued under the Milk and Dairies(Amendment)
Act, 1922, in respect of samples of milk which were found, upon examination
by means of the Hortvet Freezing Point Test, to contain added water. In
three of the cases, application was successfully made to the Magistrate for
the removal of the defendants from the register of Dairymen and Purveyors
of Milk. Four of the summonses were issued against an itinerant vendor
supplying milk to retailers and a school in the Borough, for delivering milk
containing 1.1 per cent. added water(Hortvet). One summons was dismissed
and the other three were withdrawn. Expert evidence was called by the
defence refuting the figure of 0.530°C. as the minimum depression of genuine
milk. It was stated that figures of less than 0.530°C. had been obtained from
individual cows. The firm summoned sold mixed milk from several herds
from farms in the West Country. The company concerned, however, had
itself sampled milk from individual farms and several showed the presence of