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Of the 549 samples, 20 were returned as
adulterated; this yields a Percentage of Adulteration
of 3.64. Of the adulterated samples 3 consisted of Milk,
11 of Butter, 3 of Margarine, and 1 each of Bread,
Cayenne pepper and Canned beans.
Milk, its cleanliness, freedom from adulteration
and quality, is a vital factor in public health. It is one
of the cheapest foods and besides actual nutriment is
expected to contain other characters (vitamins) that are
desirable, sometimes essential, for the maintenance of
health. The average composition of milk was — fat
3.58%, solids not fat 8.81%. During the last six months
of the year milk is of better quality than during the first
six months, so that these figures are higher than would
obtain in a full year. It is satisfactory to record that
out of 28.2 samples only 3 were adulterated; in other
words the percentage of adulteration for milk was 1.06.
The three samples of adulterated milk all showed
small deficiencies: namely, 4%, 3% and 1% respectively
of added water. It is within the bounds of possibility
that the producer or vendor of each of these was quite
ignorant of the presence of water. Milk is taken from
the cows in a hurry and all through handling there is
nothing but rush to get it to the consumer as soon as
possible. Utensils after rinsing or cleaning are often
left damp with water and leaks in coolers (most frequent
of all innocent sources of added water) all add to the
quota of watered milk. Unless negligence or carelessness
of this description, rare though they be, is the subject
of comment, however, even though the amount of added
water in a sample is small, the effect is that the customer
is getting water when he pays for milk; whereas
if the attention of vendors is directed to small deficiencies
of this description improvement generally follows.
One sample of milk was dirty, but, on analysis, the
dirt was found to be rust from rusty churns.
By far the most striking feature of the half year's
work has been the proportion of adulterated samples of
butter and margarine. Eleven out of 78 samples of