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The owners wished to export the coffee for the extraction of caffeine, or to
be used as manure.
Much correspondence ensued, and as no satisfactory arrangement could be
arrived at, an application, supported by Mr. T. Gr. Vickery, the Assistant
Solicitor, was made on the 27th September, before Mr. Dickenson, at the
Thames Police Court, to condemn and order the destruction of the coffee
(about 36 tons), lying in the East India Dock,
The Assistant Solicitor asked for the condemnation of the coffee if the
magistrate was satisfied it was unsound and unwholesome, and in the absence
of proof that it was not intended for human consumption.
Inspector Spadaccini gave evidence of the deposit of the coffee in the dock
for sale—that it was intended for human consumption—and as it was
unsound, unwholesome and totally unfit for human consumption, he seized it.
He produced a sample.
Your Medical Officer stated that when he inspected the coffee it was covered
with mould, heated, fermenting, and burning black, and that in his opinion it
was quite unfit for human consumption. If the coffee was exported it might
come back to this country in another form.
The Solicitor for the defence contended that the coffee was never intended
for human consumption, and under those circumstances could not be
condemned.
The owner of the coffee stated that he considered it absolutely unfit for
the food of man, but before he purchased it he thought some of it was fit for
human consumption. He had attempted to sell the coffee for shipment to the
Continent, both for caffeine and manure. He had been offered 45s. a ton for
it as manure and 60s. a ton as coffee. The price of coffee for human
consumption was from 40l. to 45l. a ton.
He gave the name of a firm in Mannheim, Germany, as the buyers of the
coffee, and stated he was prepared to mix 5 per cent. of slaked lime with the
coffee.
Your Medical Officer stated that five years ago the owner of this coffee
purchased a large quantity of coffee beans (which had been seized as unfit for
human food) and having mixed 5 per cent. of slaked limed with it and furnished
your Medical Officer with written guarantees that it should not be used for human
food, he was allowed to ship it to Antwerp, where it was sold to a merchant,