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THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1899.

THIS Act, which is of more importance to agriculture than its title infers, received the Royal Assent on August 9 last, and comes into operation on the first day of the New Year (1900). Only the first eleven of its twenty-eight sections directly concern agriculture, most of the remainder providing for the amendment of the present Sale of Food and Drugs Acts in directions that need not here be specified. It is proposed to limit the present note to these agricultural provisions, but before proceeding to describe them it may be well to refer briefly to the events that have led to their enactment.

With the trade in butter substitutes which began to develop about twenty years ago there sprang up frauds by which many of such substitutes were palmed off as genuine butter. Various Bills for the prevention of these frauds were introduced into Parliament, and in 1887 two Bills of the kind were referred to a Select Committee, who took evidence and reported in favour of the measure which became law as the Margarine Act of 1887. This Act prohibited the sale of compounds prepared in imitation of butter under any other name than that of "margarine," and contained other provisions which have had an important influence in checking fraud, especially by retail vendors. Experience of its working, however, has shown that its provisions have been successfully evaded by wholesale dealers and importers; and the laxity of many of the local authorities in taking samples and instituting proceedings under the powers which the Act conferred upon them has rendered it still further inoperative.

In consequence of the comparative failure of the Margarine Act, the Select Committee on Food Products Adulteration was appointed in 1894 at the instance of the Chambers of Agriculture. The Committee sat through the three sessions of 1894, 1895, and 1896, presenting three volumes of evidence and, on July 9, 1896, an exhaustive report, upon which the subsequent attempts at legislation have been based. These included a "Sale of Food and Drugs Bill," introduced by the President of the Local Government Board towards the close of the session of 1897, but not proceeded with, and

an

"Agricultural Products &c. (Adulteration) Bill" introduced (also by Mr. Chaplin) in the session of 1898. This Bill was likewise withdrawn, but it marked an advance from the agricultural point of view, and prepared the way for the present Act, introduced and carried this year by the President of the Board of Agriculture.

Marking and Sampling of Foreign Imports. (Section 1.)

Section 1, which consists of seven sub-sections, enacts that all imports into the United Kingdom of margarine or margarine-cheese shall have these words conspicuously marked on the packages;

adulterated or impoverished butter (other than margarine), or adulterated or impoverished milk or cream, must also be conspicuously marked with a name or description indicating that the butter or milk or cream has been so treated; condensed, separated, or skimmed milk must be labelled on the tins or receptacles with the words "Machine-skimmed Milk" or "Skimmed Milk" printed in large and legible type. Importers who fail to comply with these provisions are liable on summary conviction to fines not exceeding 201. for the first offence, 50l. for the second offence, and 100%. for any subsequent offence. Great elasticity is given to the term "importer," which is made to include any person who as owner, consignor, consignee, agent, or broker "is in possession of, or in anywise entitled to the custody or control of, the article." Provision is also made under this section for the taking of samples of the above-named articles of food at the ports of entry by the Commissioners of Customs, and for their analysis by the principal chemist of the Government Laboratories. The duty is also laid upon the Commissioners of Customs of undertaking prosecutions for offences under this section. By a further provision, the section may be applied by Order in Council to any other adulterated or impoverished article of food that may be imported under false or misleading names. Thus adulterated foods of all descriptions may be brought under the operation of the Act as occasion arises. Where the Commissioners of Customs are of opinion that an offence under this section has been committed, they are required to communicate to the Board of Agriculture the name of the importer and such other facts as they may have or can obtain as to the destination of the consignment. For the purposes of this section any article of food is considered as adulterated or impoverished if mixed with any other substance, or if any part of it has been abstracted "so as in either case to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature: but the right to add preservatives or colouring matters is retained, so long as these are of "such a nature and in such quantity as not to render the article injurious to health."

Powers of Central Authorities. (Sections 2 and 3.)

Section 2 empowers the Local Government Board in matters affecting the "general interest of the consumer," and the Board of Agriculture in matters affecting "the general interests of agriculture in the United Kingdom," to take samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts for analysis and to communicate the result to the local authority, whose duty it will then be to act as if

1 It may be noted that the Bill as originally introduced only provided for the intervention of the Board of Agriculture "in the general interests of Agriculture in the United Kingdom." The similar power which the Act now confers upon the Local Government Board in the "general interest of the consumer" was added by the Grand Committee on Trade and Agriculture to which the Bill was referred; and thus a double strengthening of the law has been secured.

the samples had been taken and the analyses made under their own direction.

Section 3 imposes definitely upon the local authorities the duty of appointing public analysts and of putting into force the powers with which they are entrusted. In the case of failure on the part of the local authorities to execute or enforce the provisions of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts with regard to articles of food, the Local Government Board, in the consumer's interest, and the Board of Agriculture, in the agricultural interest, may carry out the law by their own officers, the expenses incurred in doing so being chargeable to and recoverable from the local authorities. It is also provided that an order of the Board concerned shall be conclusive in respect of default, expenses, &c., and that any public analyst appointed under the Acts shall furnish proofs of competency under regulations framed by the Local Government Board.

Normal Constituents of Dairy Produce. (Section 4.)

The question of food standards is admittedly one of great difficulty and complexity, and the way in which it has to some extent been dealt with is best shown by the exact words of the Act. Section 4 is as follows:

The Board of Agriculture may, after such inquiry as they deem necessary, make regulations for determining what deficiency in any of the normal constituents of genuine milk, cream, butter, or cheese, or what addition of extraneous matter or proportion of water, in any sample of milk (including condensed milk), cream, butter, or cheese shall for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts raise a presumption until the contrary is proved that the milk, cream, butter, or cheese is not genuine or is injurious to health, and an analyst shall have regard to such regulations in certifying the result of an analysis under those Acts.

The Select Committee in their Report of 1896 recommended the constitution of a Court of Reference having authority to prescribe standards and limits of the quality and purity of food. Under the Act, the Board of Agriculture has been constituted such an authority in respect of dairy products only.

Marking of Margarine and Margarine-cheese. (Sections 5 and 6.)

Section 5 extends the provisions of the Margarine Act of 1887 to "margarine-cheese," and enacts that all margarine-cheese sold or dealt in otherwise than by retail shall either be enclosed in packages marked in accordance with the Margarine Act, as amended, or be itself conspicuously branded with the words "margarine-cheese." Section 6 enacts that the brands or marks shall be on the package itself, and not solely on a label, ticket, or other thing attached thereto, and that the letters printed on the paper wrappers in which margarine or margarine-cheese is sold shall be "capital block letters not less than half an inch long and distinctly legible," and that "no other printed matter shall appear on the wrapper."

Margarine Registers and Factories. (Section 7.)

and

Section 7 provides that all occupiers of margarine margarine-cheese factories, and all wholesale margarine dealers, must keep registers open to the inspection of any officer of the Board of Agriculture, showing the quantity and destination of all consignments. Failure to keep such a register, or to produce it when required, or to keep it up to date, and false entries in or fraudulent omissions from such registers, render the manufacturer or dealer liable to a fine not exceeding 107. for the first offence, and 50%. for any subsequent offence. An important provision was added to this section by the Grand Committee giving the Board of Agriculture power to enter margarine factories, to inspect any process of manufacture therein, and to take samples for analysis. By Section 9 of the Margarine Act of 1887 margarine manufactories must be registered with the local authority. This section of the present Act extends the provision to the premises of wholesale dealers, and enacts that the registration shall be notified to the Board of Agriculture.

Incidentally it may be remarked that the power of the inspection of factories conferred by this section would appear to make it possible for the Board of Agriculture to issue statistics as to the amount of home-made margarine, which would be valuable as proving whether this was displacing the foreign article and whether the consumption of margarine in this country was decreasing or increasing. The trade and navigation returns given annually in the March number of the Journal show that the imports of margarine have decreased every year since 1893, and a Parliamentary Return obtained during last session (No. 305) gives the names and addresses of margarine manufactories registered under Section 9 of the Act of 1887; but unfortunately no official figures are at present available as to the quantity of margarine produced at home.

Amount of Butter-fat in Margarine. (Section 8.)

Section 8 imposes a restriction upon the amount of butter-fat which may be contained in margarine. Henceforth no margarine may be imported or sold the "fat of which contains more than ten per cent. of butter-fat." The object of this provision is to impose an effective check upon the fraudulent sale of margarine mixtures sold as and for the price of genuine butter. There is no demand for mixtures of margarine and butter, as such, and therefore the restriction has no injurious effect upon existing honest traders. the other hand, the best qualities of margarine are said to always contain a small percentage of butter-fat added in the process of manufacture in the form of milk. The limit of 10 per cent. allows an ample margin for the legitimate manufacture of margarine, and is by many persons considered to be too high.

On

Other Provisions affecting Produce. (Sections 9-11.)

Section 9 provides, under penalty of a fine not exceeding 27., for the conspicuous inscription of the owner's name and address upon every vehicle, can, or receptacle from which milk or cream is sold in any highway or place of public resort. Section 10 lays down the procedure for the division of samples of milk, margarine, or margarine-cheese taken in course of delivery; and Section 11 enacts that "every tin or other receptacle containing condensed, separated, or skimmed milk must bear a label clearly visible to the purchaser on which the words "Machine-skimmed Milk," or "Skimmed Milk," as the case may require, are printed in large and legible type. The penalty for contravention of this section is a fine on summary conviction not exceeding 107.

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Imprisonment and Fines for Repeated Offences.

(Section 17.)

The remaining sections of the Act provide mainly for the amendment of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts of 1875 and 1879 in certain particulars, and also relate to points of legal procedure, such as the effect of invoices and warranties, time limits for the service of summonses, and other technicalities which need not be described. But there is one provision which it is to be hoped may have an important deterrent effect in the prevention of fraud, viz. the power conferred upon the magistrates of inflicting imprisonment without the option of a fine. Such a provision was not in the Bill as originally introduced, although the Select Committee made the principle of imprisonment for repeated offences a strong point in their recommendations. It was necessary to exercise some discretion in connection with this matter, inasmuch as hardships might ensue in cases where, for instance, the offence was committed by unscrupulous salesmen for whose actions the principals were legally responsible and who might be the owners of a number of branch establishments. Yielding, however, to a widely expressed feeling as to the past inefficacy of mere fines, the Grand Committee accepted the principle to which effect has been given by the following carefully drawn enactment in Section 17:

Where, under any provision of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, a person guilty of an offence is liable to a fine exceeding 507., and the offence in the opinion of the Court was committed by the personal act, default, or culpable negligence of the person accused, that person shall be liable (if the Court is of opinion that a fine will not meet the circumstances of the case) to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding three months.

The same section also enacts that in cases where, under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875, a person may be liable to a fine of the maximum of 20%., he shall be liable for a second offence under the same provision to a fine not exceeding 50l., and for any subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding 1007.