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45
some of the specimens contained as much as
twenty per cent. According to the Adulteratiou
Act it is for the magistrate to decide as to whether
he considers certain additions to compound food as
adulteration. Already the adulteration of mustard
with flour has been heavily fined, and it is for the
Vestry to say if they wish the manufacturers of
sausages containing 20 per cent, of bread to be
prosecuted. It appears to me that if any good is
to be done in this department of adulteration,
it must be by insisting on the quantity of any
compound mixture being stated on the cover in
which it is sold.
Sausages contain many other constituents beside
the meat of which they are principally composed,
and the only way of meeting the difficulty of regarding
any of these substances as an adulteration is for
the Government to decide what the normal constituent
ought to be of a genuine sausage, and
inflicting fines when they are discovered to be
differently constituted.
The difficulties of dealing with compounded foods
which are ordinarily sold in the shops is enormous.
Who can dictate the quantity of flour, plums,
currants, or sugar in plum puddings and cakes ? and
yet it is notorious that they differ in these and
other constituents. If the public cannot judge of
these things they should be left to themselves,
for if they cannot distinguish between one article
of food and another, they are hardly entitled
to the aid of the Government to assist them