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56
Proceedings were taken in 25 cases, and a total of £43 10s.
in penalties, and £14 7s. 6d. for costs obtained.
392 of the samples were milk, and 24 of these, or 6.1 per
cent. were adulterated, compared with 4.8 in 1902. 102 Samples
were sold as butter, and 6 found to be adulterated with
margarine. The other articles analysed are shown in Table X.,
only one of them was adulterated, a sample of coffee.
Of the adulterated milk samples, 15 had added water, and 9
abstracted fat.
3. Up to the middle of 1903, only those samples of milk
were reported as adulterated in which at least 10 per cent. of
adulteration was found, samples adulterated below this amount
being returned as suspicious. Since the summer of last year,
all adulterations have been reported, and this change of practice
probably accounts for the small increase of adulterated samples
and at the same time for the fact that proceedings were not
taken in every case of adulteration.
4. The percentage of adulterated milk found in the Borough
is small compared with other districts. In London County the
percentage in 1902 was 15 6, and in England and Wales, 10 0,
(see Report on Milk supply of Finsbury, Dr. Newman, 1903),
as compared with 6.1 in the Borough. It appears that about
50 per cent. more samples are taken in Woolwich than in the
County; this fact accounts for a part of the difference, but
only a small part.
It would be wholly satisfactory if it could be considered that
the discovered adulteration was a reliable measure of the actual
adulteration, but I fear this is not the case.