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75
(D) ADULTERATION OF FOOD
The following information about the operation of the Food and
Drugs Act has been taken from the Annual Report of the Chief Officer
of the Public Control Department of the Middlesex County Council for
the year 1956/57:—
"Of the 1,517 samples analysed by the public analyst, 223 were
incorrect. Of all these samples 524 were milk (124 incorrect), 95 foods
other than milk (94 incorrect) and 86 drugs of which only one was
incorrect. The corresponding figures of samples examined or tested in
the department were 7,140 (402), 2,933 (329), 4,186 (29) and 291 (4).
Most of the unsatisfactory milk samples were taken from churns of
milk despatched by firms. Most were not adulterated by the addition of
water, but were below the presumed standard of the Sale of Milk Regulations,
1939, in respect of either fat or of solids-not-fat. Usually, when
there is an offence, it is by a farmer who sends his milk to Middlesex
collecting depots. Of the three cases prosecuted this year, only one was
of that nature. One was a retailer who supplied milk with added water
to a works canteen. The third was a wholesaler; in this case one of the
many churns of milk he supplied to a retailer had added water in it,
apparently the result of a fault developing in the washing apparatus.
346 samples of milk were submitted for examination of the tubercle
bacillus. Three were found to be infected; four cows were slaughtered.
1,159 samples of milk were tested to check the adequacy of the
pasteurising or sterilisation process to which the milk had been subjected.
Eleven of these samples failed to pass the test. 298 visits of inspection
were made to the 30 licensed processing premises."
The report deals with the measures taken in regard to a variety of
subjects not falling to the County Council as a Food and Drugs Authority,
such as their duties under the Weights and Measures Act, the Motor
Vehicle (Construction and Use) Regulations Act made under the Road
Traffic Act which deals with the maximum weight to be transmitted to
the road surface, the Explosives Acts which control the storage, sale and
transport of explosives, Employment Agencies, the control under the
Nurses Act, 1943, of the Agencies for the Employment of Nurses, and
the Theatrical Employers Registration Acts.
Some two years ago, particularly from one school, complaints were
received about the presence of pieces of glass in the bottles delivered to
schools. It was realised, of course, that not all of these occurrences were
reported to the Public Health Department; on the other hand, the fact
that this had happened once at a school led to the reporting of each case
which occurred subsequently at that school. To obtain a correct picture
of what was happening, the head teachers of the school were invited to
report all such occurrences over a period. These enquiries led to nothing,
and the occurrences remained something of a mystery. This district, then,
has particular interest in an item in the report on this subject of glass in
school milk, the results of a survey carried out from the 1st April, 1956,
to the end of the year. It is based on a monthly average distribution of
milk bottles of nearly six million. In the whole period there were 104
complaints of glass in milk. What was of interest was the larger numbers
of complaints, 24 and 41, made in the first and second months. This